Our new home

Well, we finally found a house. We put our earnest money down last night on it. Todd and I are both very excited about this house, and very much at peace with our decision. The best part of the deal is that we will maintain the same house payment we have now, if not a few dollars less, and we will be able to keep a 15 year mortgage which is very important to both of us. We don't want to live above our means, and we still want to have a life too. We still want to be able to take vacations, go out to dinner etc. Now for the house.....I will try to take a picture of it today and post it on here when I can.....it is a country farm house built in 1915 that has been completely renovated. It is a 2400 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bath home on 5 acres. A majority of the acreage is fenced pasture, so Todd will not have the huge yard we have had here to mow. There is a barn, complete with a hay loft and 4 animal stalls. Bailey and Sarah are already on their daddy about getting a Nigerian Dwarf Goat......look them up on the internet, they are tooooooo cute. There are two cement pads already poured where the farm used to have grain bins on them. They are not there anymore so Todd will utilize the cement pads to put his "workshop/storage sheds". The house itself is so cute. The family that we are buying it from bought it 10 years ago, and completely gutted it. They put in new plumbing, electric, central heat and air, roof, septic etc. The house is vinyl sided with a big front porch. When you walk in the front door you are in what they call the "keeping room". There is a fireplace right in front of you. Off to the right is the guest bedroom. There is also a bathroom down the hall from that. If you go to the left you go into the living room. Then through the living room to the kitchen. There is a mud room/laundry room off of the kitchen and the master bedroom is also off the kitchen also. The master has a fireplace in it, as well as french doors that go out to a huge back deck completely covered in shade by a big pecan tree. There is a dressing room/closet off of the master as well that literally is the size of Sarah's room now. There is a wooden staircase in the kitchen that goes upstairs to the girl's rooms. The entire downstairs with the exception of the kitchen, has the original hardwood floors that have been completely refinished, and look beautiful. The upstairs is neat for the girls. There are two bedrooms and a bath off of what we are calling the "teen suite". It is basically a cool hang out area where the girls can put a tv and a couch or whatever to just be there own space. We are probably going to refinish the floors upstairs eventually. They are the original floors as well, but they haven't been refinished yet. We will use throw rugs until we get a bonus check to do the floors. They aren't bad at all, but I know I will want to get them to look like the ones downstairs. The only other thing we are going to do to the house is we are going to replace the floors in the kitchen and baths. They have laminate flooring down in the kitchen and I think it clashes with the cabinets....they are basically brand new floors, but I really think eventually we will put ceramic tile down just to appease my decorating sense. Other than that, the house is exactly what we wanted. It is quaint and very much a livable space.
So now we move on to the packing process of this journey......yeh. Todd and I packed up some china etc. on Tuesday, and tonight he is gonna attack the garage a bit and I will probably work on my craft room. Todd arranged a space for us to put all of our stuff, so we have a storage spot we can slowly take our stuff too over the next few weeks. We will probably schedule the closing a few days after our closing on this house, so we will spend a few days in a hotel, but nothing ridiculous.
I am so happy and at peace about this process. It has been amazing how God has taken care of us. I know this is the right decision, and although I will hate to leave this home we are in right now because it has been a great house for us, I know we are going to make more memories together in our new home. So thanks to all of you who have been cheering us on and praying for a great outcome for us. We appreciate your support more than you know.
Have a great day!