Our first real house

Top: Our first apartment/town home together (it was a shoebox)
Bottom: Our new base house (isn't it beautiful?)

Our last summer in Virginia
Top: The summer wreath I made for the door of our old town home
Bottom: My patio at the old town home

The new house all ready for Fall!
Top: The Fall wreath on the door of our new home
Bottom: My mother in law and I switched patio sets
before we moved so we would have something a little bigger!
It goes absolutely perfect with the house!

I LOVE our new house so much! It still amazes me that it is ours and that we were able to get it and move in right away! Insane! This is how I pictured everything going down: We would get here during the weekend, go to the housing office on Monday to see when we would get a home, them tell us that they don't know and that we would just have to wait and stay on the list until further notice, us go to TLF and end up being there forever and eventually getting tired of the hotels again, end up renting an apartment off base and then much much later on getting a crappy house in a not so good neighborhood. I know, I just sounded like a synical person, but that is really how I thought things would turn out. Not that good things don't happen to me, it's just that there always has to be a problem. Nothing ever ever comes easy for me no matter what. I did not expect this housing ordeal to go smooth and easy AT ALL, but it did in a huge way. When we got to Anchorage we had an off base hotel reservation and we had gone ahead and made our TLF reservations a month prior, so we were already prepared to stay in the base hotel for as long as we had to. On Monday we decided to just go to the housing office to try to find out when we would be offered a house. Jarrett figured it would not take long at all so I just stayed in the truck with Leo since it was raining really hard that day. Jarrett then texted me five minutes later telling me that it might take a while, so I still sat in the car with Leo and waited. About 30 minutes after he texted me here he comes outside with a house key in his hand! I almost fainted because I knew what that house key in his hand meant for us. We were just offered a house!

 

We were offered a house even though we were high up on the waiting list because we had gotten to the base two weeks earlier than Jarrett had to report. We wanted to get here early and not mess around so we could get settled in and learn our way around town. Little did we know there was a bigger reason why God got us here sooner than expected! He sure does work in mysterious ways! The housing office gave us the keys to go look at our new home. Our home was in one of the nicest and newer neighborhoods! I have been dreaming of living in a real house for forever! Practically all of my friends and their husbands or boyfriend have bought a house already together and I was always so envious of them even though I was so happy for them at the same time. When you're in the military, you can't just go buy a house when you are only in one place for four years at a time. It's not that Jarrett and I could not afford to buy a nice house, it's just that we were logical in the fact that we would not be living in Virginia very long at all. We knew better than to buy a house with the possibility of us being transferred! Although I did love our first little town home together and we were very blessed to have it, I could not help but dream of more for us.

 

On the day we first stepped foot on base, I noticed houses everywhere! Big houses, small houses, run down houses, beautiful houses, everywhere we turned! I told myself that I would love whichever house they gave us no matter how big or small. I would turn it into our home for the next four years no matter what it looked like. I just wanted a place to call home. I dreamed of us getting one of those big beautiful houses though. I dreamed of getting one of those houses, all of our belongings arriving to it, me decorating it, hanging our pictures in it, having friends and family in it and raising a family in it. Little did I know I was literally dreaming a dream that came true. After we were given the house key for the first time, I was so nervous as we drove around trying to find our new address. I felt so materialistic wanting one of those big houses as much as I did. I didn't want to care what our house looked like, but deep down inside, we all want a beautiful place to call home. Once we pulled into our new neighborhood, excitement came over me like nothing I had ever felt before. We were really getting one of those big beautiful houses! We pulled into our driveway for the first time and all I said to Jarrett was "OMG this is ours, babe!" Jarrett couldn't believe it either. Three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a living room, a family room, a fenced in backyard for Leo and a garage for a second vehicle! In true minion fashion..."WHATTTTTTT?" Yep, little minions went off in my head when I walked into the house for the first time!

 

The housing office wanted us to look around the house and make sure it was what we wanted and that there were no problems because if we did not like the house, they would give us a second house offer. We quickly looked at each room and scrambled out of the house back to the housing office. We couldn't get there fast enough to tell the office that we would take it. Before we knew it we had accepted the offer, signed all the paperwork and moved in two days later with all of our belongings. Although we did not technically buy a house, we felt like we did and we cannot wait to actually buy a house some day. If we stay in Alaska longer than four years of which we could possibly, we will buy a house here. If we do and we end up being sent elsewhere we will still keep it and lease it out to others. We could also use it as a vacation home because we definitely know that we will want to vacation here after we move. The possibilities are endless. For now, we are all unpacked with everything beginning to be in it's rightful place. The only thing left to do is decorate for Fall, hang the rest of the pictures, buy furniture for the family room and get a guest bedroom set up for upcoming visitors. Jarrett said we are checking things off the list one by one: new house, two jobs, new car and now he says it's time to get pregnant(in a just joking away)! Haha, I told him to let me find my full time career here and then we can really talk babies! I mean, we do have a huge house now for both another puppy and babies! Thank goodness!