A Tour of Our New Home!

A few months ago Dave found our "dream home" online. We decided that we were going to take a few years to pay off our debt and then get a house like the one we saw online. We talked about that house almost every day and decided to go see it in person. It was a new build and it was beautiful!!! We fell in love. There were a couple of things we didn't like about it, like the yard was really small and it only had a two car garage. Because it was a new build we'd also have to purchase blinds for the windows, landscape  and put grass down. Buying a brand new home is expensive!! After talking to some family we decided to go for it now. Interest rates were low, we had enough equity in our home (thanks to all the upgrades that we did!) to almost completely pay off our debt and it just seemed right! So we put in our offer on the "dream home." We came in a little low and asked for some things like a blinds allowance, sod, and to have the backyard flattened out. I can't remember what they countered back with but we weren't happy with it. We were about to leave on our Disney trip so we decided to just get our earnest money back and see what else was out there after our vacation.

When we got back we went out with our realtor to see a few houses. None of them really jumped out at us. There was one that I had looked at online that I had fallen in love with but it was above our price range so we didn't bother going to look at it. I kept it as a "favorite" though because I loved it so much.

We went to look at some more new builds by a different builder than before and really liked what we saw. Dave and I each had a favorite house that were completely different from each other. We each made a pros and cons list about each of the houses to try and decide which one would be best for us.

In the meantime, the house that was out of our price range had been coming down in price pretty fast, but was still too much for us. I sent Dave a link to it and joked that maybe they'd accept $20,000 less than they were asking. He laughed.

We got an offer on our house for what we were asking for it and we still hadn't decided on a new house yet. I was getting nervous!! Around that same time Dave's Papaw passed away and the four of us were flying out to Virginia for his funeral. While we were there we decided to make an offer on one of the new builds that we had been looking at when we got back home. We had finally decided the one Dave liked best would be a better fit. While we were in Virginia I noticed that the house that used to be above our price range had come down to what we were going to pay for the new build... in our price range! I asked Dave if we could go see it the day we got back to Utah. He was like why? We're making an offer on another house tomorrow. I explained that I had been looking at this house online for awhile and now that it was in our price range I wanted to see it. He agreed.

We learned the reason the price on the house was dropping so fast was because the family was relocating to California and needed to sell fast because they were already under contract on a home there. Awesome! Dave and I both fell in love while we were walking through it. He had commented on how much he liked it and I said "I know what you're going to say, though, we can pay the same price and get a brand new home" (the one we were walking through was 7 years old). And he surprised me by saying "Actually, I think I like this one a lot better than any new ones we've looked at!" So we decided to make an offer! And that's how we got our true dream home!!! It's seriously perfect for us! :) :) We've lived here for two months and still can't believe it's ours! We've met a few of our neighbors and even went to a town hall meeting the other night, everyone we have met has been so NICE! We've even gotten treats and party invites from 4 or 5 neighbors already. Our old neighborhood was nowhere near this neighborly!

Anyway, I'll take you on a little tour. We still need to paint, buy some drapes, furniture, and do some more decorating (wow, that sounds like a lot... we're in no hurry to do it though. Our old house was just over 1900 square feet and our new one is just over 5300 square feet!!! So it's going to take a little while to fill it) but we LOVE it!!! We've already a few get togethers/parties since we've lived here and they've been awesome! We love having people over!!!

We'll start at the front door. If you're facing the front door, this is what you'd see.

When you're walking in the front door, this is what you'd see.

The living room/play room is to the immediate left and the coat closet (with all the Christmas cards hanging on it) is also to the left. Straight ahead is the family room and the formal dining room is to the right.

Here's the "green room" also known as the living room/playroom. And a room that we eventually want to paint!

(The color in this first pic is off a bit, it's really not that bad!)

Across from the playroom is the formal dining room... This room is also off the kitchen. And it's another room that we'd eventually like to paint!

We'll head into the kitchen next.

 

The door in between the fridge and ovens is a nice sized walk-in pantry. I LOVE a big pantry (and double ovens!)

 Another thing that I love in the huge island!!! In our old house we'd have to set up folding tables when we had people over to lay out all the food but not anymore!!!

You can see the door to the laundry room in the photo above. We'll head there in a minute.

To the very left in the picture below you can see a tiny piece of the door that leads to the garage. Next to that (across from the laundry room) is a half bath. Then the little hallway that leads into the formal dining room. The door that leads to the basement is to the right in that little hallway. And then to the right you can see the family room.

Here's the half bath.

As far as half baths go, it's pretty big thanks to it's funky shape. You can kind of see what I'm talking about in this picture a little better. I should have taken a step or two backward so you could see the size better. Oh well! lol

Across from the bathroom is the laundry room. Nothing special here but I figured I'd include it in the tour. ;) I do like that it has a window!

Here's the little hallway with the door that leads to the basement.

I didn't take any pictures of the basement. There is one finished room down there but we don't really use it yet besides when my nieces come over and the kids go down there to run around.

Next up is the family room! The wall above the fireplace used to be RED but we didn't like it at all!! Dave got it painted pretty quickly after we moved in. :) :)

Next to the family room is the master bedroom. This picture gives you an idea on where it is...

We're going to paint the yellow wall grey to match the rest of the walls soon. I don't like the yellow at all!!!

That half window above our bed is AWESOME! We can see the stars out of it when we're laying in bed at night. I'm excited to watch our first lightning storm out of that window!

Our room needs some new decor asap! All of our bedrooms before this one have been super small so our wedding picture and the TV pretty much took up all of the wall space. Yeah...not anymore! (And that yellow has to go!!!)

This space came in really handy when we were wrapping Christmas presents!!! We didn't want to wrap them in the family room because we were worried the kids would get out of bed while we were wrapping and see everything from the top of the stairs!

Here's the master bath.

 

Straight back is our closet and the door next to the sinks is where the toilet is.

The kids love how deep the tub is (and so do I!)

 

Here's our closet. It's a little messy right now because we have all of the kid's Christmas presents hiding in there! They're mostly on the top shelf above all of our clothes.

Can you tell which shelves are mine and which ones are Dave's? ;)

Now we'll head upstairs!

I love this "landing" area up here. It feels so open instead of having a narrow hallway.

The first door on the left in the picture above is the kid's bathroom. Next to that is Dawson's room. Straight across from Dawson's room is Ashlynn's room.

In the picture below you can see Ashlynn's room to the left, down the stairs next to her room is the school room and the door to the right is a linen closet.

And another view from the landing area. You can see the linen closet again and the guest bedroom and the stairs that go down to the main level.

Here's a view of the main level from here. I love it.

Anyway! We'll go into the guest bedroom first.... err... the future guest bedroom!

Right now it's just used as a nap room for my daycare kids! The door that you see in this next picture goes into the guest bathroom

 It's got a big walk in closet

And a bathroom!

 As soon as someone tells us they're coming to visit we'll get a bed in there! We threw away our old guest bedroom mattress because it was over 20 years old and in pretty bad shape!

Here's the linen/storage-for-whatever closet. :)

And next to that is the school room...

The school room is definitely one of my favorite rooms in the house! Except, it's freezing in there sometimes because it's right above the garage. That's why Dawson's robe is in there. I think we need to invest in a small space heater. Brrrr. And I still want to decorate it a little more with what we're learning. :) :) 

 Ashlynn's room is next.

She's got a walk-in closet that is kind of like a bonus playroom for her!

And Dawson's room is straight across from hers...

Dawson's room...

He doesn't have a walk-in closet but he's got plenty of space in there!

And lastly, the kid's bathroom. I still don't know what I want to do in here yet.

They've got a linen closet in their bathroom, too. I put the beach towels and mostly cleaning stuff in there. They take baths in my tub so their towels are kept downstairs with ours!

Phew! That was a lot of pictures!!! I don't think I have any pictures of the backyard but we've got a big playset for the kids, there's even a drinking fountain out there in case they get thirsty! And on the other side of the yard is a nice sized garden... Dave and I are going to have to figure out how to use it. lol I'd like to grow our own veggies but neither of us really know much about gardening, we'll have to learn as we go, I guess!