Hurray For A New House!

There's still a lot to do, obviously, but it feels so good just to have a contract and keys!  I took care of the business side of things at noon today, then took a ton of photos.  After the girls' naps, we went over as a family, plus our friend Suellen, who spent over 2 hours helping Kaylee clean.

The big plan is to move everything over there tomorrow.

Follow the girls on a video tour of the house, then click on the photo below to check out a few of the photos!

New House!

First Photos Of The New House!

Because I forgot to take photos of the house we will be moving into, I took Kaylee and the girls over to have a look at it, and took a couple of pictures to share with you!

This is what it looks like from the street:

Kaylee and I were talking about covering the security bars with tin for privacy (most houses have that or a brick/rock/concrete wall), so I asked the landlord today if I could do it.  He said, "Oh yeah, I'll go pick some up and we'll paint it up and install it!  Whatever you want to do, just let me know."  They seem like really nice people to work with.

Here's a better shot of the front:

The main part of the humongous kitchen:

I'm looking forward to being able to BBQ right outside the kitchen for the first time ever!

Kaylee went to the trouble of drawing up the floorplan, to help her visualize how we will use the space:

I Dream of. . .Houses?

In last Sunday's paper, there was an ad for a house for rent about 1.5 miles from us, toward the city.  The description was just what we were looking for.  I called the number, and found out that there were still renters in it, so I wouldn't be able to see it until later in the week.  He did confirm that it was the size and layout that we needed.  I left my name and number and was told to expect a call.

Because we had an in-town vacation planned, I decided to call him again on Tuesday, just to keep the ball rolling.  He recognized me immediately and told me that I could see it on Thursday morning.  The problem was that the family there wasn't planning to leave until the end of the month.

We left for our vacation as planned on Wednesday afternoon, but I was feeling anxious about the house.  As you can see from our last housing update, there is a tremendous variation in quality for a similar price.  Everything that I knew about the house so far told me that it would be perfect for us, but I had no idea what condition it was in.  I was struggling with letting go and trusting God -- what if it was a rat hole?  What if the landlord was kicking out the renters and they were hanging on as long as possible?  What if we couldn't move out of our house in time?  What if. . .?

That night I had a dream.  Ever since I was small, I've had very lucid dreams.  However, I have never had a dream like this one.  Experientially, it was no different than any other, but the content!  It was short and to the point -- the house was perfect and the renters were packing up, on their way out.

I woke up in the morning and I can't say the dream helped much -- I was still anxious and had to take a few minutes to sit and pray with Kaylee before I left to go see the place.  By the time I arrived, I was calm, but that changed quickly.

I was greeted at the gate by the landlord and it was obvious from the start that he had a very good relationship with his renters.  I was in shock as he showed me around the place.  It really was perfect!  And even better, the renters had things pulled out of cupboards, getting them boxed up, and cleaning to leave!  They have until the first week of August, but appear to be on their way.

I was so overwhelmed by it all that I completely forgot to take any photos to show Kaylee!  She still hasn't seen the place!  Lord willing, we'll be able to see it this week, so she can start strategizing our 26th move.