Homeownership....What The??

Our sentiments exactly. What the?? Homeowners?? Really?? But, I guess it is true, as we have signed all of the official paperwork and have now budgeted a mortgage into our lives! We are homeowners!

We are excited, terrified, happy, sad, nervous, and just about every other range of emotion about our decision.

So, here's the story.

We were not looking. At all. We knew that we wouldn't be living in our little basement apartment forever, but we were very comfortable here and loved the idea of saving up money for a big down payment someday. My brother recently moved to Phoenix and has been trying to sell his house since he moved in July. He hadn't had much activity on it, and was really wanting to just sell it and get it out of his way. So...he called us a while ago and asked us if we would be interested. Our reactions: No way! We can't afford a mortgage, we are going to stay in our basement apartment until we have more money saved up, we don't want to commute to work that far and a lot of other reasons. But..the more we got thinking about it, the more it started making sense (it's funny how lives work like that. We think that we have all of these great plans and have our lives planned out exactly the way we want them to, and then life throws you a curve ball and you end up changing your plans). After thinking it over and thinking it over, and thinking it over some more, we came to the tentative decision that we might actually be able to afford it and should MAYBE think about it. Well, on Friday of that same week, we both got a pretty solid answer. Mine came to me when I was at home, before I ever went to school. I was reading my scriptures and just thinking about what direction we should take, with regards to the house. I can clearly remember this calm, peaceful feeling that I had. It wasn't loud - it wasn't overpowering - it was just simple and peaceful. I knew that if we decided to buy the house, everything would work out okay. I didn't (and still don't) know exactly how everything would work out, but I felt an unmistakeable feeling of peace and comfort. I knew it would be okay, and would be a good decision for us. Later that night, I find out that the same thing happened to Dave! He was at work and it happened to be Veteran's Day. He was taking down the flags that he had put up at his building to celebrate, and he had the same type of feeling as I had that morning - peace, calm, comfort, and the overall feeling that we could actually buy the house, and that it was a good decision for us to make. Later that night, we made a list of all the pros and cons of moving. We went to the temple the next day with our decision in mind, and came away feeling like our decision to buy the house was a good one, one that we would be very happy with. I am SO grateful for the answer to prayer that we received. We are so lucky to have a Heavenly Father who hears and answers our sincere prayers.

So....we bought the house. :)

It is pretty far away from where we work. It's in South Weber (just north of Kaysville and Fruit Heights). It is still in Davis county, and is located in such a beautiful city. Dave and I will be carpooling to work since we both still work in the Salt Lake area. Most everyone tells us we're out of our minds for moving so far away and that the commute is going to be awful. Call me crazy, but I'm kind of excited for it. Not excited that it will take so long, but excited that I get to be with Dave for 2 hours every day, with nothing to do but drive and talk (and probably listen to lots of books on tape). I think it will be fun.  We absolutely love the house - it is so beautiful, and we've only heard good things about the area. My brother has been raving about the neighborhood and about the ward that we'll be moving into.

However, we are SOO sad to leave our current ward - it is the best ward ever. Hands down. We have made so many memories with so many great people that it is hard to leave. In fact, leaving our ward was #1 con on our list of pros and cons of moving.  Dave and I have learned so much from the members of our ward and will be forever changed by their examples, testimony, and generosity. It will be very hard to leave.

If you have been reading this post for this long, you are probably ready for some pictures! Here are a few, but we didn't take them. These are just from some websites that were advertising the house. Stay tuned for more pictures and maybe even a video tour when we are all settled and moved in. Until then....here's our house!

Dave and I are so excited to start this new adventure together. We feel so incredibly lucky, and so incredibly blessed to have things turn out they way they did. Wish us luck, and stay tuned for a video tour! :)