The One

Yesterday Aaron and I went out for the 3rd time with our realtor to walk thru our top 4 one more time. We had them in order of our favorite. It was funny because we were in disagreement on our 3rd and 4th place picks. The more I tried to defend my house for 3rd the more I realized how much I liked it.

We decided that we would be happy in any of the 4. They each had a lot to offer and they each had something that was just not quite to our liking. After the walk thru was over we were able to eliminate 2 of them. Suprisingly it was not our bottom two. Our number one turned out to be the one I was fighting so hard for.

Every time I walked this house it just felt so warm and cozy. The living area has a nice view from it's big open windows. The wood floors are in great shape. The fireplace has nice big stones framing it. I love, love, love the kitchen. The countertops and back spalsh are not Aaron's beloved granite but are of stone tile. There is an island in the middle of the kitchen that I can totally see the boys having their breakfast at. The cabinetry is very nice and has built in shelves for your cookbooks and pretty dishes to display. It has a sliver of wall painted with chalkboard paint. (Something I've always wanted to put in my kitchen!) Off of the kitchen are french doors that take you out on to a flagstone patio.

The basement is large and also has a big stone fireplace. It has a very ski lodge feel down there. There is also a deck off of the basement, a bar, a bedroom, a very cute bathroom with wainscoting, and a mud room with scads of storage for boots and hooks for coats. A bummer: the laundry room is down in the basement. I will be getting my excercise to be sure! Also the laundry room is ugly. Green lanolium floors and floral wallpaper. But it's the laundry room so...no biggie and they are easy fixes if desired.

The bedrooms are a little smaller then our present ones but with the additional room in the basement, that is quite fine. The bathroom upstairs is small but very nicely updated with slate tile on the countertop and in the shower. Here is the big Ug-Oh about this house: this bathroom is the only main floor bathroom. i.e. it is also the master bath. Aaron really is not thrilled about this but again, I reminded, that when vacationing it's no big deal. When you stay at a hotel the whole room shares one bathroom. So, I think we can work around it in our daily routine. The property is very pretty and we love the views!

We met a neighbor who says the hood is very nice and friendly. She lives next to the horse property. Maybe we will get to ride... The road up is paved but the private drive up to the house is dirt. The neighbor said that the county maintains the roads even our dirt road up to the driveway. She said their roads are usually better served then Denver's because they just don't have enough trucks down there to clear the snow off all of the roads. So, we are not too worried about getting snowed in. Though she did say that the roads are sometimes not plowed until around 9or 10 in the a.m. That's fine too. Everyone can just head out a little late those days.

There are two grocery stores near by. The Safeway is about 8 minutes away. We drove by it and it's a really nice shopping center. I was so suprised to see a Safeway because there has not been one in Texas in over 10 years! The other grocery is called....something odd like Soopers or something and it's about 15 minutes away. So we won't be too far away from civilization. Aaron will have about a 35 minute commute into Denver and we will be about an hour and 20 minutes from skiing. The long drive is due to all the winding mountain roads so the trek is beautiful!!

We put our offer in today and now we are just praying that they accept and that some how the inspection and appraisal go smoothly and quickly. The realtor said to expect it all to take 4 weeks to close. This would mean we would move in the first week of August. I'm disappointed by that because school starts August 23 and I was really hoping we could be here for a time to acclimate the kids and I before school starts. A bulk of that time will be spent unpacking instead of getting to know the area and neighbors....poop. We'll see how it all goes. God's timing is always perfect.

Aaron was upset that he forgot his spreadsheet for our final walk thru. So I told him, "Baby, when buying a home it's ok to let yourself make an emotional decision. I understand that practical needs will need to be met but a home can be purchased with the heart. After all "'home is where the heart is.'"