Big News!

Well, Kevin and I have big news....

We are building a house!  We got approved for the loan last week and also met with the architect last Thursday and yesterday to do rough drafts on the plans.  This actual deal has been in the works for about a month now but I wanted to wait until things were a bit more final before we announced!  

Actually...I guess this whole idea has been in the works for years.  Kevin and I have always wanted to build a house but we LOVE the house we are in now so we really wanted to make it work.  We have had architects and general contractors to our house to have them look at some things we wanted to do to it.  Pool, another garage, patio out back, opening the kitchen to den, creating more of an office for Kevin to work, a playroom for Molly Anne....we looked at adding two bedrooms and a bath to our walk in attic upstairs. We went through A LOT of options to try to make our current home work.  We love it and our neighborhood and our neighbors so much.  

What it came down to is that this house is awesome and wonderful but it doesn't have some things that we really want for our family.  By the time we spent the amount of money it would take to do all of this, it doesn't make financial sense.  This house is very special to us for many reasons including who sold it to us, that we got married while living here, brought Molly Anne home to it, it's little Mills' only home and so many memories have been made.  We are hoping to keep it and if this new house doesn't work out and we hate it, we will be right back where are now.  

Soooo....unfortunately we couldn't get a lot in our current neighborhood so that's the bad news.  There are only a few and none are for sale.  We've been watching them for awhile and know a couple stories behind them and they won't sell.  We were forced to look elsewhere.  We will be in a similar neighborhood and fortunately already know a few families that live in that hood.  I've already met our new next door neighbors and they are our age and Molly Anne is in the middle of their two girls age-wise.  (So excited about this!!!)  Every time we go drive around the new neighborhood, elementary age kids are all over the place playing and having fun after school and on the weekends.  I LOVE it.  

Get ready for lots of house posts....we will have lots of things to pick out along the way so I'm excited to come to you all for advice!!!!