the joys (and pains) of home ownership

As I write this, Michael is downstairs banging on a pipe and attempting to repair a clogged drain...we've been without the use of our kitchen sink for 2 days now. And the responsibility falls solely on us--no landlord to call for help!
Also today, we began painting our living and dining rooms. It was a little bit of slow progress, but fun to be able to personalize our home. A big thanks to our friend Amy for all of her neck-breaking help today!
So all of this home repair has me thinking...what have we gotten ourselves into?? But, it also has me praising the Lord for his many blessings! Thank you God for providing us with a great house that is just what we need--warm and cozy, with plenty of space for Ellie to run around! May we never take our blessings for granted!

A little more settled?

It's been a busy and exhausting week as we've been working and trying to unpack and get settled in our "spare" time. But, things are starting to take shape around our new home. We've discovered in the last few weeks how much "stuff" we own (this reality hits hard when you have to pack and move all of it!). But, we're enjoying our new place! A big thanks goes out to our great friends who helped with the move (and childcare) last weekend (Aaron & Amy, Tim & Carlie, and Mom)--you guys are awesome!!

The Wired City?

Supposedly Tacoma is considered to be "the wired city." Something about the miles and miles of cables & fiber optics buried beneath our city streets and suspended in air from numerous poles around town (I'll have to check with my good friend Randy Sherman who is responsible for several miles of those fiber optics). Well, it certainly hasn't been the case for our house - at least not for the past 4 months.

But we're back and man does it feel good. It's surprising how much we use the internet. For awhile there, we had no real connection to the outside world. We didn't have internet, we didn't have phone (well, at least not a landline - we'd never cut off our precious cell phones), we didn't have newspapers, and we didn't even have TV. We were a bit out of touch with the world around us - which for awhile is really not that bad. It was pretty quiet around our house (short of the almost-two-year-old singing and playing games), but it was good.

But with the purchase of our new house, we decided it was time for our self-imposed exhile to end. We've decided to ante up and get the internet fired back up at our house. Hopefully, that will mean we'll be able to post a little more often...we'll see how that goes (there's something about home repairs that makes me think I won't have quite as much freetime as I had thought).

So from the perspective of our new home, Tacoma has gotten a little more wired and we've gotten a little more connected. Ahhh...this feels good.

Sawdust, Sawdust, everywhere!!

Well, it has been a very busy weekend of pulling up carpet, sanding down the wood floors, applying stain to the wood, and coating with lacquer, but we're almost finished with the floors! We are waiting right now for the first coat of lacquer to dry, then we'll apply the final coat and voila...we're done! The floors look beautiful and this will soon be worth all of the effort!

It's ours!

Well, today Michael and I went to sign the mountain of papers to make the house officially ours! As of tomorrow afternoon, we will be first-time homeowners. We were both nervous on the drive to the escrow office. But, we have to say that the homebuying process has been very smooth (and pretty easy) and we feel very blessed for that! I'm sure that is because other people have been working very hard on our behalf!!
Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement! For those in the Northwest, we'll be having an "open house" once we get settled in. For the rest of you in the country...you're welcome to come and visit anytime!

It's a Deal!

Well, our offer for the house has been accepted (the cute little white house), so here we go! We are excited about owning our first home! We're looking forward to having a little bit of a yard for Ellie to play in (and it is on a much quieter street).

So, I've had a few people say, "I guess this means you're staying in Washington for a while." I suppose that's the message we're sending! Life is good here. We've been busy with ministry and work and family. Beginning in October, I'll be increasing my hours at work to full-time at the clinic.

Here are some recent pics of Ellie...she's so cute! She keeps us laughing!!

House Hunting

Well, Tina and I are taking the plunge and looking at buying our first home. We've been looking at houses for the past three weeks. Here's a little bit of our journey...

Attempt #1 - We found one we really liked (a bit of a fixer-upper but all-in-all a great house) in the 6th Ave. area, but apparently someone liked it a little faster than us and put in an offer before we could. Our first disappointment! We were both pretty down for a couple days or so, then we picked up again looking at houses.

Attempt #2 - There was another house that we liked in the UP/Fircrest area. It was a split-entry level in need of some cosmetics with a big yard. This time, we got to at least put an offer in. Unfortunately, they didn't like the offer and turned us down (I'm not sure they really wanted to sell their house - but I guess its their loss). It didn't take us long to get over that one.

Attempt #3 - Again we hit the streets with our agent, this time we found three houses we liked. The first was a really cute old house that had been remodeled and setup just like we would have wanted. The only problem was that the yard was about as big as a pancake - which really wouldn't have worked with Ellie. So, on to house #2. This one was huge - 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and two very large living areas with a couple fireplaces and a giant yard. The price was a bit more, but we could rent one or two rooms out with no problem. But in the end it seemed a little too big, and might stretch us a bit too thin. So, on to house #3...


This is maybe not the most eye-catching from the street (at least not in its current white), but it has a lot of old-style charm. It was built in 1939, has hard wood floors, with a good size basement. It also has a great little building out back that could serve as a studio apartment.

So...big breath...we put in an offer, which we found out yesterday has been accepted. Right now we are working on some of the negotiations in that area. Once we know a little more, I'll try to post some pictures up. We are definitely excited about the possibility of owning a home. It seems a bit daunting, but everyone we've talked to has said it's been worth it.

In talking with others, it seems like three weeks of looking is really not that bad, but it certainly does take a lot out of you. We'd appreciate the prayers as we continue working through the process of ironing out details with the house and getting the finances all worked out. We'll keep you updated.