Under offer!!

Our house is fiiiiiinally under offer! Thank goodness. We were all so done with cleaning for home opens and living in a show home. But that's all done! We received a reasonable good offer, then haggled a little, but we are happy enough with their final offer (a little lower than what we wanted, but it will do) and are so ready to move into our new place! Just awaiting our plantation shutters now, but after a call to the company installing them, we found out the are docking at the end of this week (hopefully today actually!) and will be installed in the next few weeks! Hooray! We are all on track and I am so happy.

New house story

Get comfortable and brace yourself for a long story.

About 2 years ago, Doug and I started talking about how we would love to get a bigger house with a decent block, but I didn't reeeeally want to move as I love where we live. As time has gone by and Alex has gotten bigger, it's become apparent that we are outgrowing our little (but lovely!) house with the teeny backyard, even though we have a giant park available across the road.

I love the houses on Kalinga Dr, which is just 700m away from our current house, one street parallel from the kids school and the high school we have them enrolled at. They are big blocks (1050m, which is a quarter acre) which is just unheard of in Ellenbrook these days...  and the problem is getting one of them, as anyone who has one, doesn't want to sell it! I was always eyeing off a certain one, which is next door to Madeline's friend. Her parents would always tell us we needed to buy it so we could be neighbours. The house was actually empty for an extended period of time, as the owners had split - he'd moved out and then she had abandoned the property. We and a few other friends of ours even started referring to the house as "our house" as we kept saying if it ever came up for sale, we would buy it! I even said to Doug a while back, if that house comes up for sale before we have the money, I would be so mad, I really want it! It's exactly where I want to live. 

So, Doug and I actually started looking for a bigger place a while ago. We even made an offer on a house in Ellenbrook. It felt right, we loved the house, we loved the property - the only things I didn't really like was that the kids rooms were still small and where it was. It was all the way over in the Bridges, which is not at all where we wanted to live, but it felt good, so we made an offer. So when offer was rejected, we were actually so surprised! I was like OH. Weird. We felt like it was right, we felt confident in our offer and then, just, nothing.

So, here's me telling my SIL this story while I'm at her house catching up with her... she's like oh that's so strange, it really sounded like it was meant to be! To which I said, yeah who knows, either someone blew our offer out of the water (edited to add, months later - can confirm this is what happened, it went for $85k more than we offered!) or they didn't like the conditions we placed on our offer. I then went on to say that it didn't matter - and that there was obviously something better around the corner for us. 

Not even kidding, 30 seconds later, my phone buzzed, it was the girl next door, telling me she had just seen online that "our house" was actually for sale! What. The. Heck. What are the chances of the actual house we had wanted and waited for, not only being for sale and us being in a position to buy it. What a huge, big, fat, put in our laps, blessing. There is absolutely no denying that.

So. We went to the home open, we talked about it for ages. We prayed about it and of course me being me, kept freaking out about it. Then Doug (and his sister, bless her) were like what more of a sign do you need? Are you mad? Can you not see the wonderful, amazing opportunity the Lord has put in your lap? That's probably exactly what I needed to hear, although still not making me feel any better haha. We made an offer, then another offer, then a counter offer - and the house is currently under offer - to us! We are waiting and trying to not get too excited as there is quite a lot of restrictions on the deed and the sale may not go through. Plus there is a lot of work to do on the house even if it does go through, so either way, we wouldn't be moving for months. Just have to sit back, try to relax and see what happens. Fingers crossed!

plantation shutters

we had these babies fitted to the three back bedrooms yesterday and i am in love! i am so so happy with them!! we were lucky enough to buy a house that had been completely decked out with norman style plantation shutters throughout, with the exception of the three back bedrooms. they had some basic curtains which over the past 22 months we've been here had quickly died, even to the point that you couldn't even open and shut the ones in the kids rooms... and that was without them even touching them! 

i am so thrilled, they just look so tidy and really complete the rooms... but most of all, i am bummed i didn't take a picture of the rooms before they were fitted, the before and after was amazing!

worth every cent! ♥

upside down and inside out

today we helped friends of ours move and took these two crazy kids along for the ride. doug helped move heavy things and i cleaned... and they played and giggled and got in everyones way but had a good time.

joseph even frightened all of us, when we couldn't find him at one stage... only to discover he was laying in a beanbag and had covered himself with the other... phew!

and at the end of the day, we made samoan koko and sat around chatting at the new house. it was a good day, a very good day ♥

sunday funday

oh sunday, my favourite day of the week... even if afternoon church is grinding on my nerves... haha. joseph is used to going to down to nap at the time church starts, so he is not really liking the time change, but on the bright side, we move back to mornings as of the first week in january anyway, so we really have got it good. maddie has fitted right into primary and is having the time of her life (especially since aunty dom happens to be in the primary presidency at our new ward haha) we have their primary presentation in 2 weeks as well, so she has the chance to redeem herself too! haha

this little monkey stayed awake for the whole of sacrament meeting and then even for some of sunday school before he crashed hard... in daddy's arms. it was the sweetest thing you have ever seen, watching doug carry him around, but every time he tried to put him down he would wake up, so that was how it had to be.

we are absolutely loving our new ward and are so grateful that people are making us feel welcome. looks like there's another plus on the moving house list 

++++++++++++++++++++

it's the end of the world as we know it

and i feel overwhelmed, anxious, stressed and like i can't even fathom with the mess i have to sort out... but mostly fine.

27 myimbar way was our married home, the home where we welcomed our two children, laughed, cried, fought, celebrated, played, but mostly loved. we have loved living here and it truly feels like the end of an era leaving it behind.

it seriously felt like we were saying goodbye to a dear friend as we, and some beautiful, patient, amazing friends cleaned and then made our way out the front door for the last time. there have been so many good times in that place, i can't even name a small part of them. but onwards and upwards we go, and i know in time, there will be many more in our new place.

the last supper in the backyard... kfc while we rested for a little while before getting stuck back into the cleaning.

one last look back from the front of the house, goodbye old friend! we will miss you!

x ♥ x

p.s. i seriously felt obligated to show this off... as you can see the grout in the kitchen had managed to build up a lot of muck over the years... and it was actually black! who would have thought that oven cleaner was the answer? spray that sucker on, quick scrub with some water and a scrubbing brush... and back to white it goes! winner! maybe we will get our bond back after all!

homeowners!

and just like that... we own a house! can you even believe it? we got this sms today, telling us that settlement was complete... and it's done! moving day is this saturday and i am so nervous... i am not the best with changes and this is a bigggg one. 

our new house! ours to do whatever we want with! so exciting!

there you have it, it's official. sold! so wish us well as we attempt to move 10 years of our life from one house to another. new house, here we come!

we bought a house!

yes. we. did. 

this afternoon (with just a few days to go before the finance deadline) we finally got the call to tell us that the house is all ours. loan is approved! settlement is 17th september and the loan docs are all on their way. but it is ours! so excited, nervous and hesitant all at once. but mostly excited! 

time to get packing i guess!

(on show of course, is doug's new favourite room...)

make an offer!

so... we made an offer on a house! a few weeks ago we went to a mortgage broker and found out that we could actually buy a house! that you know banks would actually lend us money and that we would then have to act like grown ups and pay it back for the next 30 years... haha

so, we went to look at a few... and this one, number 4 in aveley, was amazing. the only flaw was that it didn't have the big back yard that i have always pictured... but it does have a big park (and by big i mean an entire blocks worth) of park directly out the front door. talk about epic... best of both worlds, because we don't have to take care of it...

but... they accepted our offer! it's all systems go and now we just wait for finance. oh my gosh. we may have bought a house! ♥