Trying again...........

If I haven't mentioned it already, we're addicts. If there is a meeting for people who obsessively look at homes, we should certainly consider joining them! I'm guessing well above 100 homes in this search for our next home alone. We even wrote contracts on a couple, walked from those because they weren't "right". At that point we started questioning WHAT exactly WAS right. I am pretty deeply rooted in the idea that outside of moral absolutes, really, anything I do in confidence and with good, well thought out intentions, for myself or family, can NEVER be wrong. Period. Especially since my choices are usually "research based" and very rarely based on "feelings".

If at some point those can be combined- HALLELUJAH!

Yesterday my "fact based" research AND my heart (at the same time!) delivered. A new home has been conceived and will be delivered sometime this summer. We chose a new home in Castle Rock, CO- a suburb south of the Denver Metro Area. If you know me my heart lies with older, well built, smaller homes. However, what lies before that is my family. If I had my way I'd put us in the poor house remodeling a home that has been abandoned and be smiling the entire way... until I realized I ruined us.... Thankfully Kurt is close by to remind me, as well as my trusty worksheets showing me EXACTLY how much my dream home (or worst nightmare) will cost me in the END. That # is uber important. And, if you remember, we're up against some hefty health concerns, security is a very important element. The "ease" of it all doesn't hurt things either!

We had a little list of "must haves", however, we were pretty open to any ideas and figured we'd be led to the right place. Being close enough to the "big city" so that we can continue to enjoy all that it has to offer was very important. Being far enough a way so that we can breathe deep and enjoy the outdoors was also very important. Being surrounded by other young families was a criteria. Good schools, historical and proven positive return on investment exclusive to the area, adequate bedrooms ABOVE ground, updated/replaced mechanical fixtures, solid, ect.... BUT, being close to Brennon's "other" home was the MOST important thing. There obviously other factors, but those were big ones.

We have gone this route before, exactly the same route, but decided the new home wasn't what we needed/wanted. Stepping back really allowed us to see what we had regarding the investment and after looking at some (a million) other homes that were down right FALLING apart... well. It was clear. Thankfully we've been a little flighty regarding the experience.... once we decided that Castle Rock WAS the right place, the builder had recently introduced a new model that I am SURE was mispriced. I didn't mention it to them, but I am more than sure they'll have a 20% price increase overnight. Hurry, go get yours before they figure it out! :)

We chose a lot on a cul de sac that is super close to the elementary school, park, tennis courts and hiking trails. We also chose to go with a smaller lot, specifically one that will be terraced and allow us to create more of a lush courtyard feel with lots of hard scapes in many different materials. We'll have a little privacy, or as much as you can get in the burbs, but are happy we'll only have one house on one side of us, no one behind and no one on the other side. There will absolutely be fast growing hybrid trees planted on the "neighbor" side. Since the amenities were literally a stones throw away, (like really close) we opted to allow the community to water, maintain and provide us with area to run and the kids to play! We love a great courtyard and are pretty excited about it!

Anyhow, yesterday we signed our contract, will put together our interior finishes in the next month or so and then we'll sit and wait and wait and wait. Oh joy. Wanna see me in agony?!?!?! It's coming people, it's coming.



Our home will reside here! We'll go from the marker to the left (wrapped in orange), to the fence on the right and across the back from the corner to the 2nd post from the end on the left. For whatever odd reason, we like pie shaped lots. Something about it!

So, because my doc said to, I am going to start journaling about important things in life. For myself, for my children. I don't know that he meant BLOGGING.. but I am going to take it as that! ;) It's hard to think that (before my time) facts, memories, ect will escape me. I love the written word, I love pictures... they are a snap shot of a time in our life. So, I am going to document every step this journey so that when the memories escape me all I have to do (if I can remember to! haha) is look back! I figured it would be a great way to keep our family updated on everything too! :)

UPDATE: Since this post was written we moved lots..... So, as great as it was, this is not it.  :)

PART TWO

Ok! Got that out of the way... now on to the fun stuff. I named the blog The Domesticated Diaries simply because I GREATLY appreciate the definition of "domesticated"

do⋅mes⋅ti⋅cate

 –verb (used with object)

1.	to convert (animals, plants, etc.) to domestic uses; tame. This I get. There was some MAJOR conversion.

2.

to tame (an animal), esp. by generations of breeding, to live in close association with human beings as a pet or work animal and usually creating a dependency so that the animal loses its ability to live in the wild. Again, get it. Who would have thought that after I was given an awesome husband and amazing children that I would never be normal again, I'd lose my ability to return to life as I knew it before. And, much like Garfield would agree, why would I return to the wild when I've got all "this"?!?!

3.	to adapt (a plant) so as to be cultivated by and beneficial to human beings. Well, I don't know how beneficial I am to human beings, I tend to think at times I could be hazardous to your health, but I do hope that my efforts will be beneficial to my children.

4.	to accustom to household life or affairs. This is the point when you realize in life you are WAY more excited to go to Costco then Macy's- consider yourself accustomed to such domesticated life.

5.

to take (something foreign, unfamiliar, etc.) for one's own use or purposes; adopt. I love the adopting of others beliefs, thoughts, feelings and blending them all together to make a family. I have said many times, the 5 of us bring something different to the table, individually, and that is a table I proudly sit at and say "Pull a chair up my friend!"

6.

to make more ordinary, familiar, acceptable, or the like: to domesticate radical ideas. Here's the tricky part. I hope that I can make some thoughts, ideals more ordinary. Something along the lines of putting "work" aside for love. Enjoying life. Slowing down. Considering the environment. Considering your/our environment.

So, if it's domestic, or pertains the the domestication of Deanna, you'll find it here. Things I LOVE:

• God
• Deep thoughts
• Food/Cooking/Healing our body with nutrition
  
• Homes (inside out and up and down, I wanna chat about it)
• Decor
• Fitness
• Animals
• The oppressed
  
• Children
• Relationships
• Weather
• Nature
• and a big ol list that is ever growing... you'll see.
  

I feel quite strongly this will be our journey of picking a home, picking a lot, picking our "details", building our home, moving into our home, decorating our home... all that with a sprinkling of the items in the above list. I love to share my thoughts, more so I love to hear the thoughts of others. Please feel free to comment and share!

Love to all.

PART ONE

PART ONE: Well, it begins. After being told a million times, "You should start a blog." here I am. I should mention that with each suggestion I'd tilt my head to the side like a little dog and say/think "Huh?" But, lately I've seen some benefit to it and thought NOW should be the time!

Why now you ask? Because "Operation: Move to the Suburbs" will be commencing shortly! This is not anything extraordinary, at all. Lots of people have moved to the suburbs, right? Right. I still wonder how many move to the suburbs kicking and screaming. But that story is for another day.... Anyhow, it's just been a super long road for our family. I'll attempt to somewhat condense the ever growing saga:

Mom, of worlds sweetest little boy, meets boy.
Said boy says "I am not gonna be a baby daddy."
15 months later single mom becomes married mom and boy retracts all previous statements and becomes super special step dad to awesome toddler boy.
10 months later mom finds that she's expecting.
1 month later mom finds that she's expecting twins.
2 months later mom is on bed rest full time.
At 24 weeks mom delivers twins weighing 1lb 5 oz and 1lb 9oz.
Sometime over the next 2 years mom and dad will find that baby boy is on the Autism spectrum and has chromosomal abnormalities, find out that oldest boy has a precancerous condition, learn that baby girl has developmental delays and that something is wrong with mom- other than the obvious fact that she's got 2 year old twins and a 6 year old.
Mom and Dad decide to give up everything, house/cars/liberty/security to provide for the boys everything we could. Sell beloved home which we completely remodeled. Move to town home.
In 2009, after 4 years of "what is wrong?" and being told by all too many "it's just stress" mom finds out she has a form of vascular disease affecting her brain and finds that stroke and seizure (no not names of future dogs) are at some point going to be prevalent in ways that aren't good and all too soon. Mom was 31 at time of diagnosis.
In 2009 in an effort to depart the ever shrinking town home that breathed life and opportunity in to our family, we write contracts on 4, yes 4 homes. In the end, none were right for us.
2010 Dad decides life is too short, we've kicked butt and taken names and are moving on. Dad mentions one late night, after a bout of tears he wants to give mom everything he can now, because he isn't sure how much time/quality time we'll have left.
Mom decides that NO ONE really knows what's next in life, but gets the gist and agrees, "Moving on and moving out!"

And here we are today! I'm doing as well as the doctors could have hoped and time is on my side. Most people with this illness are 60+. I've made radical changes to my life with many many more on my list of things to do. We can only hope that my diagnosis at 31 will be to my advantage.

Nonetheless we've decided to pick up the home search again. We've looked at old houses, new houses. I work up spreadsheets, cost benefit analysis', return on investment worksheets, and put pragmatic analytics to work making sense of anything and everything that we stepped foot in to. Being a family of 5 on one salary the older home quickly retreated from our grasp. Simply there is much to do and with that comes GREAT reward, but one must really have capital and well, where we DO have that, sometimes I think therapies, nutrition, medicine, treatment FAR out weighs new baseboards/new furnace/updated electrical/ect/. The in between old and new homes of today seem to be VERY exhausted. What ever happened to taking care of your home? Our parents parents generation lived in their homes for decades, if not life. They didn't buy "Starter Homes", they squeezed the family of 7 in to 900 square feet and felt the absolute joy of home ownership. Today, people move in and move up as quickly as Paris Hilton goes through boyfriends. I can't say I've only had one home either, but, simply put, due to divorce, illness, ect I've left the few I've had. Never by choice or because the house wasn't good enough and I'll search the ends of the earth to find THE ONE that we can enjoy until our kids have left us for greener pastures, if God allows.

It's apparent that EVERYONE has an opinion on what is right on this subject- all I ask is to do what is best for you AND to be educated on the subject- because, rest assured, I will. I'll do my thing that is all the while having a VERY open and subjective mind about it. All of it.

I started this blog to follow our home(re)buying experience and the updating, remodeling and fixing of said house!