Our New Home?

We might have found it. Yesterday we went on yet another house-hunting trip in Ankeny. Our house's closing date is less than 3 weeks from now, so our search has become a little more frantic and stressful. But the second house we saw had all our requirements: 2-car attached garage (and with only one car, the weights could easily go in there...it was big!), 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, kitchen island, fireplace, the master bedroom has its own bathroom and walk-in closet, you can have up to 2 pets with no weight restriction on the animals (very important because Sassy weighs a good 120 lbs)...it was pretty perfect for us. After seeing one other property that didn't really compare, we went back to the office and put in an offer, and we'll find out tomorrow if it has been accepted or countered. The best part is, with the housing market slump, we're pretty sure we'll get it under 100k, when it sold for 127k just 3 years ago.

Exterior, front

A view down the street...it's easy to get lost in this complex but we don't care

It was built in '05, so everything is in great shape, and the complex is clean and uniform, a far cry from the mismatched houses and yard junk of Cambridge. Also, TJ would be only 3 miles from work, so he can ride his bicycle like he wanted to, and we'd be only 3 miles from Super Walmart, Super Target, and countless other stores, restaurants, libraries, and parks. Best of all, it has more usable living space than our current house has now, and the garage is plenty big enough to store our random things. This particular unit only has ONE shared wall...some interior units have up to 3 shared walls. Here's a couple pics we took:

Kitchen (smallish, but clean and very pretty), open to the living room

Living room (there was a big lamp in front of my camera)

Master bedroom (looks smaller than it is because they have a KING bed in there)

Master bath...I wouldn't have to share my bathtub with Topher's toys anymore!

Master closet, we've never had a walk-in before! :)

Topher's bathroom, bigger than the one all 3 of us share now

Half bath off the kitchen

I guess the reason we're most excited is that we were just looking for a place that was good enough, but this place is so much better than that. It's cozy, yes, and we would no longer have a yard. However, leaving this flood house for something newer and better for less money in a much better city is just unbelievable to us. We'll be able to save money there, and our main goal is to pay off some school loans. We can't believe everything is actually happening. We're actually getting out of this house and we're actually going to find a place that is perfect for our little family. We feel so blessed right now. Here's to hearing good news tomorrow. Clink.

--KC