We Did It!!

We found an adorable house for rent, signed the papers and will begin 'moving' around August 1st.

I say 'moving' because we won't actually move anything in at first. We will be painting everything before we move in. Because the current house is in foreclosure, we have 90 days in which to vacate and, as an added bonus, we're not paying rent here any longer. YAY! That allows us to not have to rush into the new place. We can take our time - paint all of the rooms while they're empty of furniture, decide where each piece will go when it's moved ... and then move our furniture in and begin to unpack.

Though we will be out of this house and into our new home by middle of August, our goal is to have everything completely finished -- everything unpacked and placed in it's new spot, pictures hung, etc. -- by the end of September. It's a bit of a lofty goal, but I think we can manage it. Once we put our minds to it, Kevin and I can accomplish anything. We're quite a team =)

The house is perfect for us. It's close to where we are now, albeit in a better neighborhood. It's about a half mile north of where we are now (we call it the 'high rent district' -- and it is, but our new landlords set the rent very reasonable because they, in turn, know they are getting good tenants), closer to the beautiful foothills that we love so much. As the current house is, the new one is north facing so we have a wonderful view of the mountains. It's an older 'original' ranch-style home. The original in quotes because ... well, it is. It was built in 1953 - when ranch-style houses were the latest trend. Anything after that era is a copycat. To that end, this home has many, many charming details that I adore about older homes.

We sort of lucked into this house. I happened to call a property management place to see if they had any rentals; as luck would have it, the woman I first spoke with - Rosemary - was so kind and helpful. She sent us a listing of things, but happened to mention that there would be a property coming on the market the following week that may just fit our needs perfectly. Her partner in the office was the listing agent. We worked together with both of them and they couldn't have been more wonderful! They visited our current location to see how we live and have maintained this house so nicely. Rosemary said it was then easy to go to the landlords and 'sell' us as tenants. We were able to view the property before the current tenants had even moved out -- and the house never even hit the market. It was ours! YAHOO!!

I look forward to sharing with you lots of before and after photos of the new place in the coming weeks. It's so exciting!! We get to start from scratch - fresh paint; perfectly organized cupboards, cabinets and closets; a new yard in which to work floral and fauna magic. We are rarin' to go and can hardly wait!!