Welcome to our new home!
Although with mixed emotions, I am still happy to share a few photos of the house we bought in Tulsa. It pretty much has EVERYTHING we wanted in a home, with only a few minor things we had to compromise on. So excited to get moved in and start building a new life!
Some major differences we noticed when house hunting was that essentially all the homes were primarily made of some sort of brick. And, none of the houses have basements. Yet, we have since figured out that homeowner's insurance is noticeably higher, due to the "threat of severe weather." Interesting, right? Well, we've been told that the water table is so too high and the ground is too flat and rocky. I guess this means all basements would be completely underground (i.e. no walk outs) and the value to add them to homes is not worth the effort/expense since they would be "wet" pretty much all the time. So, my to do list now includes putting together an emergency kit and teaching the kids where the safest place to be is in threatening weather.
One of the things on my "must have" list was a walk in pantry. Although the pantry in this kitchen is not technically a walk in like I envisioned, it is 100 times better than what we have. I'm certain it will be perfect once we get all our kitchen things unpacked and start getting settled into the kitchen configuration. I don't think this kitchen has more cupboards than what we had before, but with the pantry, I think we'll be able to make better use of them since all the food items should fit into the pantry.
The back patio is something I'm very excited about! With the direction the house faces, it will be shaded in the evenings. It looks like a perfect place to relax and enjoy some beverages, while the kids play in the yard and enjoy the new swingset (which is not pictured). Oh, and don't you think Jason can do his smoking on this nice patio area.
It's a decent sized yard and comes with a playset. That's going to be a surprise for the girls! I can't wait for them to see it. The subdivision also has a playground set and a community pool just down the street. Lesley has been telling people she will have her own playground and her own pool. Apparently the idea of moving to a new house means she gets to put in her requests. So, although we haven't told her about the playground set, she seems to know. The latest is a sand box...that might be doable, we'll have to see!
We actually had intended to downsize from our last house. We never really utilized all the space we had and are too cheap to furnish it so it felt "empty". But, we found that our desire to have a 3 car garage, a nice updated kitchen, and a separate office meant we'd end up with a large home.
Plus, because none of the homes have basements, many of them have bonus rooms in the upper level. This alone adds quite a bit of square footage to the houses. This will be a GREAT playroom and I'm also hoping to have a corner for my exercise equipment. I need to get back on that bandwagon. After being a single mommy for 3+ months, my body is feeling the lack of good nutrition, lack of sleep, and lack of true physical activity. I will say that I pretty much always managed to get the kids to eat a balanced, healthy diet but didn't always make the same effort for myself. Eating frozen pizza, while catching up on my DVR at 9pm after the kids were in bed is not exactly going to earn me any healthy living points.
The minute you walk into the house, you notice the awesome woodwork from the flooring to the windows to the doors...and then in the kitchen too. The photo above shows the office area, looking into the entrance with the dining room in the far back. The office area will be key, as I intend to keep my current Kansas City based job and work remotely.
We didn't know if working from home would be an option, but we rolled the dice when we made the decision to move and it's (slowly) working out. Jason's new job allows us to have some flexibility with my work situation so we weren't going to hold back his career decisions for me. I still hope to reduce my workload (as I've been trying to do since Leah was born!), but now with my team being a member short and having a new manager at some point, I think that option will be pushed further out. So, right now, I'm signing a 6 month contract to continue doing my current responsibilities and reevaluate at that time.
The master bathroom is another reason why this home is awesome. There is absolutely no work that needs done to update the house. It's already in amazing condition and updated throughout.
The inspection revealed that the microwave does not work so that will be a necessary purchase, along with a refrigerator and washer/dryer since we sold those with the old house.
Speaking of the old house, we sold the house in record time - on the market Saturday afternoon, offer on Tuesday night! We had three total showings, the first couple said it was overpriced and outdated, the second couple gave an almost full price offer, and the third couple didn't really comment. What a blessing, and also an emotional month that followed. I never expected to sell it that fast and in my mind, I thought we had a little more time in KC.
This home in Tulsa was on the original list our realtor sent us, but we crossed it off the list because of the square footage. While looking at another home in the same neighborhood (only a 2 car garage so crossed off the list), he made reference to this house and said he was surprised we had scratched it from his suggested listing. "It has everything on your desired list, and is still in your price range." Well, we said, "it's too big". But in the end we decided to take a look since the home was vacant and we could easily get access to it, without a true appointment. We ended up going back to that house 3 times over the course of that weekend, and eventually decided it was something we wanted to pursue.
The house was corporate owned which also worked in our benefit. There was no emotional attachment for the people making the decisions so our offer would not offend anyone. We ultimately agreed to a price that turns out to be the lowest price/square footage in the neighborhood for any houses currently listed and any house sold within the last year. We think we've found another deal!
The tricky part was finding a close date that would coincide with when we needed to vacate our KC home. It hasn't worked out perfectly, and our belongings were somewhere between Houston and Dallas for a week, but once we closed, the movers had our things delivered in about 12 hours. Now the girls and I just need to finish the transition and get down to Tulsa to start building a new life! Next week! I'm ready for some stability, some quality time with Jason/Daddy, and a place to call home again. The last 4 months have been more emotional than I had imagined, added entirely too many grey hairs to my head, and tested my patience and strength more than I'd like to count.
