We bought a house!

I haven't blogged in awhile because we have been working on house hunting/fixing up for the last few months. We had outgrown our 2 bedroom apartment with 2 active little ones and no storage space. Our apartment felt tense often, especially since Nate is really active and does not do good if he doesn't have space to run, dance, do flips or whatever else he feels like doing. We decided to start looking for a house because it is a great time to buy. We also knew we needed the $8000 tax credit if we had to make any improvements to the house, which gave us a little over a month to find a house. We wanted to stay close to Greenbelt, but soon realized that we could only afford a shoe box.

We started looking in Woodbridge because the property taxes are lower in Virginia and we could get a decent sized single family home for our price range. We did our research and time and time again were given the advice that location is everything. We found many newly updated homes, but settled for a foreclosed house in Montclair, VA. We contacted someone from the Dale City ward to ask about the best areas to live in Woodbridge and she said Montclair was the nicest. We researched the schools and they have a good reputation, and then we learned that there is a private lake with beaches and private playgrounds and that the community has an active home owner's association. The neighborhood is beautiful with big trees and big houses. We have the smallest house on the block, which is good because it makes our house worth more. It was also assessed for more than we bought it for, which is also a good for selling purposes. We decided it was well worth it to put in all of the work to fix it up. We have been painting and scrubbing and working non-stop to get it the way we want it. It feels like there will always be a home improvement project to work on and that we will never actually finish, but that's just me being dramatic. I will put up pics when we get it all painted!

Luckily, my parents came into town for a week for Kaitlyn's birthday, so we got to take a well needed break from painting and cleaning to get a little R & R at the beach. Here we are at West Beach.









We had such a nice and relaxing time, we decided to try a new new new beach (Nate likes to say new, new new!:) The kids got more comfortable playing in the water and the sand. This is Dolphin Beach.







Although we love our home, our new neighborhood, and all of our new space (3 1/2 baths and 3 beds + a den in the basement!), we still are homesick for our friends. I miss everyone! Come visit- I added the beach pictures, so you would want to come and have a mini vacation:)