We found a house!!!

Just when I was starting to get nervous, we found a house to lease!!! I heart Craigs.list! Ok, a little background - when Sean made the decision to leave his former company and start Family First Mortgage Group, we decided we would sell the house and lease for a few years. Why???

Well, we have a big, fat, ugly mortgage payment and Sean wants to be able to focus on growing the business without the stress of so much overhead and maintenance. The mortgage wasn't so big, fat & ugly when he had a big, fat salary and big, fat bonuses and big, fat commissions, but all of that came at a big, fat price and in the end, it wasn't worth it. It has always been Sean's dream to own his own business so we took the leap of faith and Family First Mortgage Group was born. You should visit our website - it is our pride & joy right now www.familyfirstmg.com.

Anyway, we put the house up and it sold. Since it is such a craptastic market, it took awhile and we had to come wayyyyy down in price, but the long term savings benefit will off set that in no time.

We knew we wanted a comparable house in a nice neighborhood and those are few and far between. Most often, they are priced sky-high, ugly as sin or they want you to hand over your first born as collateral. So, when I saw an amazing looking house at an amazing price on c-list this week, I jumped on it. I went to see it & promptly fell in love. It is perfect!!!!

It is in an incredible neighborhood that we have always coveted and it is a complete rehab so it is more like new construction than a "rental". They re-did the house from top to bottom. It is comparable to our house in every way & all of our furniture will fit, so, no additional storage costs. The house has:

• formal living room
• formal dining room
• family room
• 4 bedrooms
• 2.5 baths
• finished basement
• plenty of storage
• a decent sized yard
• neutral colors

And the best part - a brand, spankin' new kitchen! Porcelain tile floors, stainless appliances, granite counters, beautiful cabinets - ahhhh...it is lovely. It kicks my current kitchen's ass with its' white vinyl floors, white appliances, blah counters....Oh & it comes with a 50 inch plasma tv mounted over the fireplace.

I might even like it better than the home I own and I get to live there for 50% less than my current mortgage. Who-hoo! I feel incredibly lucky. The landlord seems amazing and takes care of all the major maintenance -inside & out. They were going to sell it, but they kind of blew out the budget during the rehab and the market just won't justify their asking price, so they decided to rent it instead & lucky for me they did!

We will be moving on April 24th - yep that's right- right in the middle of my stims for IVF #2! We decided to push the move date up a little bit so that we could be moved in before ER/ET. It is going to be fun stuff. My mom is coming down to help us - thank goodness! I love my mommy!

To be honest, I was not looking forward to this entire moving/leasing process, but now I am very excited about it. It feels right - new beginnings all around - a new business, a new home & a new cycle! Wish us luck -April is going to be one crazy ride!