A Place of Our Own

OUR HOME!!!!

It has been about two and a half months since we officially became homeowners again and we could not be happier!!  My parents were more than awesome to let us share their place for five months and three days, however we were ready to get back to some normalcy.  If you can call unpacking, organizing, painting and more normalcy, but what-evs:).  We are happy!

After months of my perfectionism in a quest for the home that had everything I wanted, within a good budget of course, I decided I was being far too picky and wanted to give up some of my control freak-ness.  Handed it over to God and bam!  We put in an offer within a few days on our home!  March 13, the day Pope Francis was elected...actually I got to see the house just a short while after his papacy was announced and I immediately had a good feeling about it.  I had admired Jorge Mario Bergoglio before he was elected.  And St. Francis is one of my favorite saints so of course it was a good start.   I even told our realetor when we arrived that I think I was about to walk into our home and no sooner were we through the door I said it was SOLD:).  Art didn't even need to see it:).

It was actually kinda neat because it went on the market at about 2 am....yes, I happened to be up looking...I'm crazy.  Told Art the next morning that I had a good feeling about a house, showed him the online pics since he was out of town and he said he agreed.  We both had kind of bad attitudes about the house hunting process since our last one had fallen through and this was the first one that had caught our eye in some time.  Our awesome realtor, Stormy Meyer, was able to get us in that day and Art said that at this point we had seen enough homes, knew what we both wanted and so put in an offer if it was right since he was on the road.  And thank goodness we moved fast....the first day on the market it had three other offers by that evening!  Due to the awesome price we were able to outbid and make it ours:).

So what did we love??  It was a trade home (meaning the old owners had sold it to a developer, Rodrock...our favorite KC neighborhoods developer).  We had wanted a Rodrock community, but didn't really like the new homes they were building in our price range. Once Rodrock owned it, they updated the kitchen and master bath, put in new carpet, painted all the walls, and even added some other new things like light fixtures.  It SMELLED like a new home when you walked in, looked like a new home, but was in an established neighborhood with trees which we had hoped for.  It wasn't a three car garage like we wanted, but it has AWESOME storage space in it and although the laundry wasn't upstairs like we wanted, it has a laundry shoot.  Yay!  Finished basement with fabulous storage and an office.  Walk in closets for the bedrooms, not to mention a his and her closet for the master.  A sitting room in the master (we love this!).  The open floor plan on the main level and one of my top requests for a place for a playroom on the main level.  It amazed me how impossible this was to find in a new house that wasn't outrageously priced!  Oh, and I am a real sucker for white woodwork, and yay!  It has it!  Oh, and it happens to be a Rodrock neighborhood which means a neighborhood pool and lots of community events like a mom's council, Christmas party with Santa and sleigh rides, Easter egg hunts, 4th of July parties, Halloween parties....and more:)! Pretty cool, huh?!  So we were able to get what we had set out for in soooo many ways.

I hope to put up "finished product" pics of the new digs sometime down the road, but for now, all I have to share is what was on the MLS site pictures from when it was on the market.  Can't wait to share the final product!!  We are LOVING the location, the neighbors, and how close we are to friends, family and school.  Life is good!

 Dining Room

 View from the kitchen into the living room

 Kitchen

 Kitchen

 Sitting Room in the kitchen

 View from entry way

Master bedroom and bathroom

 View from upstairs into entryway

 Back yard.....TREES!!!  SHADE!!! That means lightening bugs for the kids!!  YAY!!

Moving day was like Christmas!  Grandpa and Grandma Milnes came in town to help (which is always like Christmas when we see them!) and the kids were on cloud nine rediscovering their toys that had been packed away in the PODS or storage unit for months.  So fun!!