All Things Good

There is a lot of good stuff happening over here at The Bishop's Office.

After months of painful attempts to sell our home we are finally under contract to sell! My faith was tried (there may have been a few cursings while trying to make bunk beds 7 1/2 months pregnant and having between 10 and 12 showings while the kids were home over Christmas break) and prayers were finally answered. We are pulling everything together to close on the sale of our home and the purchase of our new home on February 2nd.

Our buyer is a lovely, middle aged single woman named Kelly. She has two grown kids. We have met her a few times and she is kind and sophisticated. She even sent us a thank you card expressing her gratitude and her hope that we will love our new home as much as she will love ours.

The sellers of our new home are also wonderful. The house is For Sale by Owner, so we have been communicating directly with them since November. They have been praying and fasting for us as a family for months now that our home would sell. They built and lived in that home for 20 years, so they are really invested in the ward and neighborhood. They told us they couldn't have hand picked a better family to buy their house.We're thrilled about the increased square footage (twice the size of this house!) and the large lot at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac.

We've been so busy the last two months getting everything ready for the hopeful sale of our house. Three days before Christmas we finished our master bedroom remodel with new carpet (and new carpet in the upstairs bedrooms). It was one of the last areas of the house that hadn't been updated. Shem and I put in a lot of long hours demolishing, drywalling, and painting and the results were beautiful. (I'm really going to miss our amazing new walk-in closet.)

Before

After

 

 

You can't see it in the pictures, but the walls were awful and the ceiling (along with a "lovely" swirly texture)  used to drop down about 8 inches in a large square just inside the bedroom door. There was also a long cabinet up in the corner. They were hiding some strange duct work that Shem was able to fix.

Then it was on to the landing at the bottom of the stairs. It took an entire day for Shem to tear up the old lanolium. Just as we were finishing up the new flooring we got two offers on our house. (Oh Happy Day!)

Now our appraisal is done, the inspection is through, and all we have left is to pack, pack, pack. I wonder if our new neighbors will be alarmed that half of our belongings are packed in liquor boxes. (They are free from the State...the State Liquor Store that is. Ha!)

Coinciding with all this excitement is the eminent arrival of Baby Bishop #5. This little guy is due in 3 1/2 weeks and we are moving in 2, so now it is a race to see which comes first! I would prefer to have him after we move, but we'll see if he is willing to wait. I'm feeling quite large, but people keep assuring me that I am glowing and my basketball belly is adorable.

Things are guaranteed to be lively around here for the next little while.