Escrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did it, we are in escrow! This is the stage of the home buying process that we have been longing for but until now have never been able to acheive. We are so happy with our first little house. It is a bit retro 70's because it had old people living in it, but they took extremely good care of it and left behind all of the appliances. Washer and dryer here I come! The house is 1400 sq ft, 2 bed 2 bath, so it has a ton of living space. We have plans for a 3rd bedroom soon and eventually we hope to add on a new master suite turning the old one into a family room. So we are excited.

One of the first things we plan on doing after we move in is to replace the old fiber glass garage door with a new modern white one. During the day the garage is always lit up because the sun shines through the door creating a warm glow. At night when the garage light is on the house looks like a jack-o-lantern with the light glowing through the garage door. We will work on painting the brown eaves and trim white to better compliment the pale yellow siding. As it is the house colors remind me of a very ripe banana.

The yard has a lot of mature trees and landscaping which is great. Mostly we just have to work on removing some not so kid friendly pear cactus in the front yard, trim back some of the overly mature bushes, and haul out rock to make room for some lovely grass. And prep and enlarge an existing garden spot. And probably install a drip and sprinkler system. We are going to be busy.This is the kitchen. It is a bit out dated as well, but we'll do our best to spruce up the cabinets for now. I love that it is open and roomy and the appliances are fairly new and really clean. The dining area is nice and big too, but it has carpet. Luckily we are not partial to the carpet and plan on replacing it some time too. In the mean time I will not be too worried about the food that Nathan might spill. He does really good about not being a messy eater, I have worked hard to teach him table manners and for a little guy he does great.
This is the living room and it is big. Here you can get a better look at the carpet. It is quite clean and not too worn out, but it is not attractive. However I can live with it and it will be a daily reminder that I need to work hard on our budget to save our money so that I can replace it sooner rather than later. You can't really see it in any pictures but the house has popcorn ceilings in the bedrooms and living areas. My little sister Aubrey likes the ceilings because the popcorn has gold flecks mixed in, quite retro feeling. At night the ceiling sparkles from the lights and Aubrey thinks it is awesome. That is one thing we are taking care of before we move in, sorry Aubrey. Curtis and I will remove it and then hire someone to retexture it. There is also an empty brick pad where a wood stove once resided. So that will be a fun project to tear that out, but for now Nathan uses it like a stage.
Not only will I have washer and dryer connections with a washer and dryer but I have a laundry room with lots of potential. There is even a space to add a utility sink! And room for cupboards/shelfs. It is going to be great.
These are pictures of the hall bathroom, also in need of updating although it is clean and in in good shape. When we move in we are replacing all the light fixtures, Curtis can't even stand them. But I have to admit that the lenoleum in this bathroom is growing on me. The little old lady that lived here loved pink and gold.
This is the 2nd bedroom. I told Aubrey she can use these curtains to make a fun pioneer dress to add to her dress up collection.

Here is the master bedroom with its wonderful curtains and the master bath. The walk-in closet is huge, literally a small room, so it will double as the food storage room.

This is the arizona room off the dining room.

This is the back patio with a built on storage room.

It was dark outside when I took these pictures of the backyard so you can't really see it but it is flat and good sized. Our lot is a quarter acre and we have good sized side yards too.

We have had our inspection and every thing looked good. We do have a small leak under the kitchen sink but we know a good plumber. We get more excited every time we look at our little house. It is in a great neighborhood. We were out in the yard one afternoon around 4pm and there were a lot of kids out playing in their yards and riding their bikes and it just felt like a great place to raise our family. We our one block from a nice big park and the best part is we are right across the street from the chapel. We can see it from our front yard. We feel super blessed to have this home. We are glad we waited.