Movin' On Up!

Summer has been in full swing in the Seattle area. Weather has been sunny and gorgeous, and of course I haven't had a free minute to relax. My sister in law's wedding is this Saturday, so we've been full on wedding mode since early May. Bachelorette/Bridal Shower/Bridal party mani-pedi day. I'm exhausted! The Favors family is ready for Saturday to come and go, let me tell you!

On another note - shortly after returning from NYC we put our condo on the market - July 3rd to be exact. By July 10th, we were in mutual acceptance with a buyer and decided that if we're to close at the end of August, we should probably figure out where WE are going to live...After a day of house hunting together, Hubs and I had narrowed it down to 2 - both in Puyallup. One in the valley area and one in South Hill (if you aren't familiar with the area, South Hill is more towards downtown and the main street in Puyallup, Meridian. This area is constantly growing and several developments are in the area with neighborhoods. It's starting to get a little crowded..The valley has that undeveloped look, it has more greenbelts so you don't feel like the houses are building on top of each other, and just has a serene/peaceful feel to it). We LOVED the location of the house in the valley, but for the price, the South Hill home just made more sense. Both are brand new (the house we chose is still being built - construction is supposed to be completed the end of August). After a weekend of going to each house with different people, we finally decided on the South Hill home. It's 4 bedroom, 3 car garage, 2 story Craftsman. There was a buyer's bonus when we made an offer and they agreed, so all appliance are coming with the house (refridgerator, washer and dryer you usually have to buy separately), and we asked that the yard be landscaped and a fence be installed with our purchase price. At first the developer said no to the landscaping and fence, but because my husband is a master negotiator and they finally agreed.

Here are some of my favorite things:
1. The outside looks nice. This is the model home, so our house is going to be brown, and the 3rd car garage and porch are flipped.

Source of photos: D.R. Horton Homes. Images found on Redfin.com

 2. The floorplan. At first I didn't like that all the bedrooms were on the same side of the house, I would have liked for the master to be on the opposite side as the others, but after walking through I decided that was such a stupid thing to be picky about. And it's great that the laundry room is upstairs!



 3. The kitchen is so much more functional than our condo with the pantry actually IN the kitchen and not in the dining area. I know it sounds silly, but after having our teeny tiny pantry in the opposite corner, it gets really inconvenient. And this way, I have a wall I can create a coffee bar area {:)} The island bar is also oversized and so that will be nice. I like that our house will have a nice gas range which is what we have in our current home. I've gotten used to it so it will be nice to keep. Our cabinets had already been upgraded to the espresso color so we won't have to pay for that. The floors will match as well.

 4. The master bathroom. We will have two sinks, and they'll be far enough away from each other that we both can get ready in the morning in the same bathroom! I get shunned to the guest bathroom now, which is a drag. I also love that the tub and shower are separate. And it's a soaking tub, hallelujah! What you cannot see in this photo is the toilet is in it's own little room so someone can be using it and the other person can still be doing whatever it is they want to with the rest of the bathroom. The cabinet color from downstairs is carried in here, so it will be the dark wood. The mosaic tiling in the shower and by the tub is standard, but the tiling beind the sinks is an upgrade. They already made the decision to do the mosaic stones as the sink backsplash so another upgrade that we don't have to do. Yay!

 5. Along with 4 bedrooms, this house has a large media/bonus room. I think we will be putting the video game console systems, blu ray player, surround sound in here. I love the fact that we can grow into this home and still have plenty of room.