Saying Goodbye to the Little Red-Brick House

I was so stressed out all during the month of December, I couldn't wait for the usually very calm month of January to arrive. Well, January was anything but calm! Hence my latest disappearance from the blogosphere. Anticipating the completion of our new home this spring, we listed our home in Provo for sale by owner starting in the summer, so we would have plenty of time to get it sold at a time when the real estate market is shaky. We almost had a sale a couple of times, but neither time worked out and we kind of took a break trying to sell for awhile. We decided to relist the house in December and we had a certain young married man inquire about the home right before Christmas. He was very enthusiastic about it from the get go. He decided to go for it, and so began the process of working toward actually closing the sale...again. He was very difficult to work with in that he was extremely slow to contact us and let us know the status of things, and we could never get ahold of him either. But at the same time, every time we did speak he kept insisting we close extremely quickly. In the usual week-long periods during which he wouldn't contact us, we would always convince ourselves he was going to back out. To make a long story short, after a whole month of this kid driving us nuts, he finally came through and we closed on the sale of our home last Thursday, January 31st. And so ended the very stressful month of January!

I will miss our little "love cottage," as I always called it...we lived there almost three years and we have many wonderful memories there. I will always cherish that house because it was Thomas' first home, because Ryan planted me beautiful rose bushes, because we lived next to the Provo River and a beautiful green, tree-filled park, and of course because of all the wonderful friends we made while we lived there. I hope that house stands for many more years so we can drive by and show it to our children someday!

Even though I have felt very sentimental about saying goodbye to our little red-brick house, it feels soooo good for that period of wondering and waiting to finally be over! We are so glad our home is sold and we won't have to worry about any mortgage overlap when we finish our new house in Saratoga Springs. We were very happy with the appreciation on the house and the profit from the sale, especially because of all the time and money we put into remodeling it back in 2005...it was great that all the hard work paid off! Now we are looking forward to putting all our energy into the new house. It won't be finished for another month or two, so we spent the last couple of weeks packing, putting a lot of our things in storage and moving temporarily into the basement apartment of my parent's home in Spanish Fork, Utah, about 15 minutes South of Provo. Its hard to be in such a period of limbo, knowing we're going to have to up and move again so soon, but we are grateful we didn't have to worry about finding an apartment or having to sign a contract. My parents' basement is very nice, new and spacious and has its own kitchen and everything, and we are very grateful for their generosity. Thank you Mom & Dad!

It is a little hard not to have a place that's truly my own for awhile, but I won't have to wait much longer! Our house in Saratoga Springs is totally framed, the roof is on, the windows and insulation are in, the plumbing, electrical, and heating all installed and now comes the drywall. This stage will go quickly since Ryan's own company will be doing it. I am so excited to see my new home continue to take shape! It is beautiful and I am constantly dreaming of the time we will finally get to live there...its all I can do to try and be patient!

Many family members have been asking to see photos, so here they are, finally!