H|O|M|E|O|W|N|E|R|S

How nuts is that?  We are officially homeowners.  I just signed my name 9 billion times.  I sat in 'Closing Room 6' for two hours.  Spent more money than I thought possible in one setting (b/c at some point during a shopping spree, I'd realize I had gone overboard).  Learned a lot about our future.  Got dealt my first deal in debit.  Felt my stomach in my throat...and a little anxiety. Smiled, nodded, and shook my head in understanding of a bunch of gibberish.  And finally, stood up, shook hands, and walked away a homeowner.

I felt like this wasn't really happening the whole time.  I found this foreclosed condo the last day of my last visit to Chicago.  {Still so weird I am a resident here.}  I really didn't want to live in a teeny, tiny 'ghetto' apartment.  I was trying every other avenue, but rent was too high in my more favorable places to live.  I wanted to stay semi-close to family since Michael is typically gone for days at a time.  I also knew the area they lived in was nice (safe, good schools, clean, reasonable distance to the airport).  We knew we couldn't afford "our first home" being somewhere we could raise our family for years on end.  Our situation truly wasn't ideal with pay cuts and unknown employment.  Then I found this little hidden gem.  2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage end unit in our family's same neighborhood.  It's small.  It's ours.  And it's a great place to start our family.  I do believe we will grow out of it since we currently still want four kids.

I got to choose paint colors.  I got to paint our first home.  I say "I" got to paint, but really I mean I have awesome family members who worked their booties off today to paint our condo.  Kim, Grandma, Ron, Scott, Dee, Kyle, and Ryane (hubs too)- Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.  I appreciate your help more than you will ever know.  It was killing me that I couldn't take part.  After all it is my first home, my first time to have the ability to paint and I couldn't do anything about it.  Ugh.  I am beyond excited to get our life started here though.  Slowly move into our house, have our first baby, get settled, and start our routine.  All in enough time for more change to come (me going back to work).  That's how life goes.  We've adapted thus far, so I have no worries.  Although leaving our first born (and any other child I'm sure), is going to be a huge difficulty.  We will cross that bridge when we get there.

Pics from the website where it was listed.  I will do updated pics as things change (starting tomorrow b/c it already looks SO different).

{Outside view of pretty much the garage...}

{LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my kitchen}

{Dining area}

{Living room}