Expanding

As many of you know we bought our current house with every intention of fixing it up and selling it within one year. Well after 4 1/2 years of living here we have found many reasons why this is a good place for our family. First of all, at one point we bought some land and some how found the worst possible neighbors you could find. So after much prayer we decided we couldn't move our family next to these people and therefor put the land back up for sale. We were pretty disapointed, but started looking for something else as our house began feeling smaller and smaller. We must say though that this experience immediately made us realize that the neighbors we currently have are not something to take for granted! We all watch out for one another and generally care what is happening in one another's lives. Next door is a pool at Mrs. Barbara's house which we are able to use quite often. The girls love it and their dogs! Anyway, as we kept looking for other houses we constantly were comparing them to where we are now and what we have now that we aren't willing to give up. For instance we are within walking distance to Mrs Curl (the best ice cream shop in Greenwood!), the library (which we go 2 times a week), 3 parks, the big fireworks, parade, and all greenwood events! We have a great neighborhood for walks, a great back yard, and close to the interstate. As you can see we have come up with so many reasons why we wished we could stay where we are but somehow have a bigger house! Well when we went to our realtor in January to see how much our house would sell for in this market we realized we werent leaving anytime soon. We had lost all 30,000 in equity because of the falling market. So Scott got to work to figure out a way we could add on and get everything we want in a house since we already have the location we want. Brillant Scott figured out a way we were both excited about. We are adding on to the front instead of the back in order to keep our big back yard. We will have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2 car garage! Plus a bigger kitchen and dinning room! With Scott being able to do all of the work we can do it cheap enough that we will get our money out of it by the time we ever decide to sell. Scott has actually already begun renovation. Ryan's room is now an extra bathroom and a hallway to lead to the new bedrooms he will add on soon. We are really excited about this which is funny because 4 years ago we would have never imagined this would be what we would want. Sometimes God changes your heart and desires! What is amazing is that we always said we wish somehow we could have a 4 bedroom house within a certain amount (which most laughed at us when we gave the number) plus not have Scott gone for 9 months to fix a cheap house, and that God did grant for us and for that we are truly thankful!! God is good!