The Big Shake-Up

The last week of 2008 was quite eventful in our family. On Sunday, we had two different showings for our house. And beyond coincidental, both parties made offers to buy the house. We were stunned on Monday evening to review them both, and accept one that is for the full asking price! As if that weren't exciting enough, we thought we'd put out feelers for a rental house that was on a bit of land, kind of the direction we want to go with our family. We looked at a nice little place on Tuesday. It was surrounded by farmland and had a view of Mt. Hood. The kitchen was miniscule and the upstairs carpet was questionable. Also, there was only one bathroom, and the heat exchanger for the heat pump resided in the master bedroom closet (a serious drain on storage space). Wednesday brought a response from another Craigslist ad we had seen, for a house in Salem, beyond the "city limits". We drove out and were thunderstruck.
It is HUGE and the land is about an acre and it's clean and updated and has 2.5 baths and 4 bedrooms, a full basement, a sunroom, a garage that will actually fit our car (a luxury we haven't had since 2005), a spacious kitchen, and really nice landlords. We are moving forward with securing the lease on that place, and the inspection on our place will be the last major hurdle for the sale, which is scheduled to close before Valentine's Day.
We've got the immediate future well in hand for 2009, and we're totally excited for this change. We're going to start homeschooling in the new house, and have a garden-which will be my personal education for this coming year. We haven't begun to stir up our household yet, because I want to wait until the inspection is passed before doing a ton of work, but we're planning and hoping for the best.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!