Thursday, April 14, 2011

It's True What They Say

Foreword: I wrote this over a month ago, but now that it's official I am finally posting it. What's official, you ask? Well keep reading to find out. 

I'm not really sure who 'they' is except for that I've heard this saying from many, many people.
 "You'll know when it's the one." 
That particular sentence you've probably heard pertaining to a few different topics. I know I have. I got it with pertaining to knowing who you are meant to marry, which wedding dress is the one for you, and also just recently when it comes to finding the house you are meant to call a home. 

And I am here to attest that with all three scenarios that phrase rings true! First time that sentence proved true was when I knew about two weeks into dating Matt that he was 'the one' for me. I don't think you could even call us officially dating at that point. We had met at his cousin Christine's birthday dinner, where she strategically had us sit next to each other and then after he flew back to his home of California we continued talking on the phone every waking minute afterwards.  I remember sitting on my bed in the Provo townhouse I shared with 4 other girls, and as I was talking to Matt on the phone for the upteenth time I just knew without a doubt, that we were going to eventually be married. We hadn't even told each other we loved each other yet, but still I knew he was the ONE. 

Fast forward six months later. I was living in California, had a ring on my finger and was searching for the perfect wedding dress. I looked and I looked. Tried on dozens and though I liked some of them, none felt right when I had them on. Then on a whim I went with my mom to a Davids Bridal in California while she was in town visiting.  I wasn't extremely particular about the kind of dress I wanted. I was obviously thinking white in color, but was dead set against strapless or poofy. Don't ask me why, I don't even know. My mom pulled a champagne colored dress off the rack and insisted I try it on. It was not white, was strapless, and definitely was poofaliscious. I remember I slipped into it (with the help of the sales clerk since that much material was a whole lot heavier than I had anticipated) and walked out to stand in front of their three-way mirror.  As soon as I saw my reflection, I instantly knew this dress was the ONE.  Who would have thought that champagne colored and strapless and poofy would win me over?! No wonder I hadn't found my dress since I'd been refusing all along to try out a dress with that criteria! Once again, "You'll know when it's the one" was a winning statement. 

Now let's skip a few chapters over to us living in Idaho with our 18 month old son and looking to buy a house to call home. We had been looking for about two months. During that time, we had found a house we liked and put in an offer. We were hopeful, but since it was a short sale it looked like it could take for-ev-er so we kept looking. We saw some good ones, we saw some really bad ones, and we some potentials. Here's a description of some of the houses we encountered along the way:

One house that we walked into reeked of smoke! I was practically gagging after stepping in the door. Ever since living next to heavy smokers when I was pregnant and having the smell seep through the outlets in our apartment and into my extremely sensitive pregnant sniffer making me beeline for the bathroom to upchuck, yea I've had zero tolerance for smell of cigarettes ever since. To make it even more awkward, the people were home. You'd think they would want to vacate the premises while people are walking through, inspecting their home. You can't really say anything like "I really hate this small kitchen" when the current homeowners are standing four feet behind you. Needless to say, the overpowering cigarette stench was a deal breaker anyway.

Another  house was really cute. We liked the lay out. It had 4 bedrooms, a park nearby, and some other perks like the low price. But while we liked the price, it still had some downfalls like the master bedroom was on the main floor. Not my idea of fun to be running upstairs a few times a night to care for a screaming baby and since more babies are in our future that could pose a problem. Also it was facing east/west which means lots and lots of sunlight in the morning and evening. Not that we are vampires and physically can't tolerate sunlight, but still I would rather not have it radiating through the window and into our eyeballs as we eat dinner at the kitchen table in the evening.

There were always pros and cons to every house we liked, that is until we found this one which was all pros. It was in the town we had been wanting to move to. In the exact neighborhood we'd had our eye on for quite some time and had driven through countless times before. The neighborhood had a community pool and an elementary school within walking distance from the house. It had 4 bedrooms meaning 1 for us, 1 for Sawyer, 1 for an office and 1 for a playroom/guestroom/future child's room and 2 and half baths. It had the laundry room upstairs which meant no walking up and down the stairs with a basket full of dirty socks and undies falling out along the way. It had a neighborhood park right across the street from it. It was on a corner lot with only one neighbor to the side and no neighbors behind it (yet). We loved it. We wanted it. We made an offer on it. We put in our best and highest offer since more than a few other people felt the same way about it. After a long month of waiting and waiting and waiting, we got the keys today!!

 It was the ONE
and
now
it's ours!!


We are all coming off of a week long horrible, horrible cold so this picture doesn't accurately portray how extremely excited we really are. After picking up the keys we went to Cold Stone to celebrate. Sawyer wasn't quite sure why the heck we were fooling around with taking a photo when there was a delicious bowl of chocolate ice-cream begging to be eaten only a few feet away from him, hence the look of disdain he has on his face. I'm sure deep down he is just as excited as we are. After all, now he has a whole new set of doors to slam, stairs to slide down, and three toilet bowls to flush and watch the water go down the hole.

7 comments:

kwriter said...

Our God is so gracious and caring, even to the point of finding the one house that can be your home. Ephesians 3:20,21

endlessglowbyjessica said...

YAY!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for you! Poor little Sawyer just doesn't know what fun lies ahead!! Congrats and I can't wait to come home and see it! :)

Unknown said...

Congrats on the new house! I can't wait to see pictures! Hope all are doing well with their colds.

Victoria said...

Congratulations, again! I can't wait to see pictures :).

J. Benson said...

congrats! home ownership is great. lots of work sometimes, but great. i'm in my second owned home. its great you got everything you wanted.

HowellAZ said...

Great news! I'm so glad you really felt that this was the house for you. There's nothing like that assurance to make a big decision like buying a house go more smoothly. I don't think we had that feeling about our house, and maybe things would have turned out differently for us if we had. Ha ha, only kidding, we had a great first 6 years of marriage there. I hope you are able to go in and make the house your home. I can't wait to see it. I wish I were around to get a house warming party going. You'll have to leave that party planning bit to Bryson. :)

rachel garber said...

A house!? You are so grown up! Congrats!! Can't wait to see how you decorate it - you know you have to show us! (mostly so I can steal ideas) :)