On Saturday, we put in offers on two different houses (#8 and #9).

Today, we received a counter-offer on home #9 and after some discussion, we accepted that offer. We’ll now begin the process all over again.

• Option period
• Home inspection
• Earnest money to title company
• Possibly more negotiations if something is found during the inspection
• Yada, yada, yada

House #9 does have everything we were looking for.

• Quite a bit smaller than our house in Illinois
• Open floor plan (although I would have liked it to be a tad more open)
• Outdoor living space being a nice extension to the indoor living space
• Minimum of three bedrooms
• Room for hubby’s home office
• Grassy area for the dogs and a little room for growing some vegetables

Unlike the Tuscany home, #9 needs very little work. Pretty much everything has been upgraded. We’ll need to replace flooring in the living room, the carpet on the stairs and I’m going to want to paint the upstairs media room and turn it into living space with a sleeper sofa for guests. It will be a nice area for the girls to play as well.

We’re also more excited about the location of #9. It makes hubby’s commute shorter than the Tuscany house would have been and IMO, it’s a very nice town in the DFW area. It is also closer to our DFW family, which is important to us.

And we can’t forget the nice mailbox. Now for the story behind that statement.

While looking a houses a few weeks ago with the girls, we were quite thrilled with a house we saw. There were many things we liked about it, other than the location, which is very important. However, Naomi was excited about one feature in particular– the mailbox. It was in that moment she exclaimed, “I’ve always wanted my own mailbox”! LOL!!! We had no idea!

As we’ve looked at houses since then, there have been a couple that didn’t have a mailbox sitting in front of the house and I immediately thought of Naomi and how disappointed she would be to get a house without the mailbox she’s always wanted.

While it’s exciting to be taking the next step toward home ownership, the last four months have begun to take its toll on me mentally and emotionally.

Moving across county is a major stressor. Living in an RV for the last 4+ months is a huge change and while I do enjoy it, there are aspects that are challenging. It would be very different if we were moving from place to place, but we’re staying put in one place while we sort out our more permanent living situation. There aren’t many kids here and the kids who are here are on the other side of the park, which means the girls aren’t able to easily make friends. I would also like to be settled where I can get to know the area and our neighborhood. To open up an opportunity to establish my own friendships. There is a level of loneliness that has become more and more difficult to ignore. I’ve tried to open up social opportunities for the girls and me during the week, but those opportunities not been as plentiful as I had hoped. Getting more settled with room to invite people over will certainly help.

Finding a house to buy and then terminating the contact. Going back out to look at more houses and then finding two of interest. Working toward the purchase of our next home has been stressful as well.

It has been a build-up of a lot of things that caused me to tell hubby today that I need to take the girls and go away for a while. I need some time away to regroup and restore myself mentally and emotionally.

So tomorrow morning the girls and I are heading to California to visit with my sister and her family. We’ll spend some time at the beach. We’ll go to Universal Studios so Lili can experience the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We hope to stop at the Grand Canyon on the way there or on the way back. It’s an opportunity to do something out of the norm and chance to take their education on the road for a little while.  Something I have longed to do since we began homeschooling.  It’s also a great way to regroup and re-energize while waiting for the first phase of our home adventure to begin.

When I return, I hope to have some wonderful stories and photos to share of our adventures. Until then, here are some photos of the home we’re now trying to purchase.