New Home

We are homeowners...AGAIN! 

{Hopefully for more than eight months this time...haha...but seriously...}

I have been excited and yet kind of dreading writing this post for almost two months now.

When Mark and I decided to move from Idaho Falls to the Bear Lake area the first {and logical!} step is to look for a new housing situation.  We really wanted to buy a home but there was just nothing drawing us in at all!  A lot of the homes seem to be very affordable but around 100 years old or more {I am really not exaggerating!} which is NOT a bad thing at all but would just need a lot of remodeling to get it where we would want it - which with three little kiddos does not sound nearly as exciting as the movie Up would have you believe.  

On the other end of things - there are many beautiful homes that are half a million and up which are gorgeous but not really in our budget at the moment...or ever...which is totally fine.  There just isn't a lot of middle ground.  

Mark and I have always talked about building and it was something we were both really interested in.  We thought that we should just dive into it now and then wouldn't have to worry about being stuck with something we didn't love down the road.  

So we started the home building process.  To describe this process in one word I would say...tedious.  Every single step was so tedious.  

We knew exactly who we wanted to have build it and they were wonderful - we first met with them at the end of September of 2016.  However, to start building you have to have land first.  They recommended some people that might be willing to sell us some land and we began trying to make contact.  We finally got to see properties in January and immediately fell in love with one of them.  It was 1.3 acres of pure dreaminess.  I loved it.  

However, from looking at it initially in January it took a tedious five months to hear back from the owner.  I consider myself a mostly patient person but this pushed me.  We had countless conversations about what to do but we didn't want to let it go because we loved it so much.  Finally, in May we thought we had everything squared away with that.  We agreed to wait to purchase it until our building loan could go through so we could just lump it in one.  

Luckily, I had been looking at hundreds {again, completely NOT an exaggeration} different floor plans online to find something we liked and read every article possible it seemed on what to make sure to include when building a home.  We were going for the dream, folks.  

We hoped that everything else would move quickly and smoothly once we got the lot figured out but sadly it didn't.  Every. Single. Step. took an enormous amount of time.  It was mentally and emotionally exhausting.  If there was a hiccup in the process, we somehow managed to find it, it seemed.  Mark and I spent so many nights making deadlines on our decisions that we needed to make and it never seemed like it was a priority on the other ends.  It was hard.  

Now, rewind a little, and Mark and I were a little unsure about this at several times.  Even making the initial decision to build was a little nerve-racking.  We knew we definitely WANTED to but we were unsure about whether it was the right timing.  This same feeling crept in many many times over the course of the last year.  But we always suppressed it because we WANTED it.  

Finally, finally, in October we thought we were ready to start.  We had a groundbreaking date and we were thrilled to finally get to that step.  However, we had yet another hiccup in the plan happen.  A BIG hiccup.  Mark and I had talked earlier in the month, that if one more thing happened we needed to rethink things - and a BIG thing happened - and we knew we had to hit the pause button.  

This involved a whole lot of crying on my part.  But as soon as we prayed about it, and really listened, we knew that this wasn't the right time for this.  Even though we could make it work, we shouldn't.  This was hard.  It was really hard {and embarrassing} to call a handful of different people and let them know this decision - knowing the amount of time that they had invested in our project as well.  It was really not a fun week at all.  We were so grateful with how supportive and truly kind everyone was about it though.  Even though it was incredibly hard on our end, they made it as good for us as they could.  

We immediately, were back to step one, finding a place to live.  We were hoping to find a place closer to Montpelier, since that is where Mark works, but nothing was feeling good for us.  One night, when we were looking at house after house online, Mark and I came to the realization that maybe the right choice for us was literally staring right at us.  

We have been renting a home from a sweet woman who is currently serving a mission.  We immediately started to see things in a different way and started praying about it.  Mark and I knew that this was right.  That even though it was a hard decision, that this is where we need to be.  We are hopeful that Mark can work closer someday and we love the community that we live in here.  

So we asked if we could buy the home - and everything has finally come together!  She had left most of her things in the home so her family came and packed them up and we closed on Tuesday!  It was a great belated Christmas present!  We are very excited to make it our own and finally stop thinking about moving again.  

We have no doubt that this is where we are supposed to be.  We feel a lot of peace about it and that has been a huge blessing.  I finally had to move the plans for our dream house to the back of a closet and I just can't think about it too much.  Even though we know it is right, it is still sad for me.  And I still can't bring myself to drive by the lot that we were going to build on - I was almost just as excited for the lot as I was the house.  

But, this is life - and that's okay!  I truly am grateful for the lessons that we come to earth to learn.  Even if it is hard to learn them.  And maybe next time, I will be better at hearing the Spirit over my own wants.  Isn't that the hardest though, sometimes?!  

So that was a really long explanation (but trust me, I left out a lot!), that we now have a home!  A home we can grow into and raise our family in.  I cannot tell you what a good feeling that is.  

Also, we have an enormous mountain of boxes if anyone wants them, we are NOT going to be needing them!  ;)

I took this picture this summer - our new permanent home!