these are the days of ... "Build the House"

There's one thing about me that people who know me well cringe upon. And that is the fact that I get spontaneous ideas and go balls-to-the-wall to get whatever Tasmanian devil-like project complete. The latest one? We've (I've) decided that this house is too small for us. For one, the open floor plan provides almost no get-away space and being a full time mom now vs having work and things to be away from the house for, I am appalled at how frustrating keeping the only living space I have somewhat tidy because Maysen wants to play toys. His room is a bit small so he'd like more room to play ... and that means it gets thrown all over the house. Not a good plan from my stand point.

I feel validated when I can get my husband to agree to my tangents :) So, we both solidly put our house up on the market Tuesday night. I left for Baker City (more on that later) on Wednesday to meet up with Maysen who was there with 6 other grandkids, attending VBS. Needless to say that it was a 3-ring circus. It was great fun, don't get me wrong but that house was just tooo small for 4 adults and 7 grandkids. 5 of the 7 are under the age of 5. Yea. The kids had a great time, but I think we're all agreed that we're glad to be on our one schedules/lives again!!

So, when we decided to sell, we decided that we're not going through a realtor and we're trying to sell it on our own. We learned doing this would save us at least $12,000. We had one prospect right off the bat; a pair of sisters looking to move their parents, who currently live up the mountain, closer to them. One sister walks down our secluded street daily just to look at my house, per her. When she saw it up for sale, she stopped dead in her tracks to call her sister. They came Saturday to look and loved it! One catch: the parents have to sell their house on the mountain as well, but do have perspective buyers. One sister was frantic about telling me to call her if we got another offer, as she would try and top it to get the house.

Today we looked at more homes and found a builder who is VA certified (only way we can get a VA loan) who just developed a subdivision near our current home, but closer to the high school more out of town. We loved his work and the options he provides. The lot we would love to build on is backed up against a nature reserve which means we'd never have anyone building back there ... and the view is AMAZING! We could put a gate on our back fence that allows us to go back in and just explore. Almost like an extended backyard. Of course our house has to sell first before our pipe dreams can happen, but we're doing 2 open houses this weekend coming up, so pray that it proves fruitful. To be able to move on building a much bigger home in a great area would be fulfilling I believe. I would love to have a bedroom for each boy, an office for Nate, and a big bonus room as a playroom for the boys. The office would double (by use of Murphy Bed in the wall) as the spare room for guests. After looking at his house plans the builder provided, we've settled on a couple for him to review with our changes. Do you think the cart is before the horse on this one .... cause don't I have to sell my house first?? Ahhh, yes!

Follow the "Build Your House" soap-opera here, anytime. I'll keep you updated on how the open houses go this weekend. I'm hoping we get an offer from having it!