we bought a house!

Except it doesn't technically exist. Yet. We're building it, and today we gave them a kidney non-refundable deposit and signed piles of paperwork in blood. Oh, and Carter threw ridiculous, embarrassing tantrums in the realtor's office and smeared poop all over his shirt. Another story, another day.

(Quite a first for me, starting a post about a house with visions of blood and poop.)

Here's the floor plan (sorry about the blurry letters):

I want to use the 'Library' as Carter's playroom.

Relief surges through my veins just looking at the upstairs laundry room. I also love the Jack & Jill bathroom for kids (dead giveaway we're going to try for another ... sometime) and the guest room with its own bathroom, since 99% of our family is out of town.

The neighborhood has an elementary school across the street, sidewalks and walking trails, a pool, clubhouse and playground. And I'm hoping? Tons of little families hiding in their houses, peeking out their windows, just waiting on the edges of their seats for Carter to move to the neighborhood and befriend their children.

The model home we've been looking at every weekend for the past - I dunno - forty trillion months is an exact replica of what we're building. We're even planning on the same granite, cabinets, lighting, appliances and similar floors ... so this weekend I'm going to stop by with my good camera and get some pictures to post. In the meantime, I have a blurry iPhone picture of the kitchen to tide you over.

How does it feel to tie yourself to something this solid? Scary. I'm so nervous. It's like I just had a wedding with a building ( ... err ... piece of land?). I'm mostly worried that the neighborhood won't be perfect enough for Carter. Matt and I just chose his future - the children he'll meet and be influenced by, the places he'll play, the memories he'll develop and hopefully cherish. I hope the entire situation is one he'll be able to look back on and be proud of some day.

Tonight, I keep swallowing back my nerves with reminders to myself that I'm going to love the house. And then Matt said it. We're going to get to have Carter's next birthday in this house. That was all I needed to hear. I'm so happy.

Construction will be finished at the end of July; I'm betting the next four months are going to feel just as long as the last week of pregnancy.

Earlier today, Carter, Grandma and I went to a crazyoutofourpricerange house to get decor ideas.

Ok, and maybe I just wanted to pretend I lived there for a few minutes. This apartment is getting all kinds of grimey.

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