New Home

We Moved.  Despite vowing to never move again, we moved.  Back in early 2021 we realized that we were spending way too much time in the car.  Yes, the boys love watching "Spongebob" while sitting in countless hours of traffic, but as parents, we had to make a change less their brain turn to mush.  On average, the boys were in the van over an hour and half every day, and that was just going to and from school.  If they had to go back to school for sporting events or practice - you can tack on another hour or so.  Michael, now working from home fulltime spent double that time in the van.   

As much as we loved our little home nestled WAY back in Gallatin, we started the long and gut wrenching process of buying a new home.  When I say it was the worst experience ever - I mean it.  The sale of our house fell through - twice.  It was really quite stressful.  I became very familiar with every nook and cranny of our house - not to mention our crawl space.  

We bought and sold during one of biggest housing booms of our time. When our house did sell, we had 9 offers - most cash - and most over listing.  The offer that we accepted was significantly over listing - plus the buyers waived the appraisal and agreed to a pass/fail inspection.  We weren't required to fix anything.  The Lord was very gracious to us in the sale of our home. 

Turning now to the purchase - which was every bit as stressful.  First, there were very few homes on the market in the area of town where we wanted to live.  We weren't confined to particular "school zone", but we wanted to be able to drive to DA without getting on the bypass.  Once you found a home that you liked - even a little - you had a put a strong offer on it immediately because there was a very good chance that it would sell within a few hours after hitting the market.  We couldn't afford the home with which we fell in love.  It was a cabin on 15 acres a mere 15 minutes from the boys' school.  However, we were able to find a house that we both agreed would work nicely for our family right across the street from our church.   We were able to see it the day it hit the market and put an offer in the same day.  The buyer accepted our offer and we were off to the races.  Given how everything else went during this process, this house did not appraise for listing price.  I shouldn't have been surprised - especially because homes were selling for well over appraisal all over Sumner County.  Again, the Lord was gracious to us and we were able to reach an agreement with the seller. 

So, this is our new home.  It is a very different from our previous home in every way (style, location, land), but we are settled in nicely and are becoming accustomed to living in town again.  We were nervous to show the boys - but they loved it immediately.  

This is the foyer (this is taken off of the listing page, so the house looks a little different now that we have moved our stuff in).

This is the back deck.  This was one thing that we really liked about the house. Plus, we were able to keep the hot-tub. 

The house is fifteen (15) years old, but the kitchen as been remodeled. 

This is the back yard.  The house sits on one (1) acre.  We have plenty of trees.  Plus, there are woods in the back.  We have neighbors, but there are no homes behind us. 

Stairs.  The boys live upstairs.  There are three (3) bedrooms/bathrooms and bonus room upstairs. 

On the other side of the stairs is a full bathroom and across from the bathroom is the guestroom. 

Backyard/firepit area. 

These are some of the pictures that I took during the weekend we moved in - or right after.  

You can't tell from the professional photos, but the entire house looked like it was painted lavender.  I think they meant to paint it a cool gray - but it looks purple.  This meant that everything had to be painted. This is a picture of dad.  He is painting over the cool gray - with warm gray or gray with beige undertones. It was a huge task and we still haven't completed it.  

This is the sitting room in our bedroom.  I did something completely different with the color. I have light colored furniture, so I opted for a darker wall this go around. 

This is the living room.  This is where we have Sunday School.  All of our adult Sunday School classes are off campus now.  Since Michael is our teacher, we have class in our home every other month.  One huge benefit to living across the street from the church is we are centrally located for class. 

Another view of the living room. 

The front of the house. 

The place where we will take all the pictures.

The bonus room. 

Michael's office - this was taken the weekend we moved in. 

The den. This is where we spend our time.