Our Lovely New Home

House history as far as we know:

                                                   The house was built in 2006 and lived in for about a year and a half. It was for sale for some time until it was foreclosed on and went to auction sometime last fall. It was bought by an investor who painted and put in new appliances. We bought it from the investor. So the house has not been lived in very long and is in like-new condition. It is in a neighborhood with all new houses, and it sits directly in front of city bike paths and the Legacy highway. (That is the only reason we were able to afford a 5 bedroom home in this area.)

This is the living room and family room fireplace directly off the kitchen

here is the kitchen and dining and more family room

Master bedroom is small and that is good for us because we need space for our kids.

We love the arch to the master bathroom and the separate tub and shower.

This is the family room at the top of the stairs. It is probably everyone's favorite room.

Next are the 4 other bedrooms!!! That is great for us.

Here is the backyard. You can see a biker on the bike path directly behind the house.

The kitchen, family room and living room are all open together on the main floor. There is also a half bathroom/laundry room/ mudroom connecting the garage to the kitchen. The upstairs has all five bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms and that one great little family room. We really couldn't have designed something better. In 2 to 3 years we are going to take out the carpeting in the downstairs and put in a good quality wood laminate. Then we will make the family room a  formal dining room and move the computer into the kitchen. That way we will be able to have a huge table with lots of comfortable space for everyone. But we do think that the house is just perfect. We are loving all of the open space, the patio in the backyard, the bedrooms all together, and all of the great upgrades to the kitchen. Heavenly father has truly blessed us with a sufficiently big and beautiful home to raise our children in.

Moved In

We are moved into our new house. We don't quite have the internet up and running well so this will be brief. I love, love, love the new house. It is beautiful and suits our family exactly. Moving was hard and we had very, very sick kids to boot. If John wasn't a good quick thinking father, Anya would either be dead or hospitalized. She definitely had an electrolyte issue beyond dehydration. But it is over and everyone is better. We finally had Easter this morning before church. The kids were adorable. It is so fun to watch the older ones get excited about collecting eggs while the little ones skip around dripping chocolate from their mouths.

I will post pictures soon. Life is good. We are all happy and comfortable in our new house. The unpacking is nearing an end. I don't think I realized what a blessing it was to be a home owner a year ago. But after having 2 job changes and 3 moves in less than a year it feels great to be permenant. Also, I love that I don't have to get mad at my kids for drawing on the walls or dropping things on the floor because the house is ours. We only have to answer to ourselves if our kids break something. Yes, I am very happy!!

Poor Rachel

Today is Rachel's birthday, and it is just not a good day for a birthday. First, Rachel has been very sick all week. She has had a lot of vomiting and diahrea and a high fever. She has been so sick she hasn't even sat up long enough to draw. She has also become lactose intolerant from the damage this flu has done to her stomach. So my poor little Rachel cannot have some of her favorite things like ice cream and hot cocoa. Rachel has lost so much weight, you can see every bone in her little body. She has spent the entire week laying down. While I think she is finally starting to feel better, it is not a good time for a birthday.

Second, it is General Conference weekend for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Today there are 2 two hour sessions we will watch and one two hour session for the Priesthood holders, of which John is one of them, so he will go out and watch that tonight. That leaves very little time for a birthday party.

Third, we are moving and most of our things are packed. It is very uncomfortable here right now with all of these boxes everywhere. So poor, poor Rachel. We will have a party for Rachel and for Adam in about 2 weeks at our new house with all of their cousins, because Adam was sick on his birthday and John was not employed. So we planned to have a make-up birthday party and we will even buy more presents to make it official.

It's Done

We closed on the house today. The closing costs were $2,000 less than we thought they would be. Everything is settled and I am so gad. It is time to get packing-- we move on Tuesday.

Sad, Sad, Sad Part 3

Actually it is not so sad anymore. When we finally gave up and said we want out of the contract and give us our earnest money back the seller gave in some what. He said he would go down to to the appraisal price if  we give him an additional $3,000 cash, pay our closing costs along with our minimal 3.5% down so he gets the same amount of money as he would have from the original contract of $240,000 we put $12,000 down and the seller pays the closing costs. This is very tough for us to come up with really about $5,000 extra in just a few days. We sold the car we bought from John's brother back to him for the $1440 we had paid him and his wife. They needed the car and we needed the money so that worked out all the way around. Then we are just using our entire months pay for the rest. We will still have to pay our bills, but we will have no money for food or anything until May 1st. We probably would not have accepted these terms if interest rates hadn't suddenly risen and are predicted to continue to rise. If we went with plan b and built a house to be completed in August our payments on the same loan would be $120 more per month over 30 years. So we felt like we needed to go ahead even though the terms of sale from the seller are awful, awful, awful for us.

John has asked me if I am excited that I am getting the hose that I wanted. I'd have to say this whole things has been really hard emotionally and a LOT of work, so I don't feel excited. Plus, the month of April is going to be really hard. However, I am sure that once we are moved in and unpacked, I will be very happy with the house. I really love the floor plan. It could not have come up with a better plan for the same amount of money if I had designed it myself. So in time, I know I will be happy. Right now I just want to make it through the closing and the move and get to May with out too much on credit card.

Oh, I should also mention that I heard from the loan consultant and underwriting has approved us and we are closing for sure on Friday. We weren't sure how long that was going to take, but it actually took less than 24 hours. I am glad about that. It is nice to know it will really happen.

Ruth turns 12

My oldest child, Ruth, turned 12 last Monday.

We had a birthday party for her with her cousins at Grandma's house last Sunday, and then another little family party on Monday. Ruth has not yet gotten her present which will be her choice of a Nintendo Wii, and she will receive that this week. 

Ruth is such a good girl and a big help. She believes in the Savior, Jesus Christ, and she is making good choices about serving, praying, and reading her scriptures. Ruth works hard in school and gets straight A's. She is learning to play hymns on the piano. Ruth seems to make good choices with who her friends are, about what music she will listen too, and about health and exercise. She is happy to have her email delivered to her Dad's inbox and she talks to us freely about herself and her life. There is nothing negative I could say about Ruth. When John comes home and asks how my day was and how the kids are, I can always report that Ruth has been pleasant and helpful. As she enters the early teen years, I do not think Ruth could have prepared herself better for the temptations ahead of her. If Ruth continues to stay on the path she is following now, I know that I do not need to fear for her happiness and safety. I just know that I need to be present and to know where she is and what she is doing to help her continue on her way to becoming a happy, productive person. Our entire family has been blessed to have Ruth a part of our home and such a good leader and example for her younger siblings. Ruth, we love you!!!!

Sad, Sad, Sad Continued

Right now, it seems very much like we will not be able to get the house. The reason is the laws. We went to do another appraisal and found out that as of Jan 2010 it is illegal to do a second appraisal for an FHA loan. We tried to redo the entire loan and keep it an FHA but our name is attached to the property and that cannot happen too. One of the big reasons the appraisal came out so low was that the laws have changed for appraisers and things are calculated very differently. I am going to talk to the appraiser and his supervisor tomorrow to see if we can turn things around. If we do not close by Apr 1st we lose our good interest rate and interest rates are rising. It is very likely we will have to buy a smaller house that appraises for more because of say a 3 car garage which gets a lot from an appraisal where granite counter tops and number of bedrooms do not count any more. A 3 bedroom, 2000 squarefoot house with a 3 car garage is apparently worth more on paper now than a 5 bedroom, 2300 squarefoot house with a 2 car garage. That is really bad for a family like mine. We need a big inexpensive house and a 2 car garage helps to drive the price down. We will consider building a house, but there is no way we can build a house with the same upgrades and the same divisions of space for close to the same price.

Having said all of that I need to record a few personal experiences relating to our difficulties in finding a suitable home for our family:

Last night, after a good 24 hours of tears and as I began my personal scripture study, I found theses two scripture:
               John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you...Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." and
              John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
I know that the Lord was speaking directly to me through the scriptures last night. So I will be of good cheer starting right now.

Through this all John has been reminding me not to be critical of the realtors, the sellers, and the appraisers. It is very nice to have a husband who helps keep me Christlike when it is especially hard not be angry.

The last personal experience happened  nearly a year ago, when we took our family on a vacation to Nauvoo, IL, just before we moved from Wichita, KS. Nauvoo  is a really beautiful city where the early Mormon saints lived happily before they trekked to Utah to escape the mobs. In Nauvoo you get to take tours through the restored homes of some of the saints. There was one house that particularly touched me. It was the home of Brigham Young and his wife, Mary Angell Young. The home we went through was a fairly nice frame home with four bedrooms and a nice large kitchen. Mary had this home for only about 6 months before the family had to leave Nauvoo. Before this, Mary and her 6 children lived in a one room log cabin. After they left, Nauvoo, Mary did not have a home of her own for 8 more years. She was kicked out of her home with her 6 children by mobs and had to walk across Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and through the mountains to the deserty Salt Lake Valley. Then it took a long time before she was able to have nice framed home again. As I was listening to the story of this good woman, I had a very strong impression that it would be a lot longer than I was thinking before I had a home of my own again. I quickly dismissed this (not wanting it to be true.) But, oh, how I know that this was the whisperings of the Spirit preparing me for the difficult time we are having finding a good home for our family. First, we tried to get this town house and later we were very thankful how it fell through. Now we are trying to get a very nice home and it seems as if it will fall through. But I know that the Lord is watching and guiding us and at some point we will be blessed with a nice home of our own again.