A Little EOY Reflection - House Related

EOY is teacher language for End of Year. Seemed a bit long to spell it all out for the title of a post. Anywho, this time of year and the parties we've just hosted have me thinking back to a year ago. Christmas Eve marked the 1 year anniversary I had seen the listing for the house and we had requested a showing. I caught the listing within hours of it being posted and immediately drafted a letter to send to the sellers, telling them about us and why the house would be so perfect for our family. Within hours after our agent sent the letter, we heard back. They had already received an all-cash offer (investors are not a friend of the common man...and unfortunately our market is a gold mine for house flippers!). However, they liked our letter so much, they offered to show us the house first. We knew the house would require a lot, A LOT of work, but we also knew we had found all of our "requirements" for a fair price. In this area, you pay for the land. And the land, alone, was worth it. We know how the story ends now, but a year ago, during this very week, we (mostly, I) were on pins and needles praying and waiting to see how this would all pan out. The process took about 6 months and though this just felt so right...we didn't want to get too hopeful.

This past week marked the 7th complete month we've lived here. Aside from a week long trip to South Dakota, I think there have been a whopping one or two days where we haven't worked on the house. For the most part, we've enjoyed fixing our home and taking pride in what we finally own. (Tho I guess we can't officially say that for about 29.5 more years! Ha!)

We just hosted a New Year's Eve party and New Year's Day get together...and after cleaning everything up, Rudy commented that our house has never looked better or been more clean. :) It really is getting there. Sometimes we see ALL the work that still needs to be done. And sometimes we see how far we've come. In the last two days, having our old neighbors over, we were reminded of the little mouse house we came from and how far this little ranch has come. We fully enjoyed the home today. Maybe that sounds weird, but there has always been a project in progress. There has always been a royal mess somewhere. And there will be in a day or two, again...but for the last day and a half, the house was whole and she worked for us as an entertainer's dream. And we soaked it up, relaxed, and enjoyed. I'm currently typing in the guest house where we are all having a sleep over. :) We relaxed in the jacuzzi, played board games, and got all cozy in our 2 bedroom dwelling out back. A great way to start the new year! Feeling like we're finally on vacation now with all the work and preparation for the holidays over and a week still left off of school.

I didn't get really any pictures of the party or the boys playing hours and hours with their friends. Didn't stop to get my phone for pics at any point the boys were awake...but that's okay. You'll just have to trust me, it was good stuff. :)

Here's a shot I sent my SD friend just before I turned off all the lights and climbed into bed. She was telling me how it was -41 degrees for the low and -3 degrees for the high... we had just gotten out of the water and so naturally, in true CA form, I had to share the dire straits our weather has us in. :)