New Home

We closed on our new home last week! We feel so blessed that everything went through, and we are officially home owners again.

During our house hunt, we looked at many homes in several different cities around the Provo area. We probably saw 12-15 homes in person and hundreds online. We knew that we wanted a rambler style house that had all of the important amenities on the main level. We also had to balance cost vs distance to Jonathon's work. He has been commuting 1.5 hours each way for the last five years, and I didn't want him to have to do that any more. Homes in Provo were priced higher than in surrounding areas, and it made it hard to justify living close. We were feeling quite discouraged after our second major house hunting trip turned up nothing. Some houses were too big, some were too small, and some were too far away. We found a couple that would work okay, but they just didn't feel right. 

We had pretty much exhausted all of the options that were listed on the state MLS site, so we had to get more creative. Jonathon did some more Internet searches and found a home For Sale by Owner on Zillow. It was in our price range and was in our preferred area. The pictures online were lovely, so we asked Jonathon's mom if she could go over and check it out. She has great taste in homes, and I trusted and valued her opinion. She was able to go and see the house that same morning. Shortly after walking through the house, she called and was very excited. She said the house was absolutely wonderful, and she thought we needed to go see it that night, if possible. We thought about it and decided that if this house was as good as it seemed, we needed to make the effort to go down. It was the third day in a row that we had driven down to Provo, and we hoped it was worth it. 

We drove to the home and really liked the area. It was within biking distance to Jonathon's work, but it wasn't right in the crowded downtown area, which really made me happy. There were farmlands around, and it felt a lot less hectic than many places in Provo. When we walked into the home, I immediately knew that this was it. 

This was the house that I wanted. 

It was a beautiful home and very well taken care of. It was also the exact layout that I was looking for. It had a large open floor plan with lots of room for family gatherings. It also had three bedrooms on the main level, with a loft and 2 more bedrooms upstairs. Since it didn't have a basement, we were happy to see that there was quite a bit of storage too. It seemed like a good size for our family, and we both felt like it was a place we could potentially live forever. Plus, the kitchen was amazing! I think I was completely sold when I walked into it. There was also a 3 car garage that we were very excited about. We were envisioning Jonathon having a little workshop in there, and it also left open the possibility of Jonathon's dream of someday owning a little sailboat. The yard was a bit small, but it was nicely landscaped, so we thought it would work okay.

By the time we were finished with the house tour, I was already thinking about what our offer would be. I mentioned to the home owner that we were probably going to make an offer, and she said that a family toured the house right before us (for the second time) and was also very interested. We knew that the house would sell fast, so we were going to have to make a good offer if we wanted it. We went back to Jonathon's parents (8 minutes away!) and discussed all of the options. We felt like the home was worth the asking price, so we went in with a full price offer plus closing costs rolled in. We called and gave them our offer before we left to go home. 

The next day they accepted our offer, and we were thrilled! Things sailed along smoothly until the very end of the process when there was quite a bit of drama. Luckily, we signed the closing papers and now we are home owners again. I may write about the drama someday, but for right now we are just so happy and feeling very blessed. 

School doesn't get out for a few more weeks, so we won't be moving in until the beginning of June. We are excited to see what life holds for us, but we will miss our first home and amazing friends. We have built a wonderful life here, and that is not an easy thing to leave behind. However, we are confident moving forward because we have felt guided and reassured that we are doing the right thing and will end up in the right place. For that, we are eternally grateful.

Here are a few pictures:

From the front

Half of the kitchen

 The main family room

The backyard