Bigger and Better

The last few months before Emmeline was born, our living situation became unbearable.

We lived in this basement apartment off of Lewisville highway. The rent was an amazing deal and came with a washer/dryer and a garage and no contract. We moved there just soon after Eric graduated from BYU-Idaho in September 2012. It was temporary until we knew where Eric was going to get a job, and in the mean time it was nice for me to be closer to work.

A single man in his 40s or 50s named Randy lived in the upstairs portion of the house. He was a nice man, quiet and that was all there was to it. Until sometime in December when all of sudden there was a woman and several noisy children upstairs in the evenings. It was weird because they had never been there before and then suddenly they were there every evening. It was terribly irritating, especially since Eric was working swings, so it was just me and the incessant noise.

And then one day the unwelcome neighbors didn't go home at night. From what we could deduce, his girlfriend and her FIVE children had moved in.

The house we lived in was very old and had nothing in the way of insulation, so every step, creak and word spoken were easily heard. Which is understandable, but when the steps became five children running, jumping, fighting and screaming, my patience ran out. And they had a pet--against policy--which chased his toys up and down the apartment all. night. long.

So out came the broom and when things got to be too much, I would bang on the ceiling, though that only stopped them a time or two. I had Eric talk to the lady once too, but things never quieted.

And months passed. Emmeline was born, and the noises were worse, because we were low on sleep and it seemed that whenever we tried to sleep, we couldn't due to the various noises.

So we became desperate to find a house, anything to get out of that apartment.

We had been looking at houses for quite awhile, and had even put an offer in on a house that we loved. When we didn't get that house we were discouraged because we had looked at at least 20 houses before we found that one. And with Emmeline's birth looming closer we decided not to look until after she was born.

So about a week after her birth we left Emmeline with Eric's parents and went to look at some houses. We feel in love with a house in Ammon. We went to look at a couple other houses a few days later and we returned to look at the house in Ammon again. The next day, Eric and I were determined to put an offer in on the house and were discussing what we should offer when our realtor called and said that the owner's of the house had just received an offer on the house!

We were both stunned! Again! That was exactly what had happened last time. No offers on the house until we are about to put one in. Grr, we were so frustrated. This also meant that we would have to up our game a little, and offer more than we had intended to to be competitive.

After a very long 24 hours we heard that we got the house! We were so excited, and also very nervous. We had just, well basically bought a house. Us! Me, Eric, bought a house!

And about 6 weeks later we closed on the house, and it is all ours. Well ours and the banks :)

We feel so blessed to be able to buy a house. Thank you bad economy and low interest rates!

Here are some pictures of the house when we bought it. Obviously it looks different with our stuff in it, and we've already made some changes and plan to make even more in the months and years to come.

Outside view of house. We have since added a few trees and done a little bit of landscaping--that's for another blog post.

Rv pad behind the fence. We hope to put a shed on the back part of the pad someday.

Front living room.

Kitchen. I plan to paint the walls a nice taupe. I also want to paint the cupboards someday if Eric will let me, and get new counters and backsplash :)

We love having a counter with a bar!

The dining room.

Master bedroom. I don't have a picture of it, but there's a walk-in closet that I love!

Master bath

Front bedroom, which is Emmeline's room. We are going to paint it a light Tiffany blue.

2nd bedroom on the main floor, which we will also be painting it something more mellow.

Hall bath. We are going to be painting this a light gray.

 My favorite part of the house. This is the first part of the living space in the basement.

A full of shot of the family room downstairs. 

We love this little cut out section for the TV. Only our small TV  looks ridiculous in this huge space, lol. 

Downstairs laundry room. I love the cupboards and counter space!

Downstairs bathroom. I wish this were the master bath. it's the biggest bathroom in the house.

Downstairs bedroom which Eric uses for all his guns, police gear, etc.

Other downstairs bedroom, which I use as my sewing and craft room! Not sure how I'll give it up when we have more kids.

And one of the best parts about it is the quiet :)