We're on the prowl...

We're REALLY beginning to OUTGROW our space here in the basement of Spencer's parents house... SO... after having lived here for nearly 3 years, YES THREE YEARS!!!... we're in the market to BUY a HOUSE OF OUR OWN!!!

I can't hide the fact that I'M SO EXCITED!!! I ought to be a little more discreet about my excitement- but I can't help myself! We are absolutely GRATEFUL that Spencer's parents have let us live with them all this time- they're some of the most thoughtful and generous people I've ever met, but O.M.G. (by "O.M.G." I mean "Oh my Gosh", not "OH MY G**") I just can't wait to have a little bit more space, a place of our own, a bit more privacy, a kitchen of MY OWN, and not to mention- hopefully our new house we find won't be an underground house- I've begun to hate living in the basement- I NEED SUNLIGHT!!! Maybe we'll buy a glass house, that way we can have sunlight filter into our house all day long!!!

Okay, let me backtrack a bit, just to clue some of you in who may be wondering... We were thinking Spencer would continue on with graduate school, somewhere out of state, so we were expecting to move regardless this summer. Unfortunately, he wasn't accepted to the masters programs at any of the 3 universities he applied to (it may have helped his chances to get into a MFA program had he known a 2ND or 3RD language- but sadly he doesn't). It was slight ego buster and a bit disappointing getting the rejection letters in the mail- but that's life right?... not everything in life can be perfect or go as planned... We had a good laugh last week, when Spencer got a 2ND rejection letter in the mail randomly from one of the universities who 2 months ago already sent him a rejection letter!!! I saw Spencer reading the letter, so I asked him what it said, and he joked "WOW, I got DENIED TWICE from the same university and I only enrolled ONCE- they must REALLY not have wanted me to come!" Ummm, so yeah- I'm thinking that university needs to do some better organizing and record keeping in their admissions department...

Anyhow, so since we won't be moving away to continue on with graduate school for now, we've decided to dig in our savings and buy a house. Unfortunately we're not house hunting in San Diego... Bummer. Wouldn't that be great though if we were wealthy enough to move there into a fabulous place??? What a dream... Actually, we're looking for a house close by here in Utah County. We don't really want to move any further south than Orem, although we've thought about putting some offers in on a few houses in Provo. (There's some really cute Victorian/craftsman houses for sale in Provo down by Center Street- I would absolutely LOVE to live in a house as old and classic as those houses are, although unfortunately most of them are too small for our growing family). We've looked at houses here in Orem- the school's here are good schools- but I'm not sure how I feel about buying a house here in Orem that will probably need some fixing up because the homes here are slightly older. (I have a HUNCH, Spencer's mom really wants us to live in Orem and not move any further away- she never stops talking about how great the school's, wards, and community is here! It's true... but I'm ready to branch out... Really I think Spencer's mom just wants us to buy a home nearby so she can drop by at any moment to visit the boys and I think she wants Spencer to live close by so she can call on him for help at any moment. I'm sensing some separation anxiety on her part- I could be wrong though).

We've also looked at homes in Pleasant Grove; we'd love to live in Lindon but almost ALL of the homes there are WAY TOO EXPENSIVE because they're all built on nothing less than 1/2 acre lots. We've looked in American Fork and Cedar Hills, but I think we've turned most of our house hunting focus on Lehi. There's some really nice homes out there that we've been looking at, and we've actually already put two offers in on houses out there. We just learned a couple of days ago, that one of our offers wasn't accepted- I guess there were a few other bidders who offered significantly higher than us- but GOOD NEWS- yesterday we learned that the 2ND house we put an offer on will be ours UNLESS if someone else in the next week or two submitts a higher offer. It's pretty exciting! Please, please, please, keep us in your thoughts or prayers and hope with us that we actually get this house or if this one doesn't work out that we'll find a house that suits our needs fairly soon!!! That's sort of desperate sounding huh?..well I'm not trying to sound desperate, just thought I'd ask for your support. :)

Anyhow, there's still a few other homes we're interested in, and we may submit a few other offers. We've definitely been learning A LOT about real estate. It's a buyers market for sure, but when you're a buyer here in Utah, it's sort of a hard position to be sitting in... when there's a certain budget to work around, it's difficult to decide whether you want a house that's brand new or older, has LOTS of square feet or LESS but maybe a HUGE YARD with lots of acreage, sometimes though the yards still need sprinklers to be installed, along with fences and sod; some homes already have finished basements, a lot don't and there's even a lot of homes we've looked at that don't have basements at all; you have to consider location (there's some AMAZING deals on homes out in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain but both locations are just TOO FAR from the freeway- Traverse Mountain in northwest Lehi has some GORGEOUS homes, but the wind is TERRIBLE and FIERCE up there, I can't fathom what winter there must be like). Spencer's been toying around with the idea of buying a "fixer upper"- I wouldn't mind fixing up a house, only I don't think we're in the prime position to renovate any home right now. I think it would be a bit stressful especially because in less than a week, we'll have a 2 year old, a 1 year old and a newborn to take care of- we'd have to paint and carpet all through the night while the boys are all sleeping- I'd rather just get rest.

So my friends, thus having been said, maybe SOON (hopefully- I'm beginning to get tired of looking and I don't think I can handle another month of dreaming about homes we've walked through) we'll be making a move into a place of our own... we'll let y'all know and possibly we'll have a house warming barbecue for our family and friends (maybe not, I guess it depends on whether the place we buy actually has grass laid down already).