Moving Forward with the Move

Greetings! Sorry I have no cards to show lately. I've been preoccupied with moving. We've been researching our new area. I've been in contact with an old friend from high school that lives near our new city and she had wonderful things to say. Cannot wait to meet up with her and get our little boys together.

After much research, we decided the best place to live will be a town, just north of Birmingham called Gardendale. I love what I have found so far. The community looks great, very family friendly. The schools are very good for the area and we will be needing an Elementary school in about 2 years. Many churches to choose from. One in particular has a pre-school program with before and after care. Houses are plentiful with low property taxes. I've looked into the children's hospital and am excited for when the time is right to go back to work. Especially after meeting some local nurses here over the weekend and "and talking shop" really made me start to realize there is a part of me that misses working.

Now for the exciting part. . .I think we found a house! I was shocked too that we found one so fast. It's new construction at an awesome price! The realtor sent us photos tonight and we love it! It's huge with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths on a culd-a-sac. Forgot to ask about the sq ft in my excitement. It will be nice to have something that doesn't require major redecorating and repairs. Been there done that. Tim's going to have long work weeks and now that we have Jacob we don't want to be consumed with fixing things. There is a massive backyard for Jacob and the dogs. There is a covered patio area off of the kitchen (I missed that in our last house). I can see sitting out there with cup of coffee watching Jacob play. . . The 4th room is huge which will allow for a play/craft room. The other 2 rooms look to be of average size and the master is quite large with walk in closet and bath with garden tub, jack and jill sink, and shower. The neighborhood has a pool which I think is a must in the south with the hot humid summers. Best part, I don't have to maintain it! The kitchen is beautiful. Just needs a little tweaking with curtains, new light fixture over the kitchen table area and perhaps some color. It has dark cherry cabinets (I've seen this trend or white in most new houses) with a tile backsplash and floor. I like the counters but am not sure what material they are. Above the kitchen island are recessed can lights and 2 hanging shade lights. Pretty neat!

Also this week, we spent 2 hours coodinating our packouts and inspections to move out of housing. Moving out of housing can be an ordeal. Someone comes to see how much stuff you have, then they pack it up. Someone else comes to see what repairs need to be done before you leave. Then you clean everything from top to bottom just to have someone come back approve everything sign-off the paper and leave. So that's what's ahead. Normally most of this isn't left for the last month but because we didn't have a final destination until a week ago we are doing everything at the end. We packout on the 14th and move out on the 29th. Our belongings are scheduled to arrive July 6th. We'll be visiting family so didn't need them before. We fly off the island on May 1st. I'm glad it's all coming together. I hope it continues to go smoothly over the next few weeks.