Our Old New House!

 
One of the biggest events of our summer was buying our first home.  It had been such a frustrating house hunt, only a few days before Steve and I looked at each other and said "We are never buying a house in this area.  It's just too competitive."  I was coming to grips with that decision and trying to decide what our new course of action would be, when our landlord called us up and offered to sell the house to us (once again).  We had heard this before back at Christmas, so rather than wait for another change of heart, we snapped up the chance and got a contract going that very week.

 I know I should trust the Lord and let things happen as they should, but my pesky control issues get in the way and I feel I have to force my future to go the way I think it should go.  I'm learning to be more patient, but on the other hand, I see people who have to do just that- force their future to happen.  So I'm not sure if I should have more of a laissez-faire attitude and just make the best choices I can with whatever comes my way or if I should be more heavy handed in how I want things to go.  It's a struggle for me.  But this has been another instance in my life where I would have been better off not stressing about how to reach the next step and just let things come as they should.  But honestly, who really has those types of experiences when it comes to purchasing a home?

Regardless, we are over the moon about being able to buy this home.  I have been in a rental since I was 14 years old and we moved around a fair amount.  It has been a huge goal of mine to raise my children in a stable home where they could put some roots down.  I love the location of the house, the lot, and the fact that it didn't need a complete overhaul like most of the other homes we saw.  Not to mention avoiding the cost and hassle of moving!  My kids are thrilled that they don't have to change schools and can keep the same neighborhood friends.  My one concern is the possibility of outgrowing the space, but there is plenty of opportunity to expand should we need to in the future.  It's a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom split-level, fairly typical for old Provo.  It's over a third of an acre and has fantastic views out of every window.  Steve bikes to work, we're a block away from Rock Canyon Park, and I can see Angel Moroni from our front window.  It's truly the best location we could have hoped for and I know if we need to sell at any point, there will be no issue doing so.

Even though the home has been updated, we still have been doing a fair amount of work to it.  Most of our efforts have been concentrated outside.  We had tree trimmers out to take down one sick tree and trim the remaining ones.  We've redone the front flowerbeds with my mom's help and direction.  Other little updates too like a new mailbox, address numbers, outdoor swing, taking care of some gutter problems, restaining the deck, making a compost pile, taking down an old huge TV antennae, fixing up our shed, getting a lawn mower since we decided to stop our landscaping service- the list goes on!  We still have plans of expanding our garden and putting in patio pavers around the back area of the house, but those may have to wait until next spring.

I didn't take a before picture, so here's some thanks to Google Maps.

And after...

The view from our swing now that the sick tree is gone.

 The front flower beds were deceivingly difficult to do.  First we had to rip out a lot of the grass to bring the flowers out further from the house to get the sun they needed.  Then we hauled in 2 cubic yards of compost to raise them up and get some better soil there.  If you are wondering how involved a woman in her third trimester was in this project, the answer is very.  I was digging dirt with my mom and ripping out grass.  Probably not the brightest idea in retrospect.  Lastly, we laid out some edging stones before putting some new plants in.  My mom found these plants for 75% off at Shopko and so far they've been doing really well.  The planters came from a yard sale.

Here are some extraneous pictures of before and after with the tree trimming.  There's no way Steve and I could have attempted this on our own, so we happily hired it out.

Before

After

Before

After

There was a maple in the backyard with 50% of the tree resting on a grafted limb.  It was in danger of snapping off with a large storm, so we bolted it and made it less top heavy.

Before

After

You can see the lines of the graft here.

There's also a really old Scottish Pine in our backyard that looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  It still looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but at least all the cracked and dead branches are gone now.  The guy had to climb it with his chainsaw


 Before

 After

The guy climbing the tree

Are you sick of tree pictures yet?  Too bad.  This walnut was resting on some electric wires so it got trimmed as well.  Needless to say, all of these trees were in sore need of some attention.

The view from our deck.  Mount Timpanogos is gorgeous, especially in the winter.

Just a few more...

The kids had plenty of entertainment while all this was going on.  Everyone was sad to see this tree go, but we have plans to replant something in its place.

Worth ever penny!  Hopefully we won't have any large projects like this for a while.  The costs of home ownership are setting in!