A Time of Transition

These are the professional photos used in our home listing

I had been looking at bigger houses online for awhile - years really. When I was pregnant with Sofia back in 2017, before I knew she was a girl, I was worried about possibly having 3 boys in one room. The search for a new home lulled when we found out the baby was a girl, but it picked back up again early 2019 when my mom almost bought a home on the westside. We were so excited at the possibility of living closer. When that fell through, we thought that maybe instead of them moving west, WE should move east! Thus began our year of house hunting, looking at homes on both sides of town! There were lots of options we considered. The Barber home (which my westie bestie ended up buying), the Hatch home (great yard but too boxy inside), the home with the dream pool (we made an offer but someone beat us to the chase), the fixer-upper in the foothills (too much work!), the Jacobo home (Seb signed the offer papers but for some reason I just couldn't), and on and on!

A month or so into our house hunting adventure, I had a long, restless night imagining what it would be like moving into my parent's home. I thought about all of the things that would be so perfect - an office for Sebastian! Better schools! More bedrooms! We could make a play zone upstairs for the kids! I went to sleep that night feeling like my parents house would be a great home for our family. Little did I know that my restless night of pondering would soon be a real option for us.

When we returned from our summer vacation to Ohio, I had a feeling that I should begin packing up the house. I felt like we were not going to live in our home for much longer. The feeling was very subtle, but certainly there.

One day near the end of summer, I got a call from my mom. "We bought a house!" she said. "Do you and Sebastian want to buy ours? Let us know soon. If you decide not to, we're putting it on the market next week." We were excited and surprised! Sebastian said he would be totally on board as long as it fit into our budget. We discussed numbers together and didn't share this information with anyone. We didn't want our budget to influence my parents' pricing of their home. Lo and behold, when my parents gave us their offer number, it was the exact number Sebastian had said would be our limit. Was it a sign??

Nevertheless, we wrestled for awhile, trying to decide if the move would be right for our family. There were lots of things we considered. Seb's master plan was always to pay our house off and be mortgage free. We were about 6 years away from that reality. We have always tried to live very frugally, and the jump in mortgage would be uncomfortable (at least for awhile). We loved our ward and friends. Hudson was finally loving school and really thriving. We had planned on living in the Settlement Way house forever, so we had made lots of improvements that we were going to miss (specifically the backpack wall and the floors). It was the home we brought 2 babies home from the hospital to. I've always been nostalgic about home and loved the idea of raising my family in the same house I eventually die in! Ha ha! And I liked our 1-story floor plan.

Anyways, we contemplated and prayed about the decision for awhile, and in the end decided to make the jump! We quickly prepared to sell our home by moving loads of our stuff over to my parent's home, deep cleaning, and repainting a few walls. A photographer came and took pictures and we had planned on putting it on the market mid-September. Then, on the 9th of September, my parents had their inspection and decided to back out of the purchase of their new home! We were supposed to put our home on the market that week. My mom found a new house she liked the next day. My Grandma passed away so we had to take an unexpected trip up to Idaho that week. I talked to our realtor and decided it might be best to hold off on putting the house on the market and to cancel our open house for that weekend. I must have been unclear because while we were out of town, our house was listed, had an open house, got 2 offers, and sold! Wow! We didn't have to be around for any of that junk! Ha ha! Miracle! Everything has fallen into place so easily and my parents are loving their new place and we are loving ours.

It's kind of funny looking back now on how indecisive we were. This has been the best move for our family and the transition (for the most part) has been quick and natural since we were already familiar with the home and area. To top it off, my parents have taken such great care of this home and put in so many wonderful improvements. We feel extremely blessed. We've met lots of neighbors, the walk to school is quick and fun, the new school schedule is wonderful, the kids' new school is clearly better academically, and the ward has lots of kids. I think my favorite part is being so much closer to my parents. It's about an 8 minute drive! I really feel like the Lord's hand was in so many of the details of our move. W are so grateful for his continually love and care.