From the Ground Up

You know that feeling you get when you see the little pink lines on a pregnancy test and you want to announce it to the world, but it still feels like it's not for real and you're all worried and excited and scared and downright giddy- all wrapped into one?  Well, that's how I feel right now. 

I've been given the greenlight to announce that we will be proud homeowners in April!

More details to come, but we are really excited to finally be under contract.  Bobby and I have been house hunting for a while.  We started looking on the local real estate website about a year ago and just sort of daydreamed about the houses.  Once we were in Houston, we started physically looking at houses in October.  After losing out on a house that I truly felt was ours, we took a break to reevaluate our "house must-haves" and budget.  In January, we started looking again and found a few homes we liked, but didn't feel strongly enough about putting in an offer.  On Thursday, I went with our realtor to look at a few homes in Bob's target neighborhood.

The 4th house of the day was still in-construction, but there was a finished one we could look at.  I walked in and I knew it- Bam! this is it.  The home ticked off every single box of our "Must-Have" and "Like-to-Have" lists and even had some bonuses to it:

*4 bedrooms (this home has 5, but the 5th is more of a study/den and the rooms aren't gigantic)
* 3 full baths
*comes with a fridge and washer/dryer (stainless steel appliances, gas stove, granite, pedestal w/d)
*new construction
*bedrooms/game room upstairs
*storage space in garage
*park within a stones throw and a brand new elementary school within walking distance
*our target neighborhood
*instant equity and greatest growth potential for resale
*large kitchen with plenty of counter space and an island with nice storage (I wanted a space where I could cook with the kids)
*open yard
*covered patio
*and we even got to pick out the flooring

I am super excited.  I looked at a lot of homes. I've dreamed about a lot of homes.  I can't wait to finally be settled and put some roots down in Texas! It's been something both Bobby and I have worked really hard to achieve and it feels really good.