Major Updates

Last time I took such a long break from the blog Mike was living in Chicago and I honestly didn’t have much going on.  These last couple months of absence are because we have TOO much happening, I can barely keep up in real life, let alone on the blog!

First, little Arch-man is keeping us very busy!  He’s standing and cruising between any thing he can hold onto.  He’s also right in the middle of a little mommy moment.  He’s got a little separation anxiety, and while I can leave him at the sitter’s every day with no problem, if I’m near, he needs to check in with a hug or slobbery kiss every so often.  It’s super cute, but doesn’t allow me to get much done!

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The major update is we bought a house! 

We’ve been casually looking for a couple years for land to build on in the future, but our search was beginning to get frustrating with the lack of properties available.  Mike was looking for specific wants on the land: mostly treed – didn’t want to mow much, a water feature like a stream would be nice, and no HOA, and I was looking for proximity to our workplaces and school districts.  You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult, but every time we found something in our budget there would be a large riparian set-back (building limits based on water sources) or something else prohibiting us from building.  With Archer becoming mobile and all the accumulation of his stuff, we realized how much our little house wasn’t really working for us anymore.  

Mike and I both discussed increasing our budget to include the house building and land procurement and began searching for homes with acreage.  Once we did this, it became clear we were full-on house hunting.  The market is still a seller’s market, at least here, and some homes were being sold before we could even schedule a showing!  We spent a couple months like this before we found a house we were willing to put an offer in on.  We ended up not even getting a chance because they accepted an offer (hours after we looked at it), but we realized we were ready to buy!  The next house I found was a beyond our budget but I asked to look at it anyways because it had sat on the market for several months and wasn’t updated so I figured if we liked it we could lowball and just see what happened.  After some negotiations we came to a price closer to our budget and we signed our lives away on the dotted line!

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The house was built in 1973 and is pretty ugly and ‘builder basic’, but it comes with over 3.5 acres, a shed, and a two-story barn, all within a top rated school district!  I can work with ugly any day for all that!  It really is the perfect combination for Mike and I, and with 4 bedrooms and space to grow, it’s perfect for our family too.  

Which is important because during the negotiations we found out I’m pregnant!

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That’s right we’re going to have 2 under 2!  I thought I was tired and feeling icky from running after Archer and not wanting to eat very healthy, turns out is was just the first trimester!  When I saw the doctor for the first time a couple days after the at-home test, the ultrasound determined I was about 10 weeks along!

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Archer has no clue what he’s in for (ha!) but he loves babies right now and we think he’ll make a great older brother.  I may go completely gray when the boys are old enough to get into all the shenanigans Mike has planned, but I’m loving the boy life so far and can’t wait for another little guy! 

Look for some more detailed house posts coming soon.  Last night was our first overnight and while we’re living mostly out of boxes we’re excited for this next adventure.