Livin' it up in the country

You know you live in the country when "lost dog" signs are replaced by these:

Our new home!

I think i've worked harder the last few weeks than I have the last 6 months. Moving is hard! We are slowly getting settled and feel so blessed to be where we are. For those of you that don't know, let me recap... the last 11 months we have been living with Brent's mom, the first six months we were trying to sell our home in Oregon. We finally decided to rent it and found a great family that is doing a lease-to-own, and they have been wonderful. Another blessing! We found this piece of land last spring, but were having a hard time trying to figure out how we could build on it. It's tough to get financing on new construction and most banks want 20% down, which we didn't have. We finally gave up on the idea of building and moved on. We made an offer on another home, an old farmhouse. But after the inspection we were scared off. There was a lot of work that needed to be done and a lot of upkeep needed. The same day we had the inspection, the realtor for the land called and told us that he found a builder who was willing to buy the land and build the home, and we could buy it from him completed. We decided to go for it. Building began in mid-January. I've thought a lot lately about this past year and how some might consider it a trial...but in so many ways we were blessed. My kids were able to get to know their granny in a way they never would have. My girls especially grew close to her and developed a special bond. I noticed Malia would always ask granny to play games at night...she never asked me! We are so thankful to Debbie for letting us stay with her for so long and for her patience with us!

So here's the outside of the house:
I took this picture because it's the only other house you can see from ours. It's so private and peaceful

Brent in the backyard. We will be doing the landscaping so for now we have a nice dirt patch. The house is on a hill, but there are some great flat spots where we plan on having a volleyball court and hopefully someday...a field big enough for some softball.


The view from the back porch
My living room.
The kitchen, we are planning on putting beadboard under the counter...yet another project. Also our bar stools from our old house are too short. The kids can barely see over the counter. So for now, we are eating at the table. This picture was taken before I put up my kitchen decorations. I think it looks much better now...I will post more pics of the inside as soon as the rooms are done.

Signing tomorrow!

The day has finally come! We sign papers tomorrow!! We aren't sure if we will be able to move in this weekend or next week, because technically the funding won't go through until Monday. It will depend on our builder and we should know by this afternoon. Luckily most of our stuff is still packed in storage, so there isn't tons of packing to do. We've kind of slacked on our picture taking lately. Here are a couple pictures of the counters that Brent installed HIMSELF last night. He got home at about 2:30 in the morning. The pics are from his phone and not the best quality, but you get the idea. I LOVE the counters! We have to give a huge thanks to Than Norman who helped Brent cut them out and gave us a great deal. I've spent a few nights the last few weeks painting, I have all of the downstairs/kitchen area done and the upstairs living area done. It's funny because I was looking for a nice neutral yellow/beige/creamish color. I looked in magazines, online, and had several samples up on the wall...but I couldn't find that perfect color that I was imagining in my head. Then i was at my Sis-in-laws house and in her bedroom was the color that I was looking for. She happened to have 5 gallon container of it in her basement (which felt completely full!) That she was done with and so she gave it to me, and it's PERFECT. I love it. I'll try to get better pictures during the daytime. :) We can't wait for you to all to come visit!