Secret Dreamings and Schemings

Nic and I have this habit of looking at houses on-line and daydreaming. Don't get me wrong, I love my house. This is the home that we started out in. This is the house where we began our little family. We've put so much work into this house. I think the living room, the kitchen, and Nic's bathroom are the only rooms that I haven't really altered yet. The basement flooded our first year of marriage, and I got to get the basement I wanted--complete with my favorite wall in the entire house: the red wall. Two years ago, when I was pregnant with Sam, we totally re-did the two bedrooms, finally moving into the master bedroom and creating the perfect nursery for Sam in our old bedroom. Shortly before that, we renovated the bathroom and the laundry/dog room. We've got new windows. I love Sam's room with the green walls and farm animals smiling at me from the walls. I love that my laundry room is a light shade of violet that reminds me of Jamba juice. And this year is the year of the yard. So far Nic has ripped out the old yard and assures me that a new yard will be in place soon. I hope so. Two ducks love the pond we've created for them, but I don't think I want to send Gus and Sam out to play in the mud every day! I'm so excited to have grass and to turn these boys loose outside.
I love our neighbors, Tom and Diane. They are good people. I don't love their dogs, however. Three little weiner dogs that yap, yap, yap constantly. But Tom and Diane are good enough neighbors that I try not to throw rocks at their dogs (too often...when people are looking...). I love our neighborhood. I have some good friends living close by in this neighborhood. And it's convenient to any store, restaurant, doctor's offices, etc. that I need.
I love our ward. It feels like family, and everyone is so good to us and especially Sam. It's like we have an entire support net of grandparents, aunts, and uncles to help us raise up Sam in the right way. The ward has its quirks, but so does every ward. I've really come to feel at home here.
So, why then am looking around like I'm dissatisfied? I need room to stretch. What's the saying? You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl. I need wide, open spaces. Nic and I both grew up in a rural setting with chores to go feed the horses and such. We want our children to grow up with similar experiences. We're going to have two boys soon who will need room to grow and chores to keep them growing up strong and right. I want my children to know the value of hard work and to have a closeness with God's creations that sometimes gets lost here in the city. And I want to have horses. My friend, Janae, lives in Idaho with her family of six boys, and she posted the other day about a boy and his horse--how her oldest son has been working to break and train a horse and what a good experience that has been for him. I want that life! I'm still old school in the belief that having land is more important than having a fancy house or fancy cars. If I were a millionaire, I would want a ranch house sitting on twenty acres in the middle of nowhere. I see these multi-million dollar houses built one of top of another, all clumped together, and I don't understand it. I don't want a big house necessarily--I want a big yard to play!
With all this in mind, Nic and I often look at houses and daydream of living out in the country someday. Well, the other day we came across this house out in Wallsburg (near Heber but pretty much in the middle of nowhere). It caught our eye. Nic had work out in Heber, so while he was in the area, he took a slight detour and went to look at the house. Then he came home and told me that I needed to go out and look at it. Nic liked the community. Wallsburg has the population of about 300 people. He also liked the feeling of it. There's one little store in the town, and Nic stopped there to get a snack. The owner told him he couldn't use plastic to pay for anything under $5.00, and Nic didn't have any cash on him. The owner then said, "That's okay. Just take the candybar, and pay me back next time you come through here." Nic told him that he didn't know when he would be back and couldn't just take it. Instead, Nic ended up buying $5.00 worth of snacks! But there's still that honesty, that trust your word, good old-fashioned ethics there. Anyway, on Friday we ended up going to look at the house with our realtor friend, Tyler. It's a log home and absolutely gorgeous. Five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a good sized kitchen, a good size master bedroom, two beautiful living rooms, and three balcony decks coming off the house. And, best of all, it is sitting on five acres of pasture land. It has a beautiful of mountains and countryside. We were really impressed with everything. There's some fixer-upper things that we would need to do (as with any house), but overall we really liked the house and property.
That Sunday we went back to Wallsburg and went to church out there just to check it out and see how things felt. The people were really nice and welcoming to us. One lady, who was sitting next to us during Sacrament meeting, told us that we would actually be in the other ward and that she would find someone from that ward for us to talk to. After the meeting, she brought this young guy to introduce to us. He looked like he was maybe seventeen years old, but then the lady said, "I want to introduce you to my son who is in the bishopric of the other ward." I guess he wasn't as young as I thought! He was really nice and answered the questions that we had.
On the drive home, Nic and talked about things. We both felt good about things. Enough that the next day, Nic talked with the bank, got approved for a loan, and put in an offer for the house. It's a short sale and there is another offer on the table, so it's a long shot, but worth a try. We'll see what happens. Nic tells me that it may be awhile before we find out anything. It could be months. Months! The idea of moving is terrifying yet exciting. Nic is nervous about the finances (because that's his department of stress), and I'm nervous about figuring out the family side of things like what needs to be done to prepare for a move (because that's my department of stress), but mostly we've just kind of taken a leap of faith. We'll see what happens. As Nic put it, we've put this in God's hands but we'll work like it's in ours. The most important thing for us is being where Heavenly Father wants us and doing what is best for our family. For now, we'll explore this road and see where it leads.
The house:


The yard:

Could I live here? Why, Yes! I think I could get used to it!