The house

Okay, I'm finally ready to start blogging about the house! (Though I'm sure that won't be the only thing that I'll be blogging about in the near future.)

Lots of what I'm sure are boring details first, but I'll get to pictures soon!

Last spring, my mom mentioned that she had seen a house for sale by owner on Stadium Avenue. I didn't think too much of it (if you know my mom, you know that she is constantly on the hunt for houses) because it  sounded like it was out of our price range and we had already put an offer in on a house (a short sale) in the tree streets with a large basement apartment.

But then we saw the house. As soon as we walked out the front door, Josh said "so how do we put in an offer"? That may surprise you when you see the pictures of the house as it looked on our first walk through. It was owned by a woman in her 90s and had not been updated (other than carpet in a few rooms and things like new windows, AC, furnace, etc.) since she and her husband had built it in 1975. But we saw potential! Good bones, plenty of room, and an AMAZING backyard. Also a great location--close to my parents, closer to my office, close to shopping, close to BYU . . . and yes, close to the stadium, but my sister's in-laws lived across the street, so we knew what to expect there and weren't concerned. And, like the tree streets house, it also had a basement apartment.

But there wasn't a separate apartment meter, which from the research I had done meant we wouldn't be able to count income from the apartment when applying for our loan. And there didn't seem to be any way we'd sell our house in time either. Then three things happened: I got a raise, we got news that the covenant that prevented us renting our house (which we had bought through a city redevelopment program) was being lifted, and a check came in for Josh for just about the exact amount we needed for a down payment and to pay off the city loan on our house, which would allow us to rent. All of the sudden it seemed like it was meant to be.

We got approved for the loan (without even counting the rental income, as it turned out), got our old house rented hours after we posted it on KSL, and closed August 1! We had until August 20 to get our now two rentals ready and move. That was a crazy 20 days. And then BYU had someone drop out from teaching a class I used to teach at the last minute, so I agreed to take it on. Needless to say, very little happened on the house for the next four months and we're still making up for lost time. But it's a fun project!

We feel so lucky that all of this worked out, though we do really miss our old neighborhood. But we're loving the house and especially loving the room we have to entertain, which we need to start doing more often! If you're in Provo during July, plan on being invited to a massive fourth of July part at our house (perfect view of fireworks) that may even include camping in the backyard so as to not have to fight traffic afterwards.