10.03.2011

Our new Home

On July 15th Tristan and I closed on our first home, a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath condo on south east central side of Austin. We had been looking and praying at buying a place since fall 2010. At first when we started looking we ere looking at homes in central Austin and we quickly learned that buying a home in central Austin wasn't an option. Real estate in central Austin is sooo expensive. So we kind of quit looking because we knew we wanted to stay central since PWC could send Tristan anywhere north, south, east or west of Austin to do audit. Then one day we were talking with my grandad and he encouraged us to look at condos so we started looking again. We found that he was right and that it was possible for us to find a condo with in our means. I think we looked for about 6 months before we found the one we are in now. We had at least one other that we put an offer that we didn't get, but in the end the one we ended up with has been the best fit for our growing family! We are so thankful for how smooth and painless the process was because we know that is not always the case. God really has supplied everything we need with this home for us. It has everything we were praying for:
1. Not huge, something just right with well thought out space
2. An open floor plan
3. Practical kitchen for 2 people that can spend hours in that one room!
4. Would fit our furniture so we didn't have to replace or buy anything new
5. Great storage
6. A garage
7. Close to our church family
8. Accommodating for guests
9. A great space for entertaining and opening up our place for others

ETC....ETC....ETC....

So far we have really loved it here. It's the quietest place we have lived since we have been married, and the ease for Tristan of not having a yard to take care of in this phase of life is AWESOME! We have a low HOA fee that covers the community yard work and they come EVERY Friday..it's such a blessing. Having a pool during this scorching hot summer has also been GREAT! Hopefully next summer we can use it even more since the boy will be about 6 months and totally ready for swim lessons! The location has been great and we feel that no matter where we need to get around town there is any easy way to get there and often options that allow me to avoid taking I 35!!!! I avoid 35 whenever possible!

The hardest part so far about our move here was the painting we did. We painted the WHOLE place ceilings, baseboards, walls, ...EVERYWHERE!!! Fortunately the Lord provided a way for us to hire someone to paint the crazy tall stairwell, bathrooms, and upstairs hallway. Tristan and I and friends and family had already been painting for 2 weeks(yes, we have some incredibly servant hearted and committed friends and family!!! SOO blessed and sooo thankful!) by the time the painters come and needless to say we were SOOOO OVER PAINTING!!! We decided that next time if we have THAT MUCH painting to do we will hire people from the beginning to do it! With calking, taping, priming, etc for so much space by the time you get to actually doing the paint(and then having to do 1-3 coats) it's just exhausting!

Below are some pictures of the place before we started painting. Eventually I will post pics of the place all fixed up...we are just not there yet! But oh we better be by December!!!! :)

We just can't thank our friends and family enough for all their help..we couldn't have done it without you.

Last preggo pic I took in the apartment







































2 comments:

Mary said...

Yay for new house pictures! Can't wait to see some "settled in" pics, too!

emily rodriguez said...

love love love!!! :)