New House Adventures!

Finally, the house situation is all coming together, barring any extreme or bizarre scenarios!

I know you've all been curious, and I've shared photos here and there with some of you, but today I will finally give you a bunch of the juicy details about our new place. We get keys on Monday and will spend some time painting, cleaning carpets, and moving over all the stuff we just moved to our current rental this past August. I know, what a pain! But, the prospect of the new place is making the packing less dreadful than I expected.

The house is in Tigard, near Washington Square Mall, which we will be trying NOT to frequent as we recoup our savings this next year ;) We'll be near the Fanno Creek Trail, same distance from our CC community, same travel time to church, and closer to some of my dear Beaverton and Tigard friends. While the neighborhood is not exactly what we envisioned, it's still really nice, and we trust that God has specific plans for putting us there.

I know, I know, you want to see pictures... here are just a few!

This formal dining area will be our homeschool room - it's SO much bigger than the space we are using now! I cannot wait to line the wall behind this with bookshelves and books.

Not fabulous colors, that's for sure, but the space here is great! I'll have two pantries (not shown here) and plenty of room for people to be in the kitchen without bumping into each other.

This is our upstairs bonus area that will double as a guest room. We'll eventually put up removable curtains that hang from hooks in the ceiling to help aid in privacy and such. But what I am really looking forward to is sending the kids up here to watch TV instead of trying to read in the same room as them while their silly shows or games run in the background. 

Amazing, right? That's fake grass, by the way. Yes. We are fake grass people. I'm a little ashamed, but  a lot excited ;)

And now, maybe the best part - the covered patio. Oh yeah, and the pool! I plan to sit here, looking at this view a lot this summer. I'm also really excited to finally get my kiddos swimming regularly and have a great way to do a low-impact workout during the hot months. 

There are lots of other rooms with that lovely yellow color from the kitchen, mostly all the bathrooms and Mark's office, so a paint job is definitely in order. All the rooms are a good size except for Jovi's, but she'll just have to survive. We won't have a soaking tub in the master, but there is a giant empty space where one should be, so eventually we will have a small remodel going on in there, maybe next year.

So what do you think? We were not looking for a pool, and rarely even looked at homes with a pool, even choosing not to look at some that had a pool and no yard, but this house just grew on us. With homeschooling, having a mud-free zone for the boys will be a life-saver! And with all the rain we get in Oregon, the covered patio will be super nice as well. I'm already planning on doing a lot of reading there - both out loud to the kids and on my own.

I hope many of you local friends will invite yourself over in March and beyond! We really want to make this place a lovely oasis, filled with life-giving fellowship. You can pray for our stress levels, our stamina, and our ability to love well despite feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. We are already feeling relieved about finding a place to settle in for a while (we are aiming for 3-5 years - baby steps) but there is definitely a lot that needs to be done.

Thanks for checking in with me and asking me about the house over and over. After the crazy summer we had, it is so good to finally be able to purchase this place. It only took seven offers! Ha! I will keep you updated via Instagram and hop back over here during the next week or two. I can't wait to get settled and fill you in on all my plans for this little blog of mine. I hope you're ready for an amazing 2017!