We bought a house

Our lives have been rather busy lately, and this is mostly due to the fact that we now own two houses. At the beginning of February we put our house on the market, which means we’ve had to keep it show-ready with four small children. Remember too that we’re homeschooling, which means that we can’t just leave the house for the day. It’s been crazy! We signed on our new house on March 16. It’s on the other side of Albuquerque in the foothills. Here’s a little list of pros and cons with regards to the new house: Pros *Much, much closer to work for Aaron. This will give him almost an hour a day in non-driving time. *Three-car garage. *It has it’s own laundry room! This is a big deal for me, since I spend nearly every day doing laundry (four kids plus cloth diapering!). *The most amazing views of the city. *A balcony, a deck, and covered patio. *Much bigger backyard with nice hardscaping. *Older neighborhood, which means that there is established landscaping. Lots more trees than the west side! *We’re much closer to everything. *Lots of windows and skylights. *We got into a good part of town for a great price. Cons *It’s ugly. We definitely got a do-it-yourself special. *It’s old. Roof needs replacing, furnace needs replacing, water heater needs replacing, windows need replacing… *The kitchen is terrible. It’s really impossible to work in. *Cat(s) lived here. *We now own two houses. It’s definitely not the fastest market, and we happened to buy our first home at the peak of the market, so we’re limited in how low we can drop our price. *We have to leave our house, which I love, and our friends, whom I love. Here’s the house as it looked when we put in an offer (these are the Realtor photos): Adjacent to a cul-de-sac Lovely gates to the entrance of the home. So welcoming and inviting, don’t you think? (insert sarcasm here) Everything is original to the mid 80s. Nice. This photo doesn’t show the wall right next to the island that closes off the entire space. That’s getting knocked down. Dining room. The wall with the TV trays is the one getting demolished. Downstairs living room. That stone fireplace is something. Believe it or not, it looks much, much worse in person. View of the loft and entry to the master bedroom. Like the glass doors to the bedroom? Loft. This is where the computers and my sewing desk will go. Other view from loft. Look at all those windows! Picture of the master bedroom. This is a very large room. The tile work in this bathroom is awesome. Fish pond on the top level on the yard. Since we’re right at the base of the mountains, we’re built on a slope, but they terraced it very nicely. The pond will have to go, since I can see Paul taking a swim the first week we’re in the house. We’ll be replacing the poorly-installed flagstone with grass for the kids. The koi in the pond have already been sold, thanks to some fortuitous circumstances. Part of the bottom level on the yard. There’s so much of the yard that you can’t see. There’s another pond down at this level (which we’ll try to keep) and tons of beds for planting. I’ll be in gardening heaven! For some reason the Realtor didn’t take any photos of the basement. It’s got a playroom for the kids and four bedrooms. We’re so excited for this new adventure, although it’s overwhelming thinking of everything that needs to be done!