a (house) hunting we will go!

before anyone jumps to conclusions...we are not moving. yet. :) 

but you may be wondering what in the world is going on. we put our house up for sale a few months ago and really, really pushed it because our dream house (literally) opened up miraculously in spanish fork and it was going to work out perfectly...

until it didn't.

the main thing that didn't work out was that we just couldn't sell our house. the interest was basically zero (ok, one couple was actually really interested. but they offered us less than what we originally bought the house for! and wanted us to leave every single appliance! hah!!! not happening). but we did all we could, hoping that whatever was supposed to happen would. 

in the mean time, i dreamt about living in this beautiful space. i mean, look at it!!!! can't you just imagine max running around in this house?!? (oh wait...he did!)

// those lights!! and that countertop! and the marble backsplash!! i'm getting sad looking at these pictures all over again... //

// julia even left one of her amazing custom paintings in the house! for that reason alone i wanted it! :) //

after a few weeks, we realized that things weren't looking good. we kept our house on the market, but as we expected, nothing happened. chris & julia's house sold in a heartbeat (as i knew it would) and we tried to console ourselves but nothing seemed to work...

until, one day a few weeks ago, max and i were walking home from church and we started talking to our sweet neighbor, donna. she lives next to this big victorian house (that i've never really noticed before) and she told us all about how it's been so long since that house received some "tender loving care" (hint, hint!!)

well, one thing led to another and before we knew it, we were meeting with the owner of the house. it needs a lot of work. like a lot, a lot, a lot. 

but i see so much potential in it!! (can't you just imagine christmas in this house? with a fire crackling in the fireplace??) hah! maybe you can't, but for some reason i have this weird thing with old houses that are falling apart. if this house had some tlc, it could be so beautiful.

however, after walking through it with the owner, i'm just not sure we want to take on such a ginormous project. she was an interesting lady...and was very open, and honest with us (telling us every single thing about the house.) it was beneficial, but burst our bubbles real quick. there was an electrical fire in the house (which we knew before hand) but some of the things weren't adding up...she kept saying things like, "we put in over $350,000 to fix it up after the fire" (really?! where?), and "we just got a little lazy, and wanted to get out of nephi really fast", etc...

basically, we would need to replace flooring in the entire house. the brand new wood flooring that they installed had gaps everywhere :( and the carpet upstairs was disgusting (as in, they had a ferret and a dog!!!), the kitchen, though "brand-new" would need a total overhaul, the windows are just as bad as ours (really bad), the roof is falling apart, the heating/cooling vents only cover the first floor (what?!?), etc, etc.

though we couldn't believe that we were actually looking at buying in nephi again, it was disappointing to say the least. 

and now, here we are, back at square one. 

for some reason, ever since we have moved to nephi (three years ago) we have been in a sort of limbo. we love so many things about nephi: our house, yard, neighbors, ward, etc... but something about utah county is calling us back: family, friends, grocery stores, kid-friendly environment, etc... :) 

we have no idea what the lord wants us to do, but until we figure it out, we'll keep plugging along in good old nephi, psyching people out by putting our house up for sale, and looking at beautiful (and dumpy) houses.