Rent...Buy...or Build?

I have been looking at house on line since the first of this year. Just seeing what is out there, because we were planning to save for another year and then purchase another house. Well, mid-May came and we decided to start looking at houses. So we called our Realtor, Crystal Yengich, and went looking. With Matt's schedule it wasn't quite the easiest, so I would go out to see the houses and then he would come later in the afternoon when he would wake up. We really didn't find any existing house out on the market that we wanted, so we thought about building.
First we found a house and builder that we liked, but didn't quite agree on the area.
Next, we found a perfect house, perfect area, but not the right price. 
Third time around, after backing out of the bid on the "perfect house, perfect area, but not the right price", we came across the perfect house, perfect area, and a good price. It is also right next to the "perfect house, perfect area, but not the right price." Who knew.


So we are going to be BUILDING a house. It is being built by Richmond American. 


It has practically everything on my to two page list that I wrote out before we started looking:


Here is my list that I wrote before looking:
Porch on Front for sitting 
Cul-de-sac location
Garden Boxes
Shade in the evening
Not a corner lot
Fully fenced
Patio or deck in back
Privacy in Backyard
Flat Yard
Can't see kitchen from front door
Fireplace
3rd Car Garage
Large kitchen with space to move
Pantry in Kitchen
Cold Storage
3 Bedrooms on same level
Master Bedroom - Bigger than smaller
Mast bath w/ double sinks
Family room - Large enough for wrap around couch and flat screen
Granite counter tops
Tall cabinets in bathrooms
Wood/tile in Kitchen - No linoleum
Tile in Bathrooms - No linoleum
Bay Windows
Window seats in bedrooms
Lots of storage space
Soft Cushy carpet
Larger laundry room
Dimmer lights in family room

Here are pictures of the model home that will be ours in 4-5 months:

This is the model home. Ours will have a different exterior look
but same style. 

Main Floor

Living Room

Stairs

Front Hallway

Kitchen

Dining and Grandroom

Huge Pantry

Mudroom and 1/2 bath

Downstairs

    Cold Storage in the Basement

 Upstairs

Loft and Laundry 

Laundry

Upstairs Bathroom

Bedroom #1

Walk-in Closet in Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Walk-in Closet in Bedroom #2

Masterbedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Master Bath

Master Bedroom Walk-in Closet

Our lot looking West.

Matt being "King" of the rocks

Our Lot looking East.

READY, SET, BUILD!

A day of HOPE

Hope Ranch had our first day camp with HopeKids on Saturday, June 16^th.

Hope Kids is For children fighting life-threatening illnesses, rare are the days when they

can laugh and play like other kids. HopeKids believes that by bringing joy to these remarkable children via an ongoing schedule of special events and activities we can help cultivate hope,

acceptance, and most importantly the will to live.

Hope Ranch volunteers arrived at 9:00am to gather up the horses and get them ready. We groomed, saddled, and played the Parelli  7 games with them. The 7 games helps us get the horses calm and lets them get their excitement out before any rider gets aboard for a ride. This keeps the riders and horses safe. After we played the 7 games with our individual horses, we went into the arena. The only problem was the doors to the arena had been changed recently to metal doors and it was windy so they were making some loud noises. Some of the horses got excited, so we continued to play the 7 games with our individual horses in the arena.

I had Trinity and she was nervous and so was I, so it was a little hard to get her to calm down. I am one of the newest volunteers, so I was worried that Trinity would be a little jumpy for the HopeKids families that were arriving at 10:00am.

Well Trinity was still a little nervous, so I handed her off to one of the more experienced volunteers, Annie, and was able to talk with the families and help the kids on and off the horses.

The day was full of fun, smiles, and lasting memories. The two kids I remember the most are Abigail and Natasha. They didn’t want to get on the horses at first, but once they were riding they didn’t want to get off. These two girls are twin sisters and are 4 years old, but I thought they were only about 1. Well, I was surprised after talking to their mom. They are the only identical twins in the world with Down syndrome and leukemia. On July 2^nd, they were featured on KSL.com in a story “Strangers come to the aid of special needs twins stricken with cancer”. It was interesting that I already knew about them and had told others too.

We had food, horse back riding, roping, and smiles all around. 

This event was very rewarding and I can’t wait for the next 4 day camps over the summer.

Renting...a Family

Earlier this year, Kristin asked us to watch the kids while her and David went away for their 9th anniversary. After checking to make sure Matt was on his week off, we said yes. 

So we rented (babysat) Grace, Kate, and Parker for June 8th, 9th, and 10th. We arrived on Friday about 3pm. David and Kristin left soon after. We got the kids dinner of Macaroni and Cheese and Watermelon. We asked the kids if they wanted to eat outside and they said yes. It was uneventful, except that Parker tried to flip backward off of the table and I barely caught him before his head hit the cement underneath. 

We were able to put the kids to bed without any problems.

Saturday ended up being a longer day. We wnated and planned to take the kids to Lagoon, but we got a late start in the morning with breakfast. So instead of going to Lagoon early, we decided to go after dinner. What to do with the kids until then? It is quite interesting to go from NO kids to 3 kids, ages 5, 3 and 19 months. The kids wanted to stick around us and have us play with them. So I talked Matt into taking the kids upstairs and downstairs to clean and straighten up, while I cleaned the main level. We got a lot straightened up and time passed by quickly. 

We put Parker in bed for a nap and the girls went to their favorite friend's, Cowen, to play for about an hour. We got dinner ready, this time we ate inside. After dinner, we went to Lagoon. We had a fun 3 hours. It was actually cold that night, so we had coats on from the start. 

Here are a couple of pictures from our fun adventure with our "rented" family at Lagoon. 

Parker was funny about the rides. He was excited to get on, but once we put him on the ride, he would cry. He would continue to cry until the ride started and then he would smile and enjoy the ride. Silly little boy! Katie and Grace enjoyed the whole time and wanted to stay longer. 

I love this picture. The girls love Matt and Matt loves them.
They are headed off to the TidalWave as their last ride before going home. 

Parker is crying on this ride. Matt and I just laughed
because he liked this ride the last time we had come.

Katie-bug in the lady bug. 

Parker in the bumper cars. We weren't going to put him
on them but he cried when the girls were getting in,
so Matt put on the ride. He didn't enjoy it at all. 

We got a video of Parker on the bumper cars. 

We sent it to David and Kristin. They enjoyed it while off on their weekend away.