11-13 April 2014
A month ago we spent a weekend in Bloomington Normal to house hunt. I can't help but think of the whole experience like courtship. Back in October we started "online dating." I think I looked at EVERY possible listing that was in our price range. A few weeks prior to our trip I skyped with Em and asked her to help me narrow down my favorites list. Her brutal and humorous honesty was just what I needed. At that point she starred one house in particular. I should have known that would end up being the one we picked. Em has good taste and foresight like that :0) A week before our real estate tour we narrowed our search to about 15 houses. Friday morning we headed out for Normal. We checked into the
Chateau (thanks ISU) and excitedly told Brie that we'd be staying in a "Castle". She was of course thrilled :0)
Brie & Alex spent the afternoon and evening with Mr. & Mrs. Chickenwing (the Ringers :0)) while Em, Lij, Bry and I went out with our Realtor, Lana Miller. We looked at 6 houses.
This one on Wine Way was our favorite of the day. We generally really liked it (the laundry room was AMAZING), but the master bedroom was pretty small, the closet was tiny and the basement was a little odd. We were afraid that those things might make it hard to resell.
Em was wonderful to help with Lij! And he was a good sport to be dragged from house to house.
For dinner we went to Meatheads. It's a fun local restaurant.
The college kids at the neighboring table couldn't get enough of Lij. It was cute and he loved the attention! That probably won't be the end of the attention for the kiddos, especially in a college town.
We went to pick up the kids from the Ringers and it was obvious that they had hit it off. There was some connection with chicken wings from dinner and Brie was affectionately calling Brother Ringer Mr. Chickenwing. I think she's found a new friend :0)
One of the homes had a CARS collection. (Lana told us that State Farm was a sponsor of the movie.)
Friday night Em and I went out and drove by each of the houses. We wanted to check out the noise, activity, safety, etc. But the vans brakes were squealing and the windows were squeaky so I think we were the ones making the most noise everywhere we went ;0)
Unfortunately Alex was sick that night with a fever. It was a long night!
Saturday morning the Ames watched all three kids (bless them!) while we went out to see the remaining houses. When we walked into the house on North Pointe, it was pretty obvious that it was the one! Most of the other houses looked better online. This one looked better in person, was so well kept, move-in ready, had a finished basement with a guest bedroom and full bathroom (for guests...yay!), a fenced backyard, 4th room for a craft room/office :0), and a BIG master closet! Not to mention that it's in a great neighborhood (and turns out it's nicknamed by church members, "Mormon corner"), two streets away from a great elementary school and minutes away from shopping. I think the only thing was that it was a walk through laundry room with no utility sink. But NO BIG DEAL and NO complaints!!!
I don't know why, but the family room was my favorite, dark blue paint and all!
We drove to two more houses, but were giddy about North Pointe! Here's a picture of Bry at the last house we saw...smiling about the OTHER house :0)
Me & Schmemmers. It was so fun (and helpful!) having her along!!
Walking into the living room of the last house sealed the deal. We told Lana that we wanted to do a second walk through of the house. She went to the office to get paper work going and we sat down for lunch. We couldn't believe that we'd found the one! The whole house hunting had been so much easier than we'd anticipated and had gone so smoothly. We felt so blessed!
After lunch we drove back over to the house for a second walk through. It was exhilarating pulling up and thinking of this as being our new home :0)
The sellers agreed to leave the chandelier. Brie's SUPER excited!
Guest room (Hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod :0))
Thanks to my Dad negotiating a few things, the sellers are leaving the TV and sound system. Bring on the movie parties!
Oh blessed fully-fenced backyard with the play set that stays.
The one thing we wished we would have done differently was taking more time. Lana was pressed for time so we ran through it and kind of rushed through the paper work.
Thankfully Dad called and talked Bry through a few things as we were signing papers for the offer.
No more than 2 hours later, after a few calls and texts back and forth with Lana, our counter offer was accepted!! We were beyond grateful and thrilled! We went swimming at the hotel with the kiddos and were practically floating on cloud nine :0)
That night we went to
Chicago Style Pizzeria for dinner. Brie and I got the pizza buffet, Em got a gluten-free pizza and Bry got a Chicago style pizza.
Afterwards we drove past ISU to show Em where Bry would be teaching!
Before heading in for the night, Em and I made our first trip to Target. We had to snap a picture because it is undoubtedly the first of many Target runs that we will make together :0)
Sunday morning we got packed up and ready and drove to Peoria for Stake Conference. Since Lij and Alex were still seeming sick, Em was so sweet to drive them around in the rain while Brie, Bry & I attended the last hour of conference. It was fun to be there with these brothers and sisters that we will come to know and love!
Other than Alex getting sick (poor kid!), it was a wonderful and fun trip and we feel extremely grateful to have found the house we did. We truly feel like the Lord's hand has been in the process and that He continues to be with us as things fall into place.
