Utah's housing market is insane (like most of the country right now.). Trek's new job is a unique one where we won't actually be living on or near a base so we knew we needed to find a home somewhat close to his work, but that proved to be impossible thanks to the inflated price of rentals in the Salt Lake Area. There was NO WAY we could afford anything we looked at.
When we found the place we are currently renting online, I was surprised at how low the rent was considering the neighborhood it was in. We immediately put in an offer to rent it, & I knew the price tag was a little too good to be true, but I was hopeful it would be the right house for us. Deep down inside I kind of knew & expected it was going to be work, but nothing prepared me for what we actually moved into.
After we moved in, neighbors began to tell us the horror stories about the previous tenants living there. Junked cars in the driveway, yard never taken care of & completely overgrown, windows broken, & they just knew it was trashed. It was!
Everywhere we looked, something was broken, dirty, or completely unusable. You all know I have serious OCD issues & am a VERY clean person, so this house gave me panic attacks the first few weeks we lived here. Anytime I touched something sticky or greasy or just gross, I'd have to wash my hands over & over & over & over again. The yard was a mudhole filled with weeds, the back fence was broken & refuses to close, there isn't a single screen in the house that doesn't have several holes in it, the A/C was blowing hot air, the water to the sprinkler system wasn't even turned on & hadn't been for several years, the storage shed was filled floor to ceiling with garbage, the garage was full of trash, the fireplace was burned newpaper & magazine clippings all over the living room, there was an inch of grease on every cupboard/counter/appliance in the kitchen. . . the list goes on & on. It was my worst nightmare. . .
but as in all nightmares,
we eventually wake up & move on with life.
Trek & I found the opportunity to spend the summer repairing, building, growing, & improving our new house & we loved doing it. We did it together. We worked hard & we are loving the outcomes we are getting from our hard work.
We reinstalled the sprinkler system & after 3 main water breaks this summer, it's finally up & running beautifully. Our lawn is coming in beautifully now. We cleared out the front flower garden & it's clean & now growing grass as well.
The boys have all learned how to make custom screens for our windows so we can open our windows at night & let in the fresh air (like we learned & grew accustomed to in Germany). Seeing us build this house together is making it home for us. It makes me happy, & I love that we are all gaining life skills in the process.
It's coming along really well. . . we've had several more hiccups in the last 2 months (more water lines breaking, the A/C shutting down, & a water leak that caused our ceiling to fall down), (we feel like we're living in the movie: "The Money Pit". . . but the landlord has to pay for everything which is nice), but we're taking it a day at a time & loving the adventure & life lessons we're learning along the way.
I know a lot of this sounds horrible & it has been, but the house itself has good bones, is big & beautiful, & is going to be perfect for us. We absolutely love our neighborhood, the schools, our church group here, & the location is the best in the valley. The pros completely outweigh the cons & we feel like we were meant to be here at this time. We wouldn't trade it for the world.
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