Life has been such a whirlwind lately! Once we finally got into our house and got my computer set up we went straight into the 18 month sleep regression. I'm really hoping my nap times become a bit more predictable at least for a few months (hopefully years- c'mon Juliet!).
Anyhoos, I realized I never really blogged about our house hunting/buying experience. It was super nuts. So the last info I gave was that we made an offer 50,000 over asking price and were told it wasn't even close. It turns out, we actually were pretty close, but whatevs- it all worked out!
The next day our realtor let us know that another house on the same street was about to come on the market. This one was a tad bigger, with a tad better yard, a separate mother in law suite and didn't back up to a semi-busy road. So it was an even better house for us, but it was also more expensive, of course!
I remember when our realtor toured us around via FaceTime before the house was officially on the market. It seemed like a no brainer- of course we wanted this house! But I feared we'd be outbid even at the tip top of our strongest offer. Luckily, we had a way in- the family wanted to stay in the house until January (it was October). We had an air bnb already lined up until mid-December and my parents graciously offered to let us stay at their place over the holidays so we were able to come in with a strong offer and accept the terms that they could stay through Jan 5.
Then they came back and said Jan 15. Ugh. That meant we had to move out of an air bnb (including all our air shipment possessions), travel to Lafayette for 2.5 weeks and then move into another air bnb. I'm not gonna lie, it was ZERO fun. Like probably the most zero fun I have ever had. All that moving and traveling in the midst of Covid numbers soaring was just fan to the flames. With a feral toddler. Y'all. I'm barely alive to tell the tale.
One of my best friends, Talia, spoke this truth to me during the midst of some hard times and said 'I'm fairly convinced that God doesn't want our lives to be easy.' It's been a mantra I replay in my head. Life is hard. DUH. (James 1:2-4 My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.)
Hard times refine us, make us more humble and compassionate, make us more into a reflection of Jesus. Our sole purpose in life is to glorify God and to be in awe of him.
Do I do a better job of that when I'm well rested and living with my head above water? Probably. But if I was always well rested and comfortable and had naturally compliant and calm children then I may loose sight of the critical fact that I am a mere pion in the universe and would maybe stop constantly bowing before the Lord with a broken and contrite heart. Trust me, he's tried to teach me things the easy way but it just does not take.
I just read a scathing article criticizing Meghan Markel and Prince Harry about their fleeing of the 'abuse' of the royal family and British press and how no one feels sorry for them as they were offered shelter in million dollar homes complete with security detail. I realize when I complain people probably look at me a bit like this. So while I feel tons of compassion for the ousted royal couple, I also think it's healthy to keep a good perspective about all of the resources I have at my disposal. It's also good to reflect on the fact that despite these resources, my mental health and marriage and parenting went through some pretty dark hours over the last few months.
Does that make me weak? Absolutely. I am weak. I am SO weak. I've never said otherwise. But I can also admit that this isn't easy. Covid has made this one hell of a tough year for just about everyone. Add in an international move and all the stress that goes along with resettling and it's just been HARD.
Juliet only just started watching TV a few weeks ago. She loves music so we generally have a youtube playlist full of Sesame Street and Disney songs. Without ever seeing Frozen 2, we saw the video for 'The next right thing'.
We had a chuckle at how dark Disney had gotten and Forest made the hilarious comment, 'get up Anna. This is nothing. Rey has been through way worse and I never saw her cry about it.'Then we actually watched the movie and saw the context for her hopelessness and her paralysis in the face of unthinkable choices and grief. Still dark for Disney, but when Jonathan called with the news about our shipment possibly going overboard when I was already barely getting through the days until we could finally get settled, my first thought was, 'I feel just like Anna in that cave'.
But truly, what could I do other than just keep taking the next step forward, even in pitch darkness? At church this past weekend our Pastor imparted similar advice saying 'Don't forget in the darkness what God called you to in the light.' We prayed over our move and we prayed over our home and our neighborhood that God would put us in the right spot. There have been tons of hiccups but also tons of signs of God's providence- with Forest getting a spot at our church's school which has a waiting list a mile long, with losing out on a house in a spot we loved only to find a house more suitable for us just down the street.
And now the market has only skyrocketed more and we feel good about having claimed our little stake of land here! Especially since it seems like Jon's company is going to move away from moving people around the world like chess pieces so this may be where we get to stay for a while.
So now a little bit about our house!!! It's a cute cape cod style, yellow siding with brick accents.
To the right is a front bedroom which we are using as playroom and to the left is a formal sitting area or dining room.
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| sitting room |
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| Playroom space. We are gonna have to donate or burn most of what's coming in the shipment! |
We currently have very few possessions so for now our second living room is just space! But it will be a sitting room based on the furniture we have coming.
Our kitchen is great! Lots of built in storage and tons of counter space which was rare based on the houses we looked at!
It overlooks our family room which right now is also serving as a playroom since it's just easier at this age to keep Juliet in this part of the house where I'm usually getting things done.
Plus it overlooks our yard which I love love love! The kids can be outside while I stay in and have a whole wall of windows to keep an eye on them. our backyard is a great size with both grassy areas and hardscape and decking. We have an outdoor kitchen complete with a kegerator! It's awesome!
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| great yard for an egg hunt |
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| we finally got our backordered table so we can dine outside on those perfect California evenings! |
Juliet's bedroom is also downstairs, along with a small guest bathroom. This is probably my least favorite part of the house. Not only do I hate that she's on the main floor while we are upstairs but upstairs is soooooo creaky and our room is right above her. Lots of times Jon wakes her up when he 'leaves' for work in the morning.
We have an amazing master suite with a built in office- plenty of room for an elliptical or peloton- but yet we are scared to move in this direction because using such equipment would undoubtedly wake her.
I would love to move her upstairs but there is no way Forest would give up the better room!
He has a finished attic space off of his bedroom that he uses as his 'fort'. It basically carpeted in LEGO all the time which is fine by me because I can just close the door and pretend it doesn't exist!
That's the biggest bummer about the house for sure. It's a 2 car garage that our 2 cars don't fit in together. The driveway narrows toward the street so we can't even park one car in and one on the driveway because the person in the garage wouldn't be able to back around the person in the driveway. So Jon has to park on the street most of the time. Even with my 1 SUV we barely have any extra room for storage in the garage.
The closets in the downstairs bedrooms are tiny! Once we have a dresser for Juliet I'm sure it'll be better but right now her closet is overflowing. We have a decent sized walk in closet in our bedroom but not nearly big enough for us to share once all of our stuff arrives. Forest is the only one who probably has adequate storage space with a small walk in closet and another little closet space.
Our mother-in-law suite is another amazing find for our area. It's attached to our house but has a separate entrance. It has a small bedroom and closet, it's own full bathroom, laundry facilities, full fridge and kitchenette with a small living room.
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| This is the previous owner's decor- not our naked lady poster;) |
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| There is a Murphy bed in there now but we will remove it once our shipment comes and put a standard bed in there. |
It has been perfect for Jonathan working from home and will be so nice for having visitors! Who's coming to visit us first? Hint-hint, wink-wink;)
We really do have a great house! And a great location! We love the area we ended up in. It feels like it's in the country, just at the bottom on the Mt. Diablo foothills. Two miles away are trailheads to climb the iconic mountain.
We see wildlife and breathtaking scenery every day. I definitely pinch myself feeling so blessed to live here. Our backyard makes us feel like we are on vacation. It's so nice just to get to have a little space for our kids to run around while we get to enjoy the gorgeous weather and a beer from our kegerator!
We live in easy walking distance to our 3 neighborhood schools. Forest is attending our church's private school for the time being and we have no plans of pulling him out, but the schools are top notch and close by if we ever change our minds. Juliet can start attending preschool at our church when she's 3 so it will be nice to have them together. They used to have a 2 year old program but COVID restrictions meant they had to use the 2 year old classroom to instead space out the 3 year olds. Ugh. Anyways, the church/school is only a 8 minute drive so it's pretty close too!
We've decided to go ahead put Juliet in a different preschool instead of waiting to start her when she's 3. She will start in July when she turns 2. She's so super social and confident that I know she will love it. She's been going to the church nursery on Sundays and pulls our hands dragging us to the classroom and then rushes in without a backward glance. She says 'church!' whenever we drop Forest off at school and throws tantrums when we bring him for his midweek youth group and she doesn't get to stay. I wish she could go there for school next year but I'm sure she'll be happy where we found her a spot too!
Alright, that's an update on our house and lives currently! Oh- our shipment is officially on it's way and set to be here by the end of April, but we were told to expect major delays because of covid backups. Maybe we'll get it this summer? What's a few more weeks after waiting 6 months?
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