Houses, houses, houses

I don't have any pictures to post today, but it's been a few weeks now, so I had better post something, right?!? We are moving forward with selling our Utah home and buying one down in Arizona. We went down last week to Arizona for our final push to find a house. We walked through seven houses, one that Cassi had been through before. We came down to three really good options, and decided on one to make an offer on. There were a lot of things going for this house.

1. The location is perfect. We will be in the same Jr. High and High School boundaries as Amy, and we're close enough to the Elementary School boundaries that we might be able to do a waiver.
2. The layout is very nice. It has 5 bedrooms, so there's one for me to work from home in, away from noise or commotion from the rest of the house. The girls can share a room downstairs, and have a playroom too. There's a separate family room and living room and dining room - all things I especially wanted as we looked for houses. The backyard is big enough, but not mammoth. Finally, it has a 3-car garage. I don't plan on getting a 3rd car for a long time (if ever!), so we will make good use of the extra storage space.
3. The house had a great feel. It's nice to find a house that has been taken care of, and this family has done that here. I enjoyed seeing the Family Proclamation displayed, as well as other family/church-centric decorations. We got to meet them a couple times as we saw the house during the week, and they just have to be good people.

We made an offer the day we decided on it, and it was accepted! I'm going to be careful about posting pictures of it after we've signed papers and have the keys in hand.

This past week has been busy packing here in UT. As we got ready for the drive back, Mom and Dad offered (and we accepted the offer) to let the girls stay in AZ with them this week until they come up to Utah for the 4th of July. We (and I really mean Cassi, since she's been home the most and has put in the most work on it) have packed a lot of boxes this week, as well as gotten really close to booking a company to move all this stuff down there. It looks like our house here will close somewhere around the 25th of July, and then we will close on our house in AZ around the 1st of August. It's been fun, and I get more excited each day to get down there and start our new adventure in the new house.

As far as progress, we have the inspection done, and soon will get the appraisal. Then we'll lock down the price. (If it appraises less than we offered, our realtor is going to work to get them to lower down to the appraisal.)

Well, it's late/early. Tonight (July 3rd) we get to bring the girls home. It's been really nice to have the extra freedom to pack and focus just on the house. but we're really excited to see them and have them back with us. It's amazing how you miss them when they're gone for just a few days. All the reports from Grandma and Grandpa are that they've been great, so we'll have to find some prize for them when they get home.