We came, we saw...you know the rest:

Jake and I took Portland real estate by storm last week and boy was it fun! After viewing over 20 homes and leaving ripples all along the way (listing prices being dropped, carpet allowances being made after our agent gave the selling agents our feedback), we knew this was the home we wanted. Isn't it pretty?


Things went incredibly well on our house hunt and I feel so very grateful. The negotiations were kind of tough but I hear that's very typical and I'm sure compared to what a lot of people have to go through they weren't really bad at all. Although, we didn't find out our counter-offer had been accepted until we were literally about to board our plane back to California. That was stressful, but what a relief to be able to come back home and tell our family that we got the house after all!

I wanted to share some of my favorite things about this house. I just love the exterior. I was just drawn to it when it first showed up on the listings:



I am also in love with this kitchen:


The master bedroom is great too:


Hooray for these planter boxes that are all ready for me to step in and take over:



There are also several mature trees in the backyard (all about the same size as the one you can see on the left in the above picture) including a cherry tree! In my excitement I guess I forgot to take a picture!

Plus, it is a mere 9 minutes from the company Jake will be working for. A huge bonus!

All this being said, we are currently in the thick of negotiations for the home inspection phase. The home inspection turned out well, but there are a few things we want them to take care of before things are finalized, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed (I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that the bottom won't fall out of the mortgage industry before our loan closes).

And last but certainly not least, a huge thank you to Nick, Jayne and Alec for making all this possible for us. They had Joshua and Daniel all week so that Jake and I could work unhindered. There is no possible way we could have accomplished what we did without their help. It really was a win-win situation for us as our kids would have been so bored on this trip, being dragged from house to house and instead they had the time of their lives with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Alec. They got to ride a steam train, go swimming, go to movies and I can't even name all the rest of the great things they did. Thank you so much again -- I don't think you know how much this meant to us!