A Place to Call Home

Oh, friends, the search is over!  We found a house.

Several months ago, the owners/landlords contacted us to inform us that they were ready to purchase a house in Seattle (where they moved), but in order to proceed, they needed to sell their home we were currently living in.  Wheels were set in motion and we did some minor touch-ups and got the house looking show-worthy.  The owners had some friends who were in the market, and wondered if they could come over and take a look at the house.  They fell in love with the place and that evening had an offer on THEIR home, which allowed them to make an offer on ours!  I don't think you could dream of a better outcome as a tenant or owner.

Our lease is up on May 31st, and the new owners plan to move in on June 1.  This set us on the hunt for a new house.  It was tougher than we expected.  There are so many wonderful things about our area, but housing options are NOT one of them.  There is a high turnover rate of students/small families, and plenty of apartment living, but when you are a family of FIVE, the options shrink to just a handful of options that meet our needs:    Reasonably priced ($2,000 for 1100s.f.?  WHAT?), available by June 1st, not on a busy street, that shouldn't be condemned...  Well, it's been a struggle, let me tell you.  I tried to stay calm about it, and did a pretty good job, despite several sleepless nights up worrying about things I couldn't control.  Yaks said it wisely and best, "It doesn't matter where we live, as long as we have a home and a family."  Oh, he is so dear!

We tried to keep our options open, considering housing in our current town or closer to Josh's work; wherever we could find a house we felt good about.  Then after several weeks with no luck, we considered pursuing the option of a transfer to Boise.  When that fell through, we went back to searching for rentals here.  My personal favorite was the learning curve of spotting internet scams.  Any home that looked too good to be true usually was, and their reply was always an email like this:

 Hello ,
Thanks for your interest about our 4bedrooms,3Bath,Sqft: 1,884 family home. It is still available for rent and we would be needing a good and honest family to take care of it.
 
My family and I are currently in west Africa for a new job i just acquired down here with Chevron.  Before we left the states,we searched for a God fearing and reputable agent to handle the rent and help us walk interested people through to have a proper viewing of the inside but we couldn't get anyone then. We left with the keys,remote and the papers.  I'm willing to rent out the home to a tenant who is able to come up with first month's rent of $800 and security deposit of $700.  I will like him/her to assure me that our house will be properly managed.
 
 We need someone or a family that will take good care of our home as their own property.If you can assure me that you can take proper care of our home and also you can afford the move in deposit, kindly confirm your interest by getting back to me with the  below application details. Note that the house keys,remote and the papers will be ship to you by Via Fedex office.
                
  Filling out of the Questionnaire will determined if you are the right person to occupy my house,we will send another email to let you know our final decision.
   
Rental Information......

 
Notice : Call me immediately you fill out the application
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that we can have it our file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you..

Thanks and you are welcome.
Best Regards
Daniel B Wiren& Family

Finally last weekend,  the heavens opened!  I truly believe this is one of those tender, tender mercies.  A wonderful house that has everything we needed, and even things we wanted, and some of the things we never knew we wanted!?

We discovered a Craigslist rental:  Recently remodeled classic split level, FIVE bedrooms (we can have visitors...) with three downstairs and two upstairs, two full bathrooms, large back deck, West-facing,

Hardwood bamboo floors upstairs; tile floor downstairs, garage.

The house is at the end of a cul-de-sac in a pretty "mature" neighborhood, in our current ward, and is a short walk the kids' school, which will allow us to unload a car to save some money.

Josh called on it right away, and arranged to see it the following Saturday.  Josh asked when they were showing it, and conveniently arranged it so WE were the first appointment!  He's so smart.  I wasn't sure if bringing our kids to the appointment would be such a great idea, but it turned out to be the BEST idea ever!  The owners have a Kindergartener of their own, and I think they were pretty excited to have a family of kids who would enjoy their improvements as well as enjoy (and keep) the animals.  Yes, I said animals!

 

Can you get over the matching chicken coop in the backyard?  

The wooden frame structure in front is  a moveable coop that they were building for the chickens, but they didn't get finished. 

Look at our lovely view!

Four backyard chickens and an outside mouser cat that sleeps in the garage.  We get chickens again (link) (link)!  Can you believe it!?  They are actually licensed by the city this time.  :)  The yard needs some attention, but it has raised beds, lots of trees, a deck and a hot tub.  I can just imagine the fun we'll have back there this summer.  I wonder if chickens eat yellowjackets...

We broke out the checkbook then and there and put down our deposit.  We get it for a year, but the owners don't plan to return from their sabbatical, so hopefully this will be a good fit for us for as long as we live here.  We drove away all smiles. 

My mom wisely counseled me once that no move is ever "smooth".  Our little "hitch" was that we have to be out of our current home May 31st, and our new home isn't available until June 15th!  So, after we box up our house and store it in our new garage and under the deck, we're sloughing a week of school and off for an unplanned UT vacation to crash with family until we can move in.  The kids are so excited to see Grandparents and cousins, and even more excited to move into their new house! 

Three cheers for a place to live!  Hip-hip...