We did it. Welcome. Welcome to our Forever Home.
We closed on the house April 27th, 2018 and have been living here
about 7 weeks now. But just like the
journey to home ownership was a long and winding road, the path for getting
moved in and settled has proven to be just as complicated. We are settled in now (mostly), and we truly love our
new surroundings. The neighborhood, our
neighbors, and the HOME are exactly what we have been praying for. We are very blessed.
I have started and re-started this blog about 20 times over the past 2 months, There have been so many highs and lows, it seemed impossible at times to write about it all. Home ownership has been our dream for the last several
years. We got close a couple of years
ago, but the bottom dropped out and we had to go back to waiting, working, and
praying. Early in 2018, we were ready to
start asking the hard questions again.
We looked at the market a little bit, but most importantly, we knew we
had to get the mortgage process started to see if we could afford our dream. By the first weeks in March, we felt like we
had seen every 4 bedroom house in Stillwater, and we were supremely
discouraged. We really wanted 4 bedrooms
(and 2.5 baths, but that was ruled out very quickly) - With Emma not living
with us full time, we wanted each of the kids to have their own room – and Lara
could have a trundle bed for when Emma came home. But they were either too expensive, or too
(enter various issues here).
We had our pre-approval letter, we had an AWESOME realtor,
and while we were having fun shopping and looking, we knew we had a lease
coming up for renewal, and we REALLY wanted out of the rent house we had now
been in for 2 years. We had made an
offer on one other that we were beat out on, and we really liked that one, so
we were a bit discouraged.
On a whim, I decided to look for 3 bedrooms with an
office. I figured if it was a small
office, we could put Finn in there for a few years, and re-evaluate after the
girls went off to college… BINGO! I found one on-line that was a new listing,
in our desired elementary school district, and in our budget. A first glance at the pics and I saw the
office looked to be a good size, so I forwarded the listing to Britt. He looked it over, and texted our realtor for
a showing. We saw it a couple of days
later, and loved everything about it!
And that office, HUGE! A great
space for a bedroom – plenty of room for a wardrobe to be used as a
closet. Plus, the other 2 bedroom
closets were big, so there was plenty of storage for all. made an offer while we were still looking at
it, it was accepted the next morning, and we were on a roll!
The house had a few minor things wrong with it from the inspector’s
point of view, nothing too major, EXCEPT!
His exact words were “The roof is trash.
I can’t believe there aren’t any leaks.”
UH OH! This is where things got
really stressful. Finalizing the loan and loan docs, waiting for word on the roof, moving closing back… MAN!
That was a L O N G five weeks! We got a brand new roof, we survived, and we closed on Friday April 27th at noon. After a quick lunch, we were at our home to
start cleaning, organizing, and painting that office for Jake’s room!
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| First Look! We are HOMEOWNERS! |
This is where it got super crazy, and it has taken us until
this week to iron out all the kinks that happened over the next couple of
days. We were at the house for a few
hours in the afternoon, then Lara and I went back that night to clean some more
Saturday morning. Saturday evening,
Britt and I went back to work on taping off the bedroom and laundry room that
were going to be painted. We left just
before 7pm on Saturday night ( we know because we ordered pizza to be delivered
to the “old” house), and went home to eat and to rest. We got up early Sunday morning, went back to
the new house, and COULD NOT GET INSIDE!
The deadbolts had been changed.
The doors were all locked; we could not get in to our own house. Our brand new house. And, we had a pretty good stash of belongings
inside. We had cleaning supplies, and
tools, and some chairs, and various other “first few days of living here”
stuff. Cops, Coopers Locksmiths, my
parents, every neighbor and all the chaos that ensued in our quiet cul-de-sac
that morning led to weeks of phone calls, police reports, questions, questions,
QUESTIONS… And finally this week, a complete closure of our case. Long story short, some people who were hired
to do some work on the empty house by the previous owner came back and did “work,”
and while they were there they changed the locks and stole all of our
stuff. The workers brought some of it
back, and the company reimbursed us for the rest – and for the Sunday emergency
Locksmith bill!
We spent the next week moving little things and working on projects around the new house. The "BIG MOVE" happened on Sunday, May 6th - and without the help of some AMAZING friends, we would not have gotten in all in there!
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| Finn used the furniture in the trailer as a jungle gym |
The night after we first slept there, we woke up to THIS is our front yard! Card My Yard Stillwater paid us a visit, and they were the first ones to officially welcome us home!
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| Welcome Home Weaver Family (click for larger) |
We feel better, more at home now. Having that looming over our heads was
dampening our excitement. Plus, someone
had keys to those locks that were put on the house – but we didn’t know
who! We changed them (again), but still
felt vulnerable and violated. Now that
it is all behind us, we can start to feel comfortable in our HOME!
Still lots of projects to work on. We painted Jake’s room and the laundry
room. We are working on some more
laundry room updates. We bought a used
washer and dryer from some local friends until we can get what we REALLY want
in there. We LOVE our kitchen! All black appliances, 5 burner stove, awesome
refrigerator (that we negotiated in the price), huge sink! It’s the nicest kitchen I have ever worked
in. The front room is going to be our “music”
room when we get Britt’s piano here from Enid.
Lara and Finn have mirror image rooms on one side of the house, while
the master suite and Jake’s office/room are on the other side. All the kids are basically all moved in –
Jake needs a bed frame and we promised Lara a new bed at some point, but they
are loving their new, BIG spaces. We are
going to “frost” the glass on the French doors into Jake’s room for some
privacy, too. The kitchen looks out to
the living room and dining room. Storm shelter
in the garage, whole house water softener system, high efficiency everything. There are some quirky things about the layout
that would probably turn away a lot of buyers, but it works VERY well for
us. We have a small backyard, but it’s
perfect for us! All hard surface floors –
tile, hardwoods, and laminate. So, we
need rugs, because it is LOUD, but we love it!
Love everything about it! Such a
great space for us! A few more pictures,
and other little improvements to keep us busy, but all in all we are living the
dream and loving our new house.
I bought Britt a housewarming gift of 2 signs that say “Hand
in my hand and promised to never let go.”
This has so much meaning for us in 2018.
We are in this together, and we are on our way. The lyrics are part of the song “Tightrope” from the musical The Greatest Showman. No one in my family has seen that movie less
than twice, and some of us have seen it 5 times. It truly spoke to us, and it has marked 2018
in many ways. We are working on a large
headboard for our bed, and these signs will go above that once we are done.
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| "Tightrope" from The Greatest Showman |
We have had a few visitors, but always welcome more! I’ll show you around – but it’s not a
showplace. We live here! We have piles of mail, and laundry in various
stages, and toys from door to door.
Noise, someone asking Alexa about the weather, and Netflix coming from
at least one room. Light fixtures with
no globes, walls with no pictures, and a ladder in our front room (I have to
fix the blinds I broke and hang them back).
But it is HOME, and we LOVE it. (Now, if those last 2 boxes in my
bedroom would unpack themselves, that’d be GREAT!)
My “One Word” for 2018 was Welcome. You can read about that here. I had no idea when that word chose me at the
end of 2017, what it would lead to. Home. Welcome Home. In
honor of that moment and the dream that followed, I got a vinyl sign to put on
my front door. We are welcomed home. YOU are welcome to visit. We started small. We persevered. WE OVERCAME!
We feel the love, and we want to share it. Welcome Home. WELCOME!
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| My Front Door (before the lock was returned) WELCOME - my One Word for 2018 |
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