The blog you have all been waiting for - our new house!

After 6 1/2 years of marriage, 6 different rentals, and three different states, we are excited to announce that our life got a little more permenance in March when we bought our very first home! Wahoo! Everyone kept asking us if we were excited, and we were, though I think mostly we were just in a state of shock that we finally own a home. But, we love it here and want to stay in Oregon, specifically Central Point, for as long as Matt's job will allow.

We ended up chosing based on community. I wish we could put up a little virtual tour of our community, called Twin Creeks. It is wonderful - family oriented, safe, wide sidewalks and roads, well maintained, a park across the street ("our" park according to the kids), a huge open soccer field with basketball courts across the street the other way, as well as a large common area/pavillion kitty corner to that. We are far from knowing everyone in the ward, but we know of at least 10 other mormon families in the community - which isn't a big surprise when we are within walking distance of the church and the temple. So, needless to say, we sacrificed a little on size for the "location, location, location".

Our new home is an adorable new townhome (so two stories) with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, as well as a two car garage. Zero lot line, so no backyard, but no lawn maintenance either, and if the weather is good we are often at the park across the street. Now, before we get to the pictures, let me tell you my 10 favorite things about our new home:

1. It has a pantry. I have never had one before and always felt like I was cramming food into every corner of the kitchen. It's already full as I am trying to beef up our food storage, but I am still excited to have it!

2. It has a toy closet. It's downstairs under the stairs and it's fantastic - for the first month the kids just disappeared in there for what seemed like most the day. It holds the majority of their toys, allowing the toys to be downstairs but not taking over my living room!

3. The downstairs is very open. It's all one big room really, which I like in that it makes the most of the space.

4. It has the most adorable front porch, which is surprisingly big. We already have plans for a porch swing and small planter boxes.

5. It has a linen closet. What can I say - I have missed having places to put things (besides crammed under in and around things!) and I just love that wonderful linen closet

6. It has carpet downstairs in the living room. We have had mostly tile or wood floors, which sound great, but Matt hates it - he has high arches and it literally hurts his feet to walk around on hard floors barefoot. Also, he loves wrestling with the boys, which is hard to do on hard flooring without some kind of head injury. Now, every day he comes home after dinner they beat up on dad while I clean up dinner. It's a great arrangement!

7. We now have a water dispenser and ice maker. We bought our first appliance - a fridge and it has filtered water and an ice maker. Heaven!

8. The two car garage. Room not only for both cars but all our stuff! Loving it!

9. Our digital thermostat. We had a thermostat in FL, two actually, that were pyscho. You had to buy a separate inside thermometer to find out what temperature it really was and then if you barely touched the thermostat dial it would go out of whack and send you into the upper 80s or way down into the low 60s.

10. My fantastic dishwasher. They really mean it - no prewashing required! I have only had a dishwasher for 12 MONTHS of the 6 1/2 years we have been married. I have done more than my share of handwashing dishes (I know, what a spoiled child of technology I am!) and I love putting a whole sinkful of dishes in and pressing that magic on button.

I am sure there are many of you who have never thought too much of some of these, but that's the great thing about starting out marriage as a poor student - you really appreciate the small steps up in life!

So, now, drumroll please, the pictures:

The front view (notice the cute porch, complete with hanging planters)

Our downstairs and what you see when you walk in

Matt's little "recording studio", with our computer and electric piano to the right of the couches. I really resisted having the desk downstairs, but it's nice to have so we are in the same part of the house more often.

Our kitchen complete with new fridge

The fabulous toy closet. And, there's even still room for a kids bookcase and coat closet as you walk into the closet, and then the toys are in the section that extends downward under the stairs.



Matt was wonderful in tackling the assignment of building shelves for the garage. He hadn't really had a chance to build much, so he researched, hit Lowes multiple times, even got the boys "helping." It turned out great, and, as you can see, holds all kinds of stuff. He will probably build some more, but for now our garage is fairly organized.

Sorry, the upstairs was not clean enough by my standards for posting, so that will have to come at a later time. But, now you know that we really do own a house (and aren't just living under a bridge)!