Interior

Here are all the house pictures that were posted on realtor.com:

middle bedroom:

back bedroom:

front bedroom:

all the bedrooms have trey ceilings:

breakfast nook:

dining room:

master bedroom:

master bathroom:

Here is the description of the house from realtor.com:

Gorgeous all brick home on cul-de-sac. Beautiful distressed hardwood floors in GR, DR, and hallways. 9 ft ceilings. Extensive crown molding and 6"baseboards throughout entire house. Solid surface countertops, stainless steel appliances, custom cabinets, and large pantry. Lg Mstr BA w/ Jacuzzi tub, walk-in closet and extra large tile shower. 2" plantation blinds throughout house to include garage. Full sprinkler system. Screened-in back patio. New above ground pool. All this, and COUNTY TAXES ONLY!!!

I'm going to feel like a goober if this house falls through after posting all these pictures.

New house

The inspection went well today, no major issues. Some pictures of the house:

This house has some serious flower beds out front. We know there is lantana, phlox, and some holly bushes but don't know what the rest of the stuff is. But we think it's all perinneal. If you know please tell me. The flowers draw lots of butterflies. There are little buds on the big tree/bush thing in the front flower bed, it will be interesting to see what that is. There is one big pine tree in the front and one in the back, which I imagine we will have removed at some point. If you know of a good local tree removal service let me know.

The doggie door happens to be the perfect size for Tyler (and Gavin).

Err...

Make that November 18. That is when we can close on our new house. We're still closing on the sale of our home October 29. Between those dates we are living in a van down by the river. OR Gavin and I will stay with my parents in FL while Jake stays with friends here in town. It's amazing how God knows what's best for us. It took 19 months to sell our house, but now mortgage rates are at a record low, allowing us to buy a much nicer house than anticipated. Today I read this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38770102/ns/business-real_estate, entitled "Mortgage Rated Drop to Lowest on Record." God definitely knows me well. The home inspection on the new house is tomorrow, if all goes well I will post more pictures of the house.

We got it!

On October 29, this will be our new home:

Blah

Well we weren't able to put a contract on the 1st house we wanted. The owners were only willing to reduce their price by $3k, which still put the house about $10k over it's value per our realtor. We put an offer on another house, in a neighborhood across the street from the last house, this afternoon. Hopefully we'll have bettter luck this time. This house does not have the neighborhood pool and playground I wanted, but it does have an above ground pool and wooden swingset in the backyard, so that's a good consolation. On the plus side, I've been so stressed this last week that I'm finding it hard to eat. The last time that happened was when we first got Gavin. I lost 5 pounds that time, and wouldn't mind doing that again. We've been too busy and stressed to really appreciate our house being sold, but I did have a moment today when the thought popped into my mind that we're never going to have to "show" this house again. No more running around cleaning and tidying up, throwing Gavin and Tyler in the car and figuring out what to do for 1-2 hours at a time. That is awesome.

It's sold!

19 months later our house is finally sold. We close on October 29, 3pm. The inspection went well, nothing wrong except 1 outlet with a reversed polarity, an easy fix. We accepted the offer Tuesday night and the week since then has been nutty. Looking at houses, making decisions, getting approved for a mortgage. Luckily my good friend Aleita was kind enough to watch Gavin the last 3 days while we were taking care of business. I actually was looking forward to going to work today - it's better than house shopping at this point. We put in an offer on a house yesterday, and haven't heard back on it yet. Not sure what plan B is at this point. Maybe building, maybe not.