Tales of the Armitage Family: 200th Post!!

I've neglected my blog dreadfully!! I saw a while back that the next post I did was going to be my 200th post, so I wanted to do something fun. When I started my blog about 3 years ago, we were right in the middle of deciding if we wanted to move to the Tri-Cites from Chehalis. We had moved from our home in Chehalis and were living in a small rental home while deciding what to do. So... I knew for my 200th post I wanted to share the news that we are once again living in a small rental while moving. Most already know this, but I wanted to give more details.
We've been in Kennewick for almost 3 years now. We really LOVE it! The weather is beautiful... the schools are great... there are a TON of members of our church here. I got a job here pretty much straight away after moving here and I love my job. Clint still misses Tumwater and the friends he made there, but he likes his job here as well and works with some great people. When we moved here, we bought a home that was under construction in a pretty established neighborhood. Our home was/is beautiful. After living in it for a couple years though, Clint and I (mostly me... I have to admit) decided that there were things about our home that we didn't love. For one thing, the living room was pretty small and by the time we got our whole family in it, it was pretty much full. Not really great for having people over. Another crazy thing was that with the mirror reflection in the master bedroom... you could see the shower/toliet/closet from the front door. Awkward! Clint and I both agree too that we don't like formal dining rooms- a waste of space in our minds. We just want a big enough area in the kitchen for our table. So- with interest rates being so great right now, we decided to build again- this time making it a home that is just what we want. It won't be our "dream home" because with everything we think would be amazing, it would cost an arm and a leg- and I think Clint has cute legs so we are toning it down a bit. But our non-negotiables are that we want an open living room/kitchen/eating area with a big living room. We also want to do a rambler with a basement- I really LOVE the unfinished areas for storage. We will probably leave the basement all unfinished so we can complete it later and save some money. We also want a bigger lot/piece of land.
So... instead of selling our home, we decided to rent it out. We found some amazing renters who signed a 2 year lease and they are great. They are taking care of it like it's their own home and it's a good investment for us. We are now in the process of looking for land and a home plan.
Last week, we found some land we really like. It's a 1.27 acre piece that's about 5 minutes from where we live now. It's the same schools for the kids, but a different ward. The kids weren't too happy about that, but since we moved to our apartment, we were in a different ward anyway. There are 3 wards that meet in our building, and we'll probably end up hitting all of them by the time we're settled. Our first ward was so huge, that I'm sure a boundary change is in the works anyway. Now we're getting a chance to meet lots of people! With the move, I was released as YW president which I'd been doing for 2 years and just got put in as the Relief Society Activity Chairperson. I'm excited about it!

So- we should know over the next couple of weeks what we'll be doing for sure. Here's some pictures of the land we put the offer on.