For a few years, I have been frustrated with the layout of our house. When we built it 17 years ago, it was never meant to be 'the' house. We were planning on staying for five years max and then move on. It was never meant to house six people - an active family who enjoyed being together. Our house has the space for that many people, but the layout wasn't working. Our entire family couldn't fit into one room comfortably.
But, 17 years later, we are still here. We love our neighbors, we like our ward, we are lazy and didn't want to move and, Greg and I really aren't creatures of change. So, we just dealt with the house. Don't get me wrong - this house has been so good to us. We love it! We have made improvements over the years, we have the yard the way we want, we finished the basement. We were making it work. But - the last few months, we started to feel antsy.
It all began very innocently - we started talking. Wouldn't it be nice if.... And then we realized how close we would be to the new high school - too close for Greg. We can see the stadium lights from our backyard. And then we found out the land behind our house was sold and houses would be going in. We had no idea what kind of houses or neighborhood and that made us slightly nervous.
So, we started looking at houses. We really didn't want to build. We looked at houses in our neighborhood. We looked at houses in our ward. We looked at houses up on the bench. Each week our circle of interest grew wider because we couldn't find what we were looking for. We wanted to stay in the boundaries for the new high school, so we limited ourselves to that area. No luck.
We started looking at land. We found a lot that we loved, but by the time we decided to look into buying it, someone else had snatched it up. It was a great, perfect lot. I would drive by it even though I knew it wasn't ours. I just felt drawn there. It was very disappointing. No luck there either.
Our last option was to remodel this house. We weren't crazy about that option, but we felt like we had exhausted all other avenues. We found a great contractor, had some plans drawn up and still didn't feel great about it. Didn't feel bad, but not good either. We still had the same concerns - close proximity to the high school and the unknown in the field behind us. Plus, we would be putting $50,000 into a house that wouldn't go up in value because we didn't add the to square footage. As our contractor told us, "I'll do my best to make you happy, but your not going to get what you want remodeling this house".
A few days after this conversation with our contractor, I was feeling very discouraged. Maybe we just deal with our house and stop wanting more. Why did I feel like I needed to keep pushing this?
One night, just before dinner, I got a call from Kristie Hampton, a wonderful woman in our ward. The conversation went like this "So, Mark and I bought a lot a while back thinking we would build our dream house on it. We have tried to make it work, but we just can't fit our house on the cul-de-sac lot. We are listing it on KSL in the morning, but I had the feeling I should call you." Call me?? Kristie and I are acquaintances, but not chat-every-day friends. I was astonished she would think of me.
We started talking about the lot. Where is it? Is it in Lehi? How big is it? The more we talked, I started to realize what was happening. The lot she was offering us was the exact lot we wanted! I was astounded - and immediately recognized God's hand in this.
We had 12 hours to decide if we wanted this lot. Now that it was being handed to us, it was real, and we needed to decide if we were serious about this. Greg and I stayed up until two in the morning talking and in the end, we decided to take it!
It's been crazy! We never thought about building another house. We've had to get our finances in order, the kids are changing schools to Sego Lily Elementary (Gavin is staying at Lehi High), we will staying goodbye to neighbors we have had for almost two decades. As overwhelmed as it is, we know we are doing the right thing. It has felt right from the beginning - even before we owned this land. I know we are suppose to be there right now. There has not been many times in my life that I have felt something so clearly and strongly from the Spirit. And I am thankful for that. It makes the move a bit easier.
I will post pictures of our awesome lot soon and keep a history of our new home being built. Wish us luck!
