A Place to Hang Our Hats

Last week I went on a hunt.  I was in search of a place to hang our hats.  Visions of driving around in my rental car for three days, making calls and trying to find a decent place to live had swirled around my head.  There was something daunting about being solely responsible for finding our new home.  Once I made it past a VERY long day of travel  (Think delays, busy baby that was NOT going down on the airport/airplane floors, and lack of food all on two hours of sleep), we found ourselves taking off from the airport to our hotel.  

Nothing could have prepared me for that hotel.  The door would barely unlock due to the fact that the doorknob seemed as though it was about to transform into a floorknob, the room stunk badly, there was visible dirt around the room and it only got worse from there.  I STILL couldn't bring myself to put Naomi down and needed a shower.  So, I settled on holding her while I attempted to clean off.  After tiptoeing across the bathroom floor, with all it's treasures (stray body hairs, toenails and dirt) I went to turn on the water and the nozzle almost came off the wall.  The bed was highly questionable (had these sheets even been washed??) and the pipes screamed every time a neighbor used water.  Fun, fun!  Needless to say, we checked out first thing in the morning.  I did my make-up in the car, as I just couldn't stay another minute.  

I had one house lined up to look at that day and a handful more to call about.  Well, my list got narrowed down to one quite quickly as I found that a lot of people forget to take their listing down when a lease is pending.  I crossed my fingers that this was going to be a good one and after a quick visit with my friend, Katie and her adORable three month old, Hadley, I set off to see the house.

I walked in the front door and said, "I'm home."  Seriously, I was done!  It was perfect! After looking around, my sentiment hadn't shifted at all.  I was ready to kick back and enjoy the next three days.  I had already found the house!  It seemed way too easy!  For good measure, I headed on base to check out the base housing, which felt a bit like a first apartment, but a townhouse.  That wasn't going to work.  I drove around some neighborhoods with listings that I'd seen and quickly checked those off my list.  Funny how a house can look great in a photo, then look awful when you see what's around it.  After several phone calls to Dustin, I convinced him that this was it and he called to discuss the details with the homeowner.

We need to sell or have a lease on our current home before we buy, which means that we need to rent for at least the first six months.  We'd like to buy after that, so a rent to buy situation is what we were crossing our fingers we'd find.  Who wants to do a self-imposed move mid-tour when you know another move is just around the corner anyway???  Well, what do you know?!  This house is our for rent and ours to buy when we're able!!!!  Talk about perfect!  I feel like we hit the jackpot with this home and feel so much calmer about this move now that I know we won't be shacked up in a motel looking for houses upon arrival.  The added bonus with this house is that the owners are very nice people, the neighbors are apparently also great, and it's just a few short miles to my friend's house, as well as most of the shopping I'll need to do!  It's literally the exact house I'd been hoping for!

It is in an area of new construction, so there are a lot of empty lots right now.  It is three bedrooms and two bathrooms, all on one 1650 sq ft floor.  No more stairs!  Can I get an "AMEN!"?  There is a screened in back porch made custom by the homeowner, the yard is fenced in and the grass is freshly sodded.  It has really high ceilings (12 ft around most of the house, and even higher in the entry/living room area), which added to an already open floor plan, make for a very airy and spacious feeling in the home!  A tile floor is perfect for the abuse a few crazy kiddos can inflict and will help cool things off during the hot summer months. A two car garage is something I really look forward to and the jetted garden tub is the cherry on top!  

Thanks to life falling strangely into place so quickly, I got to spend most of my time catching up with my friends, Katie and Doug, who graciously let me stay in their home for the remainder of my time there.  I met lots of their wonderful friends, all pregnant or with little ones, which was really fun, ate lots of delicious food (seriously, Texas has some seriously good eats!) and fell in love with their daughter, Hadley.  Saturday morning came and it was time to go.  I was a little sad, but couldn't wait to get back to Lawson, who'd been having a ball with grandma and grandpa all to himself!  I headed out on an early plane to Washington as the sun rose on a new day and chapter in our lives.  Texas, it's going to be a good, good time!