Ta Daa!!!! Here's the House We Signed a Purchase Agerement on Yesterday...

Wednesday we looked at 8 houses and decided on this one for several reasons. First, it had a dining room big enough for our table which a few of the houses didn't have. Secondly, it didn't have too many stairs. For those of you who loved the Indiana house -- it was awesome but in order to do anything you had to climb a flight of stairs... In addition, it was right next to a powerplant and across the street from railroad tracks which wasn't bad for us -- but would have been bad for resale. Third, we wanted to be strategically located closer to a more urban and diverse area.

Our new church is on the line between Crystal and Robbinsdale and serves Robbinsdale, Crystal in New Hope. As is typical of most Cities, the urban and more diverse areas are in the center and the farther out you go the less diverse and more wealthy the population becomes. Most churches in the suburbs are doing a great job of serving those farthest from the city, but are not sure how to reach the other population in their area. This church, however, is very interested in reaching their community so the location of our home strategically states that we are as well -- and that we are interested in the people who are moving into the area. And finally, it was the cheapest of the bunch, which is interesting. The other contender (we had it narrowed down to the 40th Ave property and this one, was only 6 blocks from the church and about equal in many ways, but the price was 50,000 higher. We had qualified financially to buy the more expensive house but we chose otherwise and I'm kind of proud of us for that.

So, 5 blocks from Minneapolis is where we landed. The house was purchased in December at a very cheap price -- it would have been interesting to see what it looked like then. It has been completely remodeled and everything in it -- paint, carpet, flooring, appliances -- is brand new. It's gorgeous on the inside and while the yard and garage aren't much, they kind of fit into the neighborhood which makes me relieved. For the last 16 years we have lived in places where people REALLY cared a lot about their lawns and, as Bart says, they were raising grass, we were raising kids. It isn't really a good mix. Our lawn here right now is covered in dandelions... which isn't a problem for us but it does stand out in a neighborhood of people with near perfect lawns. There were lots of dandelions in our new neighborhood and for some reason this strangely comforts me.

I grew up in the City. I love the diversity of the people and the richness of the culture of the City. I'm excited about being back there.

Of course, I'm super super sad about leaving my friends and our church in Mankato, but I am not allowing myself to dwell on that part of things until I have to.

So, wanna see it?


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If you really want to creep on us, you can check out everything about the house here. There is also a beautiful virtual tour here that shows some of the parks near the area.

We are excited about the changes that the newness of a home, a community and a church can be. It shakes us out of our comfort zone, but often that's just what we need.

We can't wait to have you over!!!