The Move!

Our move was delayed a few times and then when we did move, it was in over 2.5 feet of snow including 6 inches of fresh powder but.... We are FINALLY moved, but not moved in!! I don't remember if I have mentioned this here or not but this house we bought (which we LOVE, by the way) is a foreclosure house. It was built in May 2005. The previous owners lived in it for 6 months and couldn't make the payments and moved out. The foreclosure process is a long one, and it finally came on the market at the end of November 2006.

We happened upon it one day while looking for a rental house since our house was under contract to be sold. We noticed the dead grass and a couple of red stickers in the window by the door. We stopped and I ran up to read the stickers, one said the locks had all been changed 5/5/06 and the other said the water had been shut off from the street and the pipes winterized.

We knew of this house from before. We actually had a house almost exactly like it under contract a year ago in Thornton (another Denver suburb) but found out they are going to build a Super Walmart across the street from the subdivision so we decided against it. We knew of this house a year ago also and actually tried to get the builder (Richmond American Homes) to build us one like it, but it would have been in the lower part of the neighborhood by a bunch of "smaller" homes and we didn't think that was a good idea for property values. So we didn't do it. We ended up getting this house for almost $80,000 less than what the people bought it for a year and a half ago!!!

But....there's always a catch! The house is missing 2/3 of it's Mocha Colored Mastercraft Cherry cabinets. All of the appliances were gone (though we've replaced everything but the cooktop...still trying to decide on that one) and it had/has a "gourmet" kitchen meaning double ovens, separate cooktop and island. Most of the interior doors were also stolen. And the doors that were remaining, a lot of them anyway, had the door handles gone. But the door handles that are still here, as well as all the faucets, etc... are the oil rubbed bronze and it is beautiful!!! So we have replaced them all to match the originals. In Home Depot we saw the exact same faucets that we have in all of our bathrooms and they are priced at nearly $270.00 a piece - just for the faucets alone!!! (I tried to link up to it to show you what they look like but the link keeps bringing up a silver faucet instead).

We will order our kitchen cabinets soon (hopefully) but they will be kind of pricey (but a fraction of the cost they could have been if we had them upgraded through the builder like the original owners did or if we paid full price.) But we are getting them through a discount cabinet place in Denver for a fraction of the cost.

There are a few minor holes in the walls, some dinged up rounded corners, a broken water pipe in the master shower that Laren says will be an easy fix (after looking at it), a few scratches in the hardwood floors and dead landscaping. But despite all the "problems" this house has many upgrades including the "Super" (larger) Family Room, the Gourmet Kitchen, the most expensive elevation (the way the house looks from the front/curb), hardwood floors, upgraded hardware, full bath (instead of powder room) on main level, 3rd car garage and it has a stamped concrete patio in the back. If it were not for all the "problems" we would have had to pay a lot more for the house. And thankfully Laren is Mr. Fixit and actually likes to fix things (for his own house).

I am LOVING having a real home office/study!! We have so much "office" stuff, I can't believe we kept it all since in our prior home it was in our bedroom!! Our bedroom is larger, really, than any bedroom needs to be. But it is SO nice...we just need to get our bed up on it's frame!! The room looks totally empty with our 2 dressers, bed and small armoir we used to house our computer in!! I spend the least amount of time in the formal living room, and the room I love the most is our family room. It has a great fireplace and it is 2 stories high. It is large and somehow the noise of my 5 kids doesn't seem nearly so loud in there.

I'm still trying to dig out from our mountain of boxes and I found the camera docking station to recharge it but need to find the cord for it. Once I do, I will be posting pictures!! I need to ask Jenny and all you who's blogs look so great how to get this one fixed up and looking nice, how to link up on my sidebar to other blogs and my 100 favorites post, etc...

So far, we are also loving the neighborhood, the school seems good too - (minus one incident with Alyssa's teacher taking her math paper away and throwing it in the trash yesterday...it was a timed test and Alyssa did not know that and so she started in as soon as she got the paper. Her teacher just came up to her and tossed it in the trash without saying a word to her!! Needless to say, I was into the school first thing this morning to talk to her.). The other kids all have had really good experiences so far.

The ward that we split off from before we are now back in and they seem so happy to have us back. It's always nice to feel wanted!! Kayla has already attended her first Activity Days for Girls and said it was funner than the Activity Days was in our old ward. It's a friend of mine who teaches her age group and she also has a daughter Kayla's age.

A friend from our "old" ward (sounds so weird to say old ward since we just attended there last Sunday) brought us dinner the first night we were here in this house and while she was dropping it off a neighbor/ward member who we did not previously know (they moved into this ward after we split off from it) also came by with a yummy chicken and rice dish for us! That was SUCH a nice welcome!! It's been so good, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak!! But, I have decided to just enjoy the goodness while it lasts. Life experience has taught me the good, like the bad/difficult times, ebbs and flows. So we might as well enjoy it!