In A Nutshell...

Whew, what a week it's been! I'll bet you're wondering how things went with our house hunt last weekend. So here it is, In A Nutshell....

We flew to the Chicagoland area (where we'll be moving to) and gave ourselves 2 1/2 days to find a new house. Thankfully we've lived in this town before so we were at least familiar with everything! We looked at everything in our price range, over 25 houses, and were just filled with uncertainty. The housing market there is just so expensive compared to most of the country, so we knew we'd be downsizing, but didn't realize it would be quite like this!

Hubby and I had been praying that God would let us know when we'd found the right house for our family. We tentatively settled on 2 houses. One of which was in the town we wanted, and in a very nice neighborhood with the space we needed, but it would need to have the bathrooms and kitchen gutted (things were literally crumbling & falling apart) not to mention tons of other work done. And we didn't want every spare penny we earned going into the house.

The other house was in a different town than we wanted, but was in lovely condition. We were thinking of putting in an offer, but since I was having funny feelings about it, Hubby decided to look up the town's information on the internet. He saw a link for area Sexual Predators, and clicked on it. Well, had you been there you would have had to pick up our jaws from off the floor, because there was one RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from this house! Needless to say, with me home during the day and 2 little girls, this one was immediately crossed off the list!!! We are so thankful that we found this out beforehand! Praise God!!

So here we were with only a few hours until we had to leave for the airport to fly back home to NC. Feeling exhausted and anxious, I asked my friend we were staying with to do some "Shopping Therapy" with me! :) We went to a favorite local shop and I found this great vintage wire letter/in/out basket (see pic above)!! I don't have room in my kitchen for a planning desk, and was tired of the little paper pile on the counter. You know the one...where you have important school papers, invitations, etc. But it just doesn't always look the neatest. Well, hello, little wire cutie!!! Add in my important papers and top it off with a too cute paperweight, and my kitchen counter is now thanking me in it's stylish, organized glory! :)

The day after we got back home, I was looking for some temporary housing for us to stay in until we found a new house. You see, we are closing on this house here in NC in a couple of weeks. I was having NO luck, since most places either don't accept pets or don't do short term leases.

Wouldn't you know it, just then our realtor called us to say that a great house just dropped into our price range! (OH, the timing!!) She sent us the listing, plus 74 other pictures she took of the house to give us a better feel for the flow and layout. Funny enough, we were at complete peace! Hubby flew out to take a look a couple of days later, and they accepted our offer! Whoo-hoo!!! Thank the Lord!!!

So, In A Nutshell.....
(and believe me, this story above IS the short version!!)

Went house hunting,
found nothing,
learned to ALWAYS check for predators beforehand,
got depressed,
thought we'd be homeless,
found a house online,
felt God's peace,
bought said house,
are moving out of here in 2 weeks,
staying with my parents for a few days,
then moving into the new house!
Whew!! :)

ps....I've heard the phrase "In A Nutshell..." SO many times this week from various people! :) It always reminds me of Mike Myers as "Austin Powers"...curled up in a little ball saying, "This is me in a nutshell....How did I get into this nutshell?"....looking all trapped and trying to get out! Too funny!!!