that time we bought a house

oh heyyyy!

it's me. tati. 

life has been C-R-A-Z-Y!

i am teaching with VIPKID & gogokid. both are great. & i am actually not letting myself wake up before 5:30, so my class load has been fairly small. BUT, still! waking up at 5:30 am is kind of crazy. also, as much as a dread waking up so early in the morning, seeing those sweet little faces makes me so happy. it is worth it. it is good to be teacher tati.

i started teaching preschool. WHAT?! i know! it is small - five kids (one of them being mine) for two hours, twice a week. i was super nervous to take it on & told myself a few months ago that this was something i would never do, but it just fell into my lap & i LOVE it. i love these kids. rooney loves having friends come to her house. & teaching in my own "classroom" came back so naturally. i like being miss tati.

i just got released as a counselor in the relief society & am now a counselor in young womens. i really enjoyed my time in relief society & i am so grateful for the year i spent there. but, i am so very excited to give the young women all of my love! it is going to be so much fun.

our lease (that we have extended 5 months) is coming up & i want fort smith to feel like home. i don't want to share a wall with neighbors. i want a backyard. i want a place that i am excited to be in while we are here. i do like fort smith & i want to like my home. so, we started looking at home, just to see if we wanted to buy or rent. we checked to see what we would qualify for & that was sort of a mistake/but also a blessing because then we were getting phone calls & ashton felt like we had to follow through & got all stressed. 

it started on feb 1. with the may house. i absolutely fell in love with its pictures on zillow. that saturday i decided we needed to look at it, but we didn't have a realtor. we eventually met joseph who scheduled a visit for sunday, the third. oh my gosh. i did not sleep saturday night. i had all these plans for the house before we even walked through the doors. but then, we went. it is still the cutest house, but not what we were looking for. my first heartbreak in this home search journey.

we found four other houses we wanted to visit. the first one was pending since that morning. of course. it was the first one ashton was really interested in. the second one had an offer, but was willing to take back ups. we liked that one mostly because its backyard backed up to the yard of friends in our ward. the third one, (urban view) joseph was able to schedule an appointment, but warned us that it did have an escape clause. the fourth one, fern, was one that aston & i both loved the look of & both of us had driven by a few times, but of course, it was under contract. 

so monday, we went & saw urban view. we liked it! it was a good fit for us. there were a few things we knew we were going to need to fix immediately, like put a fence up around the yard, but it was cute. the kitchen was big & bright! all the rooms had light coming into them - the kitchen had the most, which is something our rental really lacked. 

we put an offer on urban view on wednesday (the 6th) morning. because of an escape clause, we had to wait THREE excruciating days to hear back. friday morning, joseph called with the most devastating news. you guys. i sobbed for a good hour.

then i asked joseph about fern, because i saw that on zillow it was listed as for sale again, no longer pending. he told me that the realtor for fern called him the day we put the offer on urban view saying that the previous contract had fallen through & it was available again. he told her that we had just placed on offer on another place & that was that. when he told me, i said something along the lines of, "yes! we want to see it asap!" so he met us there at 10:45. when i got out of the car, he said, "tati, god knows what he is doing. you didn't get urban view, because he knew you needed fern." i get the chills just thinking about that moment. we walked in & it felt like home. it is beautiful. so much better than any of the previous houses we had looked at. & the yard! it is giant & will be so much fun for the kids. we had a contract written up & ashton was able to sign it before going to work at 1:00. AMAZING. he did tell us that the house had 6 more showings over the next few days...

we gave them until saturday (the 9th) at 6:00 to give us an answer. i was so stressed/anxious all day. i couldn't eat. i couldn't drink. i was an absolute wreck. at 5:55, they sent us a counter & let us know that they were expecting another offer so you better know we got on that one quickly!

it wasn't easy. there was a lot of back and forth and attempts at compromise. it was exhausting. emotional. but we knew, we KNEW, this was our house and it was amazing to feel confident in that.

we closed on march 8th. ashton worked until that tuesday, so our moving date was planned for tuesday. ashton just coud not wait, so half of it was moved on Saturday the 9th after ashton got home from work and the rest was moved on monday the 11th after work. the kiesels were the only reason we were able to make it all work. so grateful for them!

then, our fridge was supposed to come on the 12th. of course, it didn't show up until the 16th - half an hour before Rooney's fourth birthday party. it was ridiculous.

but now, we are here! we are settling in & loving it as much as we hoped.

& that is how the house became ours.