Landing - for a time

Traded in the little white house for the little yellow and green one.

The past few weeks have been full of crazy.

It has been a slow process - we had to be out on the 6th of October.
And the family who's home we have moved into weren't completely
out the day we moved in so we all felt a bit on top of each other for awhile.
Luckily we all get along really well - especially the kids, so it is more funny

 than frustrating.

We were grateful for the help of church members the night we moved - we
couldn't have done it without them.

The unpacking has been slow as I injured what I thought was my shoulder moving heavy furniture
so many times in such a short period. It has made typing and writing an talking on the
phone a bit painful so please accept my apologies on not being better at staying in touch.
I saw an Orthopedic Surgeon last week who quickly figured out that the pain in my shoulder was actually my muscles compensating for a crushed disk in my upper back. 

I can't remember ever being in enough pain to nearly pass out -

until that Ortho pressed on my back then gave me a couple of cortisone shots.

Luckily, the home owner of the place we are renting is a Physical Therapist with his main office just up our street (yep, walking distance) and I am doing much better after many days of physical therapy (3 days a week!).  

Otherwise, we are settling in. The 3 boys are sharing a room and a bathroom. Tember has her own room (she will share it when grandma's and friends come to visit) and she shares a bathroom with Tom & I.

The home owner & his dad just finished building an office for Tom in the garage and we are, for the most part, amazed that we can fit in 1600 square feet. The back patio is still full of empty boxes we aren't sure what to do with and there is a small pile of boxes in the living room. Those will be unpacked as I figure out where to put pictures and when we get some book cases.

The house is in need of some paint and a few repairs and there is this little ant problem . . . but we are trying to take it all in stride and are incredible grateful for good renters of our own back in Salt Lake.

Below are a few pics of the home we left behind -
super groovy stove - that also included the ONLY outlet in the kitchen.

 and a totally retro oven - previous owner never used it - she stored newspapers in it (???)

The little too detailed mermaid on the tub/shower door we really don't miss.

along with the strange cabinets in the bathroom

Wednesday

Last week we realized it was time for us to make a decision and get out of this house.

We felt we had really looked at everything and the best option seemed to be the townhouse near the middle school Spencer attends.  We called the property manager and told him we were good to go and he got things going on his end. We offered to come meet him to sign a lease, give him applications, whatever he needed and he kept saying not to worry about it - he would get something to us the following weekend.

The townhouse would be nice. It would be much bigger than what we have now, it would be fine. There's a pool, a fitness center and it's a gated community full of expensive homes and a handfull of townhomes.
There was this funny little nag inside us - no yard, no kids in the community and it is pretty secluded from the rest of the area because it is flanked by busy roads and the water.  Our first few weeks here were so rough because we didn't have friends for the kids to play with yet - but we knew there were kids in this area so we had hung in there and sure enough, they are having so much fun now! Oh well, we will just have to drive them a lot or hope more kids move in over there.

A few days later our realtor (who is also a friend and neighbor) called.  There was this house that belongs to some friends of his that was coming up for rent. His friends had offered to buy another home in their same neighborhood last year and their offer had been turned down. That same home had just been put back up on the market at the price they offered last year and word had been put out that they were hoping this friend of our realtor would offer again.

The house they are buying is gorgeous - and the price was right, but they weren't comfortable making the offer unless their current home was taken care of - rented or sold.  That's where we came in.
We went through the home.
It's not big.
It's not fancy.
It has 3 bedrooms (big ones)
It has 2 Full bathrooms
It has a backyard - complete with trampoline, hammock, skate ramp, swing set & patio.

The kitchen is tiny
There's no office

And our first thought was:


no


Spencer and Tember didn't want to share a room any more.
It is not much bigger than the place we are trying to get out of.

It's in a different ward (different congregation for church)

But it had tons of kids, including their 5 who would still be living in the neighborhood (they are also Mormons).

We offered a prayer before bed with the kids and again before we turned in that night, we decided to stick with the townhouse.

I didn't sleep most of the night. I woke up the next morning with a pit in my stomach.

We had made the wrong choice.

I called Tom at work and asked him if he was sure about the townhouse. 
An hour later he called me back - he had come to the same conclusion I had -
the house was a better option for us. The kids will be happier and we will just have to
find a way to fit.

The owners of the house called us - in the middle of the night the husband had an idea - he could wall off part of the garage to make Tom an office. They have a wall unit to keep it cool and he would have more room than he has right now.

We went back that night and walked through it again.

After we left, September said to Tom - "Dad, I think we are supposed to move there"

We did too.

I slept that night.  So did Tom.

Their offer got accepted in a matter of hours the next morning.

They have been moving out all weekend - into an 800 square foot home owned by her parents until their new home closes.
Their home will go on the market next spring when we put our home in SLC up for sale again.
We can stay as long or as short as we like.
The property manager of the townhouse said we were free to go since he never got us anything to sign.
It is only a few blocks from the water, an amazing park and it is just across the river from the neighborhood we are currently in.
It is full of that funny old house charm.
It is closer to the beach.
They are happy to let us have chickens, a garden and even bees if we like.


It has a dishwasher (not me!)
Central A/C
She is leaving her dryer! (no more laundromat for me!)
and a full sized fridge
and they are leaving the ping pong table until they move into their new home =)


Funny how simple we really are.

We move on Wednesday.

Stay tuned for pictures. . . .