Homeowners!

Yesterday, while the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were off celebrating the start of a beautiful marriage, Chris and I took a different kind of "plunge," and officially became homeowners.

After a long day of ensuring all of our ducks were in a row, completing our walk-through, and then later, meeting to sign on the house with the sellers at the closing, I am overjoyed to say that we are finally done.

Words cannot express how grateful to God we are for blessing us with such an amazing house to call our home. It is above and beyond anything we had ever hoped for or expected, and our hearts are just brimming with thankfulness.

We pray that God uses are new home has a tool of blessing for others, that it may truly be a place of joy and peace, with doors always open to others. It is our hope to fill our home with the sound of family and friends, old and new. :)

This beautiful, Irish blessing (in honor of our McLean heritage) verbalizes so well what we feel in our heart:

Bless this House

"Bless this house, o'Lord we pray
make it safe by night and day
Bless these walls, so firm and stout
keep want and trouble out
Bless the roof and chimney tall
let thy peace lie over all
Bless the door that it may prove
ever open to joy and love
Bless these windows shining bright
letting in gods heavenly light
Bless the folk who dwell within
keep them pure and free from sin
Bless us that one day we may dwell
o'Lord with thee."

Thank you to each of you who has been faithful in keeping us in prayer throughout this (overwhelming at times) process. We hold you each dear to our heart and are grateful for your continued encouragement that has gotten us to this very happiest of days.

As far as our moving plans go, we will remain in our little apartment for a few more weeks, allowing us to get started on cleaning and cosmetic projects (like painting - yippee!) to ease the transition.

We are off to Lowe's and Home Depot in just a short while to start stocking up on much-needed cleaning and painting supplies, and to scope out prices on some other future upgrades we plan to make. How long we have waited for this day! :)

And, we also get to introduce little bear to his new home for the very first time! I've been waiting for this day for a long time. Yes, I'm a ridiculous dog mom. It happened. Call me crazy, but I can't wait to see his little fur ball of a body racing around the backyard this afternoon. He's also been an apartment dog and has never had any place of grace to call his own. Now he's going to have a half acre. :) His little doggie heart is going to be beating with happiness. :)

Speaking of the little guy, I have to share this photo of him I took the other day after he had just woken up. :)

Here are a few photos we took on closing day to document this momentous occasion in our lives. (P.S. It kind of cracked me up that the first thing the sellers said to us when we walked into the conference room at closing was, "Oh my gosh, you guys are so young!" I think I should have said, "Yes, I just turned sixteen." ;-) We don't look that young, do we?)

After signing our lives away, we had a short little celebration by grabbing some quick salads to-go at my new favorite grocery store, Earth Fare, and enjoyed our meal in our new backyard together. (P.S. Ginger Ale lovers, you have to try the Kombucha Wonder Drink Lemon Echinacae flavor, it tastes nearly identical -- while being so very good for you!)

It's still hard to believe that this is our house and our backyard! :)

Chris presented me with the very first rose picked from our new garden. :)

Bear's first new yard buddy. Louie the Lizard. ;-)

Chris and I enjoyed a special champagne toast late last night once we finally arrived back to our apartment. We purchased this bottle of Brute Rose when we were visiting with Chris's dad and family in California last summer, and had been saving it for a very special occasion. What better occasion than the celebration of becoming first-time homeowners! :)

Have a blessed and beautiful weekend all! We look forward to sharing more on the house as our projects commence. :)

Easter

I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter. Chris and I were thankful for the opportunity to leave town for the weekend and head up to Lynchburg to spend some much-needed quality time with our wonderful Virginia family. Here are a few pictures from our Easter Sunday celebration. 

Three generations of Guelzo's oversaw the grilling: Grandpa Jan (my father), Jeremiah (brother), and my favorite baby nephew, Ian.

 Since much of our family is following a pretty similar no carb, veggie and protein food lifestyle now, our Easter feast was filled with all kinds of colorful veggies and fruits. Yum, yum, yum! :)

My baby cousin Joshua was so excited for the Easter candy hunt to begin. He was camped out by the front door so as not to miss any of the action. ;-)

I just don't think he could get any cuter. You can see from his mommy where his good looks come from. :)

Almost time for the family-wide candy hunt. In our family, this hunt isn't just limited to the kiddos. ;-)

Sometimes we up the ante and hide cash. Mom was this year's lucky $5 winner. We're high rollers. ;-)

One very happy little munch, munching on some Easter candy.

Hard to believe how fast he's growing up! His Auntie Ray Ray and Uncle Chris have been missing him like crazy.

Hugs from Nana.

Love my beautiful mother so much. 

Our big, happy family. Such a blessing to be together to celebrate. 

Of course, no Easter celebration is complete without a family-wide pull-up contest. Everyone participated, and my hunky husband won. I think we may have discovered a new family tradition. :)

Not only was Sunday Easter, but it also marked Chris and my 18 month wedding anniversary. My sweetie surprised me with a beautiful, spring bouquet -- in addition to the new house he's buying us. :-)

It's hard to believe all we've experienced in the last 18 months. And here we are starting new jobs, living in a new city, buying a home... We are truly so very blessed. I couldn't be happier, and I am so very thankful for my incredible husband. I love you so much, baby! :) :) :)

Virtual Home Tour

At long last, I am excited to be able to share with you photos of our soon-to-be new home. 

In addition to the cozy, established neighborhood, one aspect Chris and I love so much about our new house is that it will give us ample opportunity to customize, renovate, and update. As you'll see from the photos, while the house is very move-in-ready, there are all kinds of fun projects just waiting for us, including work on landscaping and future upgrades to all of the bathrooms. Projects we were hoping to have and just can't wait to get our hands on. :)

P.S. My parents were visiting the weekend I took these photos, thus the reason they appear as lovely house models throughout this post. :)

Driveway leading up to the side garage. We absolutely love how spacious the drive is and how flat -- perfect for packing the house with guests, and for our little cousins, nephew, and future kiddos to ride their bikes. :)

View of the two-car garage and backyard entrance. So blessed that the yard is fenced in -- the perfect place for our little pup to run and play.

View from the driveway looking out into the cul-de-sac.

Sidewalk leading up to the front door.

View from front door into the foyer.

Straight back is the formal living room, and to the left will be my future office. Yay! :)

View inside downstairs office -- love the French doors and built-in bookcase!

View out office windows with the gorgeous plantation shutters! :)

Love the pretty, decorative grate covers throughout the house.

View from office, across the foyer, and into the formal dining room.

View into formal dining room.

Formal dining room

I'm in love with the swinging door that connects the kitchen to the dining room. It really is the little things that cause my heart to bounce with joy. :)

View from foyer hallway into formal living area on the left. Powder room and guest coat closet are on the right.

 Powder room

Guest coat closet

View from hallway into formal living room, looking out onto screened-in, back sun room.

Living room with fully-functioning, wood-burning fireplace! <3

French doors on left lead into downstairs office.

View from formal dining room looking back into kitchen.

View from living room looking back into kitchen, and to the right into the front hallway.

There is a wet bar in the living room. How much fun that will be for future entertaining! :)

Dining room looking through swinging door into kitchen.

Breakfast area of kitchen overlooking outdoor deck -- I love all of the pretty windows in this house.

View from the breakfast area of kitchen looking right into the living room area and left into kitchen island area -- love the built-in shelves.

I LOVE that the garage has windows! No doom 'n gloom, musty garage for me. :) (Our real estate agent laughed so hard when I walked into the garage for the first time because the first thing out of my mouth was "this is so pretty!")

The garage door leading into the kitchen has a window in it -- another element I love. This is the view from the kitchen stoop looking down into the garage.

You can't really see it from this photo, but there is a storage closet on the bottom right of the garage.

View from the kitchen looking up into the future media room. I love that it has its own "secret" staircase. :) The door to the left leads out into the garage.

The future media room.

Stairway leading down to the kitchen from the media room.

View from the kitchen into laundry room. This room makes me SO happy.

Handsome hubby getting measurements for our new washer and dryer.

I love all of the useful storage space in here -- although it shall be transformed from how you see it here. ;-)

The beautiful kitchen

Stairs leading upstairs from the foyer.

View from upstairs hallway into the master bedroom.

View into the master bath.

I'm in love with the big windows.

Future walk-in closet :)

View from the master bedroom into the hallway.

Upstairs room #1: Chris's future office/library/music room/study. :) Not to worry, the little chandelier shall come down for Chris's sake. ;-)

"Jack and Jill" guest bathroom (one full shower/toilet area connected to two different sink areas). All of this will be renovated in the future. :)

Second sink area leading into guest bedroom #2

Guest bath - a future renovation project. :)

Guest bedroom #2: The smaller of our two guest bedrooms. This bedroom looks out over the backyard.

Guest bedroom #1: This bedroom is larger and overlooks the front yard.

Backyard: "Garden-side" entrance. I absolutely love how much potential there is for this yard! Chris and I already have a long list of projects ready-to-go! :)

Although we love all of the decking space, we will be having a few repairs done to recondition it. :)

Backyard entrance into the garage.

I love that there is a sun room right off of the living room. During the warmer months its going to be so wonderful to use all of the space for entertaining. (i.e. we can't wait to have guests!) :)

 First family photos taken at the new house :)