oh, we decided to build a house. again.

Yes, we decided to build a house. again.
It makes sense, if you think about it.
There was a little hole in my heart after we had to leave our home in San Antonio just 3 weeks before we were to move in.
And, for the last 9 months, we've been looking at cities/houses/neighborhoods/subdivisions all around this area for a potential home on every day off of Aaron's.  True story.  No lies.  Literally. Every day off.  But, really, it was pretty fun for the first long while.  The kids loved exploring new houses (it was a game to them) and were happy to come along, AND it was a great way to explore the area.

But, eventually, it all started to take an emotional toll.  With every subdivision we'd enter... not to mention every HOME we'd come upon, we'd have to evaluate "Could we see ourselves here? Do we want to raise our family here?" For me, buying a home is SUPER emotional.  It's all about FEELING.  How does it feel?  And, what started as a fun little activity turned into a depressing/stressful event.

So, this in turn, made me sit down with Aaron and really evaluate what we were wanting and WHEN we were wanting things to happen.  I mean, we had to ask the BASIC questions that we hadn't really figured out, "Do you like it here?  Do you like this practice? Do you want to stay here? Is this a good fit for our family?" Good questions to address, no?

Anyway, the answers were all yes to those above.
Next was the TIMELINE. When do we want to make things happen? Now? In a few months? In another year?  Our year lease ends in August. The baby is due the first part of September.  I wanted a decision made now... so I didn't have to make the decision weeks away from delivering the baby or worse, weeks after having a newborn.  Comprendo?

Eventually, after a few weeks of wrestling with the decision, we decided that we'd like to rent for another year.  We have plenty of room for this new baby in our rental and we like the neighborhood we're in, and honestly, we liked the idea of taking the pressure off and delaying our decision for a bit.

Maybe two weeks after we both emotionally decided that we'd rent another year, Aaron stumbled upon a subdivision we hadn't seen.  Closer to his office. Awesome school district/schools. Cul de sac AND 1/2 acre lot (which is insane to find in these parts).  Private (mostly) backyard (backs up to a soil preserve, so nothing will be built back there!). Could fit a floor plan we really liked. And, the price was right.  This discovery happened on a Thursday.
Friday, feeling like things were too good to be true, we found out more details with the seller and negotiated the price.
Saturday, in disbelief that we were really doing this, we signed the contract.
Monday we came and picked out the brick, cabinetry, flooring, backsplash, paint color, carpet, etc.
Tuesday we boarded a plane for our big 4+ week trip.

If anyone dares says I'm not spontaneous, think again!

Here's a semi-panoramic view of the lot from left, middle, then right:

So, alas... we are building a house.  I didn't think I could be as excited as I was for the San Antonio one we were building, but alas, I'm MORE excited!  Who knew?!
And, the perk of building a house that you didn't move into (San Antonio) is that you see all the things you initially chose and didn't like... for example, we're not doing tile everywhere in the main areas like we did before.  After living in this rental with tile floor everywhere that is so hard on my feet/legs (yes, I am a grandma), we opted for wood flooring this time.  Also, we did a dark tile in the master bathroom before and it looked like a cave.  This time around we are doing bright and light tile.  Little things like that.
Anyway, there's the good news!
Apparently, the house should be done in August... just in time to settle in before the baby comes around Labor Day.  Crazy town.

Oh, and I'm really hoping we can move into this one.  hA!  If not, I think I might just go looney.  Seriously.

So, now you know.