Our New Home

(disclaimer:  I typed this up back on December 22, but didn't get it posted since we were without Internet for several weeks during the move.  so read it as if it were typed Dec. 22!)

We have exciting news!  We are moving! 

We are moving from Alcoa to Maryville.  Our new house is only about 15 minutes away from where we are living now!  

In January it will be THREE YEARS since we moved to Tennessee.  The past three years have gone by SO fast!  When we moved up here we still owned our house in Alabama, and thankfully we ended up finding great renters to live in it! BUT we knew we did not want to own two houses in two different states, so we have been renting since early 2012.  The house we have been renting, definitely feels like home since we have gone from a family of three here to a family of five in this house.  When we moved in I was pregnant with Carter, and so we got to bring two babies-Carter and Nora Kate-home to this house from the hospital.  The layout of the house was perfect when John was working nights and sleeping days because the playroom is on the opposite end of the house from the master bedroom!  This house was equally convenient to our family and church in Maryville as it was to John's job in Turkey Creek.  Now that John's working in Vonore though, there's no reason to be on this end of town.  Since March when we sold our Alabama house we have just been keeping our eyes open, but not necessarily actively looking for a house.  After John got his new job in October and we knew we were much more permanently in Tennessee, he started looking around and discussing the possibilities of moving a lot more seriously.  

THEN at the beginning of November we found a house in Maryville that would cut about 10 minutes off his drive to work, be closer to church and our family, and was in a school district we liked.  We also really wanted 4 bedrooms plus an additional room that could be used as a playroom and to be in a neighborhood.  We had a much longer list that this, but these were three of our "big" wants.  The house in Maryville met all of these qualifications, and it was in an area we really liked.  We looked at it the first time in early November.  Dawson immediately talked about how he loved it because "it's a house of living rooms and it has stairs!"  Silly boy!  The house was empty so I think all the rooms-dining room, living room, family room, and sunroom seemed like living rooms to him--hah!!  When we were looking at the house the first time it was hard to see past ALLLLL the blue flower wallpaper and border EVERWHERE!  

We went home and started thinking about how we liked the layout and would be willing to update the house ourselves to make it ours.  We decided it would be fun!  We decided to take John's dad back to see the house to get his opinion just to make sure we weren't getting in over our heads with all of the updates it needed/we wanted to make.  He liked it.  Over the next few days we took my parents and John's parents to see the house.  We were getting more excited about it-cautiously excited though!  We decided to put an offer in on it.  At this point a lot of things seemed to fall in place with the house.  We decided that if we hit any major hiccups and it didn't work out that we just weren't meant to have a house that we were going to have to put some work into updating and making our own.  Well, everything fell into place!

On November 14, we signed the contract with a closing date set of December 19.  So on Friday, December 19-the house was ours!  We signed the papers, got the keys, snapped a quick picture in the front yard, went through the house to take  "before" shots of each and every room so we could remember our progress.  

We packaged up Christmas cookies that Dawson had helped make and delivered them to our new neighbors so we could meet them-they all seem very nice!  Then we started ripping up linoleum and attempting to steam off wallpaper.  Whew!  It was a very busy busy weekend, and I think we are all still recovering from working all weekend on the house.  We are going to get as much done this week as we can, since we are moving in next weekend!!!!  We are trying to get big things done this week-wallpaper removed, linoleum ripped up and new flooring put down, walls painted, add shelving to a pantry with no shelves, install overhead lighting where there is none.  Hopefully we get get most all of this done before next weekend when we move.  There will be other renovations/updates we do after we move in and really over the next couple of years.  We LOVE the idea that we get to update this house and make it our own!!!  

Big changes like this are always exciting, and we cannot wait to move in!

                                            Our new home!!