Our New Digs

On April 1st, this little charmer of a rental home will become "ours"

We were hoping for something with at least three bedrooms and enough room for the wee ones to run and play without going too stir crazy.

This place was built in the 1940's I believe, but recently they have done some major renovations. I believe we are the second tenants to live there since they made the changes. (I also love that cute little lady in the kitchen. Luckily she is part of the package deal that comes with our move to the big MN.)

May I also just add that I hope by the time we actually move in to this place at the end of April there will be lilies, daffodils, and butterflies in the front yard instead of snow and icicles?

I look at this picture of our soon-to-be new "home" and I feel this twisting in my gut. It is a twisting of excitement, of the unknown, the adventure of it all, being near my family...but at the same time I look at that house and it doesn't look like home to me. It is strange to think about my family inhabiting that place in just a few short weeks. To see our belongings fill it's corners, to see my children climbing all over that little front porch...

I am filled with so many questions. Will my children adjust okay? How many times will I climb that flight of stairs up to our bedrooms in a day? What will our new neighbors be like? What is it going to feel like to have Chris working in an office and not at home like he has for the past six years? How long will we live there before we find our next home to buy?

I am so thankful that we found this home though. We searched Craigslist, called realtors, scoured over classifieds trying to find a temporary home to suit our needs for a few months as we got settled in to a new area. Finding a home to rent was really expensive, and we weren't willing to spend more on rent then we pay for our monthly mortgage here on this home, so our hands were tied. All of the sudden one day I stumbled across an ad for this home on Craigslist. I almost didn't inquire because there were no pictures posted, and this girl loves to see what she's dealing with :), but something in me just pushed me to at least email about it. So, I did. The landlord, Paul, wrote back and explained the situation. Currently there is a young family living there. They will be moving out the middle of March. He is accepting a month-to-month leasing option which is perfect for us so we don't get stuck with a lease for longer than we need it. The price for a three bedroom home definitely fit our budget too so we felt really good about it.

As you can judge from one of the pictures above, my parents went down one Sunday a few weeks ago and walked through it for us. They were our eyes and the decision makers on whether or not they thought this would be a good fit for our family. They were very pleased and knew after seeing it that it would work for us!