home SWEET home...

way back in late spring/early summer, justin and i starting tossing the idea around of buying a house. to be honest, i've been tired of renting for a few years now.  justin would have said in that apartment for forever, but agreed to let me start looking.  i called sarah, and she guaranteed me that our home would be in mansfield if she had anything to do with it.  i knew how much i would love to move close to them, but also didn't think it was a reality.  so i started researching homes  & neighborhoods in richardson.  i was so defeated.  everything i liked in our price range was not in the best neighborhoods/school districts.  that was obviously super important.  i was already giving up the house hunt.  then sarah called so excited because she found the "perfect" neighborhood in our price range and in our desired school district only 5 minutes from them.  i held my breath and agreed to go with her to see it.  i loved it.  so much so that we talked justin into going to look that afternoon.  before we left that night he shocked me when he asked the salesman when we could put down our earnest money and signed the contract!  after a few bumps in choosing finishes/lot/price, we signed on the dotted line on May 20!

ava was her normal self and acted so nonchalant about the whole thing.  

It seemed like they were never going to start construction, but they broke ground right before we left for destin!

we went by the house after we returned from vacation, and were so excited to see the beginning of our house!

things seemed to fly after the frame went up.  brad and sarah would drive by on the weekends we couldn't make it down so make sure we were right on track.

before i knew it, it was closing time!  we officially became home owners on october 18.

the boys were in charge of moving us out of the apartment because i had a work event the saturday after we closed.  don't worry --- i did my work packing before the move!

we met the boys at the house and started unloading the u haul and cars.  we had everything out in an hour thanks to everyone who helped [thank YOU sarah, brad, crystal & greg!] and sent the boys to brad and sarah's with the kids.  it was about that time that i was done.  i'd been up since 4:30a.m. thanks to my work event, but sarah convinced me to keep going.  thanks to her, we had EVERYTHING unpacked and put away when we woke up on sunday morning.  it may have taken until 1 a.m. and lots of caffeine, but we did it!

i took the first few days off of work to get some more things done around the house.  my biggest project was refinishing our hand-me-down table.  it was a pain, but i'm really happy with the way it turned out!

the turquoise stand was another little project!

as with any new house, it is definitely a work in progress!  we've made even more changes since these photos were taken.  i have to remind myself that rome wasn't built in a day.  we are so glad to have found our first home sweet home!