Big Announcement!

See this?

It will soon belong to us!

Here are some photos along the way...

The foundation:


Laying cement into the framework:



The beginnings of a house... On this day, Rychen came home from work and said "Let's go see the house! There are big things happening!" and I said, "vertical things?" YAY!!! As we drove toward the house and I saw walls, I actually got emotional! I choked up as I exclaimed to Rychen P., "Look! That's our house!"




From the back... This corner on the left will be my garden!


Putting the roof on:





Exploring the inside...


This is the living room, the front door, and the hallway opening. There is a small dining room to the right, and behind the camera is the kitchen.










They said we had a choice of color. After many choices got vetoed, we finally understood: we had a choice between brown and grey. So we chose brown. Hooray for cookie cutters.



Here's about where we are now:

And this will be the front yard. I am standing on the driveway/walkway to the door, and beyond me will be the front yard.

Bathroom cupboards:



Here is the kitchen. We get a bar! Nice surprise, I didn't know about. The door on the right is to the garage.

It was really exciting to see the nice cabinetry put in the other day. I didn't realize we were getting such nice cabinets, closets, etc. We were really lucky with this house. I had brushed off the idea of buying a new house for a long time, until every other house was not working for us, and it finally dawned on me that a new house would be the SAME PRICE, and nothing would need replacing for several years... Um, yeah, makes sense! So we ordered a "stripped down" house, to get it as cheap as possible, but with this builder's reputation, his version of stripped down is actually really nice. So it's still a small starter house, but at least it is new.
I am also really excited about the yard. We are paying extra for a fence, that was just one thing I couldn't let slip. I get a huge area to garden in! There is a good sized yard to play in as well, and of course one of the first things we'll do is to plant FRUIT TREES! All this yard maintenence will take a lot of work but how fun, to have our own property, finally!

Here's what really appealed to us about this house. It is in a FLAT neighborhood where we can ride bikes. It's on a cul-de-sac, so Rychen can play outside with the neighbor kids. It is on a main street but this street is not busy, so there won't be traffic noise. And it's right across the street from church, where Rychen teaches seminary every day. Unfortunately that does mean that we will be leaving our ward, and going into Brush Hills ward. But we are excited to meet new people and get settled in for a longer duration (after switching wards every year since we got married!)

We close December 11th.
December 14th the kids and I fly to Las Vegas.
Then Rychen will move us in, and fly out the 18th.

And we come back to live in our new home at the beginning of the year!