Go west young man

It is time to head west when baby number four is on the way and you begin to wonder if bunk beds can be stacked three high.

So that's what we're doing. We're moving west.

By west I mean 20 minutes west of our current house. But west, nonetheless.

And moving. A true move of buying one house and selling another. Except that we're not really buying the house. Or we are but it's already in the family. Confused?

We are buying Greg's grandmother's old house. It was left to Greg's dad after she passed away and has been a housing option that we've known about for a while. But we were comfortable and the house had renters and we just never put that much thought into it.

When the renters moved out though we went looking with different eyes and the one things we both thought was, "Why on earth wouldn't we do this?"

It's a much bigger home, over 1000 square feet larger than where we are now. It is a rancher with three bedrooms next to each other on the main floor, 2.5 baths, a huge lovely living room, double sided fireplace, large fenced backyard, over sized garage, and STORAGE. Did I mention the storage? It might be the best part.

There is also a fully finished basement. It has one more bedroom as well as this massive expanse of a family room. Whenever we are over there the kids ride their bikes in the basement because it's that big and open.

This house really fits our image of where we want to be now and years from now. A basement for teenage entertaining in the future and a playroom for now. No more worrying about crawling babies falling down stairs. Bedrooms close together. A master bathroom!!

I'm not to the best part yet. The house was built in the 1960s I think and while in very good shape does look a little dated. This is where father-in-law Doug (otherwise known as coolest remodelingest Daddio out there OR the statue of David (inside joke, hahaha)) comes in. He's remodeling this place for us. New main bathroom and half bath. Fully beautified kitchen. New carpet. Carpet ripped up in the dining room and new flooring through there, the kitchen, and laundry area. New stainless steel sink for the laundry room. Greg and I are going to paint and take down a bit of wall paper and put up new drapes. How do you say thank you for that?!?!?!? THANK YOU DOUG AND MARIAN!!!! It's really so much more than a person can dare even ask for. We're giving them our fourth child as a gift.

Enjoy the pictures of our new house. These are the before pictures and I'll post after pictures in the spring. Our goal is to have our current house on the market by the first of March and pray it sells in a timely fashion.

So there it is, the big news. Did you guess??

One shot of the backyard

More backyard. A great size for a family.

A picture taken standing in the corner of one of the bedrooms.

The dining room. This picture doesn't do it justice, it's twice as big as our current dining space. It will fit a table that actually seats all six of us!

The kitchen, which is obviously adjacent to the dining room . The cupboards over the range are being taken out to open up the space more. Another good father-in-law idea.

One side of the two sided fireplace. This side is in the living room, the other side in the dining room. I think it needs a mantle for six stockings next Christmas!

The living room. Another large space, separated from the kitchen and dining room by a wall and the fireplace.

A teeny glimpse at the storage area in the basement.

This picture was taken standing at one end of the basement family room.

This picture was taken standing at the other end. See the other fireplace off to the left?

Next summer we should have room for visitors and guests. Book your reservations now!