Homeowner!!

Here's the story of how we came to buy a house, feel free to skip ahead to the photos!

We've been thinking about purchasing a home for a while and and had talked about starting to look this summer. I thought we'd look for a long time before we found something we liked or could afford. Then one day, out of the blue, John's good friend, Hadley sent him a link to a house and told him it was for sale but not officially on the market and we should check it out. Their mutual friend, Terry, was the realtor and so we made an appointment to go look at it. John fell head over heels for the gorgeously maintained and large backyard and liked the house, too. I liked it, too, but I wasn't sold yet!

We made an appointment to look at other houses closer to where we live now with our other friend who is a realtor and we ended up looking at 12 houses in one afternoon! There were a few we were considering and we prayed about them all, strategized, budgeted, talked to the neighbors on the street, called the bishops of the wards we'd be in and one by one, we let the others slip by. We just kept coming back to the first house we had seen in Holladay.

We made another appointment to go look at that house, this time taking John's parents, brother and a contracter to look at some of our areas of concern (the rickety staircase and unfinished shelf basement, primarily). While we were there, the owner showed us his vintage trucks he had meticulously restored. As we left, the contracter texted me, "Sometimes I worry when people have remodeled their homes that they haven't done it the right way, but after seeing those trucks, I think we can trust this guy!"

We decided to make an offer on the home, which was counter offered and we accepted. The appraisal and inspection both went incredibly well, too. My parents arrived in town just in time to tour the home with us and give their stamp of approval. Finally, last Thursday, we wired the down payment money and then signed papers on the home!

signing papers

It's kind of a surreal experience to buy a home and at first, I was really reluctant to tell people we were buying a house because it is never a sure thing until the end. It just felt awkward to talk about until it was finalized. And now it is!!

our first home- this is a shot I took from the street on a rainy day before we made an offer- we were checking it out with our entourage (in this photo- John, Terry (our realtor/bishop), Breea, and Dave)