We're Moving!

We have been given an opportunity to purchase a home from a friend, who is going to let us "rent to own". It was an offer we couldn't refuse. Okay well, we could have but we didn't want to. :)

Our new house is located in the Carriage Hills neighborhood on 62nd terr. Just around the corner from our friends the Bruns Family.

Here is the shortened version of how this home came to be ours.

Months ago when I meet Adrienne through church, she and I would visit and let our children play together. Shortly into our friendship her husband was laid off, like so many others we know, and it wasn't long before he found another job. They put the house they owned here on the market in June and moved to Pennsulvania. Just before they left, during our last visit together I had mentioned to her that I might be interested in renting her house in the event that she was unable to get it sold fast enough. Adrienne told me to go look at the house and that maybe Steve and I might want to buy it. I told her that was not an option for us right now but to please keep us in mind if she needed to rent it in order to relieve the stress of her mortgage payments.

I knew that if I went to look at the house I would fall in love with it and then I would be upset that I wasn't able to buy it. I have learned not to even look at things if I know I can't have them, so I never went to look at the house. Adrienne and her family moved away and I never thought any more about the house.

Adrienne and I stayed in contacted through Facebook and some time in August she sent me an email about the house that started out something like this: "I don't remember what you said your price range was ...", "house hasn't sold ...", "are you still interested in a rent-to-own ..."

I was a little shocked. I was honest with her and said that I had never even looked at the house and that Steve and I had never discussed it. I told Adrienne that I would go look at the house on Friday and talk with Steve about it and then get back to her. I couldn't wait that long. Jacob and I went right after I logged off of the computer that same day.

Just as I knew I would be, I was in love the minute I walked through the door. Jacob was just as thrilled as I was. He and I walked through every room and talked about what each space was going to be used for. There is a wonderful little nook in one of the bedrooms that we are going to use as part of our "School" area. We could hardly contain our excitement for the rest of the day.

I kept my excitement to a minimum as I let Steve walk through the house. I had brought our friends Jared and Sephie with us to get their opinion. They live in the neighborhood so I wanted to see how they felt about the house. We were all in agreement that this house was to good of a deal to pass up.

So, after attempting to discuss the pros and cons, Steve and I decided to go ahead and make arrangements with the Zeimers to "rent-to-own" their Kansas City Home from them. I say we attempted to discuss because if you know me, then you understand that my mind was already made up, I just had to get Steve to realize he wanted it too. :) Which didn't take much effort by the way.

We are moving in to our new huge beautiful home at the end of this month!! I am beside myself with excitement and stress. This is not the best of economic times and our family is definitely feeling it. I run my own photography business as most of you know and this year has not been as busy as I would have liked. So needless to say, we are not rolling in big wads of cash right now. However, we are going to make this work even if it kills me. Steve and I both have a wonderful feeling about this whole situation and have felt that this is the right desicion since the very beginning. We have no doubts!

Here are some images of the house.

The view from the street, Image provided by Google Street View maps. Thanks Google.

A view of the foyer and stairs leading to the second floor. Second floor has 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms.

This is a view from the foyer into the formal living room and looking through into the formal dining room.

Standing in the Family room. We will probably never use this fireplace but it looks nice! This room is going to house our used/new pool table for the next two years! I told Steve that if he went back for his Masters Degree that I would forfeit having a sitting room and a family room. Well he starts classes on the 27th, so now this room is the pool room. :)

This view is from the same spot in the Family Room as the last image I just turned to my right and we are now looking into the breakfast nook of the Kitchen.

Now we are standing in the nook looking into the Kitchen. I can not wait to get all my cooking stuff in here!!

This is the view from the Masterbedroom into the Master Bathroom. We have a dual sink vanity, 2 walk-in closets, a soaker jet tub, and a toilet with shower in a separate little room. Steve is so thrilled about having the toilet and the sinks in separate spaces. I'm excited about having a closet all to myself!!


This is the soaker tub.

This is the little nook inside one of the bedrooms. This is the room that Jacob and I have claimed as our School/Craft room! Jacob is very excited to get all his school stuff set up in here.

This is the back of the house. We have a very nice flat fenced in back yard. I am going to enjoy the fact that there are no plants to tend to. I'm not a big fan of gardening so having a low maintenance yard is going to be wonderful!

We are so happy and are planning to be in this house for a very long time!!