Yes, yes I know summer is almost over. But in this house we are just now finally having our FIRST normal week of summer routine. We joined the Y last week so this week our schedule has included me working out while the boys have gym time and then when the weather permits we have been making it to the pool. The winds are starting to get a bit chilly but nothing compared to that alpine air that we never grew accustom to at the pool in Switzerland. In between catching up with friends we haven’t seen in a while and our pool and gym times we are enjoying having some time at home where I am not working on the house and we are just doing “normal” day to day stuff. It is refreshing for me to be on this side of transition. I realize we will have a new wave of it when our fall routine ramps up but for now I am just enjoying the new groove and thankful for…

…the summer tomatoes from my friend Rebecca’s garden (the menu for last night was tomato pie and tonight we will have fresh salsa with our tacos, thanks, Rebecca!)

…my husband that planned well financially for this insane time of house-gutting and having to buy two cars at once! Ouch

…and beach boys

post coming soon on our trip to VA Beach over the weekend for a friends wedding!

As you all know by now and are probably SO tired of hearing about, we have bought a home and it needs a lot of love! So buckle up for lots of “before and after” pics and lots of troubleshooting on decorating as we move towards making it home. As Seth says I have probably had too many years to think of ideas for our one day home. Now I have to pare them down for our space and really think about how I want to use what we have to have it be a beautiful welcoming place!

I am in the process now of picking some paint colors for the house. A week from today we will meet with our contractor to finalize the kitchen details (a lot of prep work is underway!), pick all of the paint for Seth and his dad to get started on and we will meet with the guy who is currently refinishing our wood floors to pick the stain. It is going to be interesting to do this with jetlag BUT my sister in law has graciously offered to help us with the boys so while we might be groggy and make terrible choices on colors our children will be not be disowned in the process!

My goal will for sure be to spend as little as possible and to use as much as I can of what we already have. We have been diligently saving for this time but we want to make every penny go as far as it can!  There are sure to be lots of stories to share as we power wash, paint, scrub, demo, recontruct and decorate our way to a cozy place.  There will be good days and bad! You might just have to hear about both sides of the story.

This blog might just get a wee bit boring for you globe trotters out there that just don’t see a need for roots but I hope that as I share our journey of making some roots we will encourage you along the way! Because someday in the midst of the travel and transition you might find yourselves like us, looking for a nest to call home. Our time overseas is not likely done but this time in DC will certainly be a sort of hiatus and time to really process what we have learned thus far.

Back to the online paint chips (and packing for the final shipment tomorrow, baking a cake for Jackson’s class farewell, moving to temp housing and packing 8 suitcases)!! Wish me luck!

Well, my lips have been relatively sealed.

To recap for those who have not had to keep up with the house hunting drama, here ya go….

We met our Realtor in early January while we were in the US, primarily just to meet her in person and to get some preliminary ideas of where we would be looking for a new home.  We thought we had a price range in mind but over the following weeks we ran the numbers over and over and decided we just did not want to be maxing out our budget. We have worked so hard to save for a home and it felt silly to save but then put it all into the house and then feel like we were scraping by each month. We wanted to be in an area with great schools, family friendly neighborhood, etc but everything was at least $100k more than we could spend.  So we actually offered on a house in an area with so-so schools and ended up withdrawing our offer. There were complications with the seller, i.e his house was on the market for months and he couldn’t decide if he really wanted to sell it.  So we moved on. Only the market has not been so slow this year and there are been so few nice homes within our price range! We initially thought we would be buying closer to March or April but with the market being so painfully slow and with so few homes that were even a reasonable possibility our agent really encouraged us to go ahead and make a move sooner rather than later. We had hoped initially for Seth or myself to be able to get back, tour houses and then offer but with the market so limited houses are being snapped up within a couple of days making it impossible to make the trip before making a decision. So we worked backwards knowing we could get out at inspection.

A couple of weeks ago as we scoured the list again a foreclosure caught Seth’s eye. It was one I had put on the “discard list” in the system. His thought was that it was in a wonderful area with wonderful schools but needs a lot of work. We could get it for less because it was a foreclosure and used some of our savings to make it our own. The metro is expanding out our way so we also knew that the house was much more likely to appreciate.

So we offered quite confidently because the banks agent had been quite open about what the bank was looking for. BUT, although they had been slow on offers, an hour before ours another offer came in. And within the next 12 hours 2 more came in. So the next day we learned we were competing with 3 other offers. The bank sent out an addendum asking for our “Highest and Best” offer. It was all a bit tricky because we were in the mountains with intermittent internet. We put in our highest and best and got word the next day that they had chosen our offer to negotiate with. We were pretty stunned. When we learned there were 4 offers we were sure we had little chance.  So then we began with their counter, our counter back, followed by another 3 days of waiting for their answer. On Wednesday we were starting to wonder if we should go back to their counter. Our realtor pursued up-ing our price but then decided to wait. On Wednesday night of last week our realtor called at midnight to tell us they had accepted our counter.

So, on Monday Seth flew back to the US for inspection and will be there for a couple of days meeting with various people to get estimates on work being done, setting up lawn care until we arrive in July, going to Jackson’s new school to get the big kindergarten packet, etc. The inspection was yesterday morning. There were no major red flags so we don’t have any major concerns. The house needs lots and lots of work but we are hoping to spruce it up and make it home.  There is some quirkiness that we are trying to work out like…say our queen bed barely fitting in the make shift master bedroom…but my husband assures me that it will all work out. If my side of the bed is pressed against a wall with no exit except for to climb over him does that mean I am exempt from night time response duty?! Yep, I think so. Push that bed against the wall. I will take sweet sleep over a bedside table any day. No really, the space will be a complication but we are working with a contractor to figure out how the heck we can miraculously push out some walls.  Because I am all about keeping it real here I will be honest and say that this process has been less than fun. For those of you that know me well our lifestyle of moving so much takes it’s toll on me. I have been dreaming of a home of our own for a long time. This house is a huge blessing and I feel very fortunate to have found it but at this point I haven’t felt a ton of warm fuzzies. Dealing with the stress of arranging for other people to look at homes for us and relying on a zillion other opinions to make what feels like a very personal decision has been humbling at best.  So I see so much potential in this house but there is nothing that makes my heart giddy at this point….most likely more due to the fact that I have never even stepped foot in it. I look forward to being in it and making it our own.  (Many people have mentioned their concern about us not having space for our furniture from this ginormous house, no worries. You should all know me well enough to know I have already made a plan for arranging and selling it. No good and useful furniture will go to waste in this move rest assured

We will be doing tons of improvements on the house so you can look forward to lots of “before and after” pictures. We are hoping to have most of the bigger stuff done before we move in. We will have a few weeks to work on it before our things arrive from Bern so we are going to try to take advantage of that wait time. We want to do lots ourselves but we are willing to have help on things we don’t have experience with!!  Obviously we know nothing is for sure until the keys are in our hands. But at this point things are progressing and we are waiting for the April 6th closing. Stay tuned!

Oh yea, and it is in Herndon, Virginia so we will be close to lots of friends and family. And a Chickfila. And a Wegman’s with childcare. I will be joining Community Bible Study and MOPs with Owen. And Jackson will be embarking on his kindergarten adventure (I am so not ready for this one!!!!)  And Seth will be starting a new job with Foreign Aide Department that he is really excited about. These things make me feel excited and anticipate this new chapter in the Kolb family adventures!

We said our final goodbyes in VA which was just not fun. We loved our time in VA so although we are excited about this new chapter of life we were very sad to go.  We made it out of DC relatively in one piece….or maybe more in 4 pieces with lots of luggage. But sane nonetheless. We flew to Houston last Friday and have been in Friendswood since then. We have had a nice relaxing time with Seth’s family. Jackson has had lots of great time playing with his cousins. They all seem to have endless energy and have gotten along really well. Seth’s parents have a large window by their kitchen table and during meals Jackson can spot some of his Grandan’s turtles outside the window. This is proving to be a challenge in keeping Jackson in his chair to eat, but he can’t get enough of the turtle entertainment.

This afternoon we will drive to the Ft Worth/Arlington area to be with my family. We are looking forward to our time there. This trip is faster that we originally planned but we are trying to make the most of every minute! We plan to pack in the fun! It’s hard because with limited time we can’t do everything we would normally do and see everyone we would normally see.  If you are some of our friends that we aren’t getting to hang out with because we have been kidnapped by family, that is just a good excuse for you to come to Switzerland!

I will add some pictures when we get our camera and hook ups in the same place at the same time We also want to blog about Jackson’s 3rd Birthday that was this past Friday the 23rd but want to do it when we have time and pictures! Happy Birthday to our little big boy!