Finally taking a breath . . .

We have had a whirlwind couple of months. Jon and I had decided around Easter to try to ready our house to put on the market with the goal of finding something a little bigger with one more bedroom. We were getting the house ready, when the real estate agent we had talked with asked us if she could show our house to another client who was interested in our neighborhood. We worked like crazy for about 5 days getting it ready. We didn’t have time for touch up painting, but pretty much everything else we got done. (I wish we would have taken a picture—I think it looked really good!) The person looking at the house liked it. We had a signed contract by the middle of May, with closing about 30 days later.

We looked at a few houses, but didn’t find one, so we decided to move into an apartment so we wouldn’t have to rush into a house, and so we could have a reasonably normal life in the meantime. So, we put a lot of our things in storage, and took only the necessities and things that would be damaged in storage to the apartment.

We had a lot of help moving out. As part of the contract, we had agreed to paint the bedrooms and touch up paint the rest of the house. We never would have made it without the generous help of friends and family. They helped us with watching the kids, painting, cleaning, and moving. They loaned us trailers, a dolly, and painting supplies. We are so grateful—I can’t imagine what we would have done without the sacrifices others made for us. Thank you to all of you who helped.

Here are some pictures of the house the night we moved out. We had this house built for us a few years before we had Ainsley, and we have thoroughly enjoyed living there.

Living Room

Kitchen & back door

The bedrooms after painting. For the kid’s rooms, they picked dark blue, and darker blue. :-) Not what I would have (or did) picked, but it looked sharp when it was done.

Ainsley’s room

Asher’s room

I don’t have any of the master bedroom. It was like 11 PM and we were in a bit of a hurry (we would have been there until 3 AM without the help of two friends who swooped in and saved us!)

We looked for an apartment that would do a short lease, accept a large dog, and not raise our rent drastically if we stay longer and go month-to-month. We used Apartment Hunters, a free service that we had used when we moved to Little Rock in 2000. They take your information and tell you your options. All you have to do is let the apartment complex know that you were referred (that is how they get paid.) With our criteria, we were limited to 3 places. I looked at them, and narrowed it down easily to where we ended up. This is easily the best apartment we have ever lived in (ok there were only 2 others, but still!) We have been very pleased. As a side bonus of apartment living, they have a pool and Jon doesn’t have to mow the lawn this summer!

Here are a few pictures of the apartment:

Dining area

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

 

The Kids’ bath (having a 2nd bathroom was a bonus). The kids got to pick the shower curtain.

 

Ainsley & Asher’s room

The pool. Since this picture, Asher now doesn’t need the noodle anymore, and as of two days ago Ainsley has learned to swim without floats! She can even do flips underwater. It is exciting!

This move has been a learning/growing experience. It was a humbling experience—there was so much more to do than I ever imagined, and we had to ask for and accept lots of help. It has also helped us become less attached to “stuff”. We have donated, thrown away, and given away a lot of things. I suspect after unpacked our storage facility, we will have more. Jon taught himself home improvement projects by research and doing. (Great job, by the way, Jon!)

We are truly blessed. We’ll keep you posted on our house hunt!