Ending Where We Started (Part 1)

Between the Fiesta Bowl and present day there is quite a bit that happened but nothing all at once... it took time as most things do. Somehow, I will do my best to connect the dots, through pictures, of our journey. At the very least, I want to write our story as to always remember God's sovereignty through it all.

But first things first...

Once we got home and settled we had LOTS of playing with our toys to do... :)

Or our gifts...

One of mine...

And Kaki's... one of her favorites... a MUST for any little girl who loves dolls! She has continued to play and play and play with Sarah, Hannah, Ava and Mia... and all of their clothes!!! 

Caden got a retro popcorn maker which came in handy for movie night!!

And I used an Amazon gift card to help me purchase this wonderful piece of machinery... it was GREAT for all of that house cleaning I had to do while we were showing our home and even now it is one of the only things I have yet to find that I feel like really CLEANS my floors instead of just pushing dirty water around.

Evidence...

Ick and double ick!

Me and my girl... our hair has grown so much... 

KK scored these awesome coloring books for the kids and they were the perfect dinner making activity for them... 

And then... on one of our many house looking trips we loaded the kids up with their new car, lap desks they got for Christmas... super fun and a life saver while we traveling all over Austin!!

Kaki was thrilled to be photographed... obviously!

Aunt Emily and Uncle Josh scored big with this over the table playhouse for Kaki... we had a fun morning until...

Someone called wanting to look at our house the SECOND time... and turns out this would be our buyer!!

So the beginning of the journey... we have a buyer...

We had an offer that came in over Christmas or just before... it continued off and on through the New Year until it finally fell through.

This was offer number two and it was a good one!! :)

That same day our buyer came back for the second time we went to the mailbox and found this...

A NEW BIRDIE BOOK! The latest of Birdie's adventures! It was sent to us by the author who so graciously reached out to me after seeing Kaki's 2nd birthday party on the blog. She became an instant fan of Kaki's obsession with Birdie and sent her an autographed copy of Birdie's new book... so special, thoughtful and exciting! :) 

So we had a buyer... an offer... a contract... an option period...

Lots of processing to do...

AND... a house to find...

That required some serious yoga... mind, body... you know... 

This is my favorite part of yoga... the end!!

And if yoga couldn't cure it, then the Easy Bake Oven was sure to!

Justin was so excited Kaki got one for Christmas because he has vivid childhood memories of eating the delicious brownies his sweet sister used to bake for him... I'm afraid his expectations were a bit high... and his pallet a bit more refined... but it was a fun father/daughter activity nonetheless!

Okay... a picture (below) that moves us further along in our journey...

The first house we put an offer on after we had the offer on our home was in Cedar Park. It was a beautiful home that met nearly every criteria... it was great! So we made an offer... 

We got into a bidding war...

We lost...

SHOOT!

Square one...

During that house hunting trip we also looked at a home we had been eyeing for MONTHS as our house was on the market. We were well-researched and new exactly which houses, neighborhoods, schools, etc. that we would consider buying in based on the location of Justin's new office, but the options were few and the prices in places were stretching us too far... 

So we mapped and measured and mapped and looked... and measured our distances again and decided to start looking in Lakeway... which is originally... WAY WAY WAY back when we made the decision to put our house on the market and move closer for Justin where we wanted to be. We spent an entire Saturday while the kids were in Corpus, driving around Austin... ALL parts of it and found ourselves in love with Lakeway. But in the time between loving it and actually selling our home the commute began to seem a bit too much. Keep in mind it was only a 10 minute difference but still we felt it might be best for us to be closer in... which is why we made an offer on a home in Cedar Park first.

After it fell through and we weren't seeing anything we liked and could sensibly afford in the areas that were closer in we headed back out to Lakeway.

We went on a Sunday... the day after we lost our Cedar Park home in a bidding war and started our search in Lakeway.

We had about 8 houses to look at. Four in one neighborhood which we preferred and four in another one and still many more to be seen if we didn't find anything in our first go-round.

Well, we did... it was a nice house, GREAT neighborhood, amazing school. Not my favorite location within the neighborhood and altogether not my absolute favorite "look," but we were of the attitude that a house was just a house and having our family there is what made it home, so we'd make it'd be great!

Okay great... offer... done!

Cue KK coming to visit...

We played...

We puzzled...

And then we went out to Lakeway... with plans of showing her our new stomping grounds... driving by the house... eating some lunch and catching the early matinee of Frozen. 

As we were driving through our new neighborhood our realtor calls and says, "You lost the house." Turns out someone else made an offer and they were not a contingent buyer which technically we were until we closed on our current home... 

Well SHOOT!

So our realtor drove out to Lakeway and we had an afternoon of house looking ahead of us... but at least KK was there! And for that I was sure thankful.

So...

Another house...

Another offer made, that afternoon...

We obviously didn't make it to Frozen the that day, but we did the next... just in time for a literal ice storm to hit as we were getting out... so it was truly the perfect day to see our new favorite movie/soundtrack! :)

Things were rocking along with our newest offer... (offer #3) we offered full price, they accepted we were scheduled for our inspection... done and done!

We had a lazy Saturday morning in bed...

Relaxing... 

Playing...

Dressing up...

Dreaming of our new life in Lakeway... laying out the furniture in my head for our new home... obsessively looking at pictures of it online...

And then I came across this...

Ruh-roh!! That as the house we were buying... in fact it was the house that we had inspected and that the option period had long since expired on... We knew it had been in bad shape and that the investor who owned the home had gutted the place but we weren't exactly told that it was THAT bad... mold, water damage and the like. The inspection report came back clean, but the Seller's Disclosure was not truthful and it was LATE (which would later allow us out of our contract without losing our Earnest Money) and the seller was being very shady (for lack of a better word) about the house, how it was repaired and what if any mold remediation was done.

So after much talk, thought, prayer and more talk, thought and pray with anyone who would listen, Justin and I felt it best to pull out of the contract. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into and to be completely honest... it scared the ever-loving heck out of us! Mold? No mold? Rotting wood? No! 

So that brings us to the demise of house number #3... done.

Then comes a Monday... a MOPS Monday... and Kaki looked cute... and Valentine's Day-ish... it was February after all! 

After MOPS that afternoon I met our realtor back in Lakeway to try this whole house thing AGAIN! Just one more time... #4 was indeed the CHARM!! 

BUT...

Where to now??? A new neighborhood perhaps?? After the whole we tried the older house thing and it had MOLD, let's explore this...

So we did and we made another offer...

By this point my mind was tired... confused... and weak... I just wanted a house to go to and wanted to avoid the in-between apartment or rental home if at all possible... and the longer it took the more likely that would have become a reality. And for a time I planned that way, and had a list of rental homes at my disposal just in case...

But this home seemed to be the one... it was not in a charming neighborhood like the others had been in Lakeway, but it was new... and it did not have the BEST school, in fact it was  the WORST in the district but it was still Lakeway, how bad could it be? It would be fine. The house would be fine. We would be fine.

This was right.

Wasn't it??

I said "I DON'T KNOW!!!" More times than anyone would ever have been able to count during these few months... 

So when you don't know something...

Make silly faces...

And dress up like your 2 year old daughter...

And take a picture...

And then get in your car and drive to Lakeway (for the 20th time (not literally... being dramatic) in two weeks) to meet your husband at the new house you made an offer on without him seeing it first. The second house you've done this on. See what he thinks... 

Will house #4 make the cut???

To be continued...