it's official...

...we are homeowners! We've made it through!

We had a couple of hiccups on closing day, but in the end we closed, signed and went on our way. When we did our final walk through (3 hours before signing) we found that basically nothing was done on our list of things to fix after the inspection. UGH! We were quite upset with the owner, to say the least. As I said in a previous post, instead of giving us the $1,000 off the price for the problems, the owner said he would fix them. And then he didn't. The reason we were so upset was he could of negotiated the $1,000 down or just said no to it and we would of been okay with it. But no, he said he would fix them. And what made us even more nervous about the situation was the seller signed all his stuff the day before us (he couldn't get off work) and couldn't be contacted before we signed. Our realtor did the best he could in the situation, called the seller's realtor and she couldn't even get in contact with the seller. There was a lot of piddly stuff of the list to fix but the big thing was re-mortoring  part the the chimney, some of the bricks are pretty loose. I have no idea how much something like that costs and now we have to pay for it. Luckily, when we went to closing, the sellers realtor offered us $200 of her own money for the situation. I know it's not enough to fix the chimney, but it will definitely help. I felt bad that she had to do that, but my realtor explained that she would most likely be reimbursed by the seller.

I know buying a house isn't easy and those things happen, we were just hoping it wouldn't happen to us. The seller also left the house with a lot of trash and it was just in disgusting/dirty shape. So we spent a fair amount of time cleaning it out.

But on the other hand, we bought a house! And we did a lot of painting this week, thanks to my Dad. My parents decided to come help us get the house ready to move in and I'm glad they did. The living room was a bigger project than I anticipated. The walls are plaster and needed a good overhaul. There were cracks, divets (sp?), and waviness. I know I couldn't of done a job as good as he did on those walls, it was a full day of prep work before we got to the paint.

These are the before pictures again:

Here's some prep work:

Finished painting:

We definitely have more work to do in this room, but this was a big part. I LOVE this room now. I can't wait to get our furniture in it and decorate! We need to do some work on the mantel and built ins, so we didn't paint them yet, so that will be another task to be done.

We were able to get the first coat of paint on the dining room. With seeing all the work that had to go into the living room, we didn't expect to get anything done in the dining room. I'm really glad we did it though. I wanted a grey-blue, not too bright. We put the first coat of paint on and it's too bright for us, so we are going to take our other gallon of paint back and ask them to add some more grey.

Here is the before of the dining room:

 

Here's after the first coat:

 

Hopefully this week (it might be next week), we will get the second coat on of the grey-er color. The movers are here now packing us. Oh, how I love free movers! But I do kind of feel in the way and feel like I should be helping. 

I am hoping to have the computer/internet up and going soon in the new house, so it may be a week before I post again.

5 days

....until were are homeowners!

I am really getting excited now. I did the last thing today that needed to be done before we sign. The house gods were definitely on my side today. We had to move some money around to get our down payment all in one account....and I waited until today to do this. I know, I know, two business days is not really that best time-line to give your money. The teller said there is normally a 9 day hold on that amount of money....GREAT. But when she put in the deposit we didn't have a hold. Woo Hoo! We are truly lucky.

I'm starting to make a list in my head what I need to pack for the first week in the house. We are going to be roughing it until all our stuff is moved, air mattress, camp chairs, etc.  But we are taking advantage of the time...painting!! While Mike's at work all week, I'll be painting the living room and our bedroom. Those are the two rooms the "need" to be done before the furniture comes. If I have extra time, the dining room will be next.

So here are some before pictures of the living room:

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, these are from the listing. 

We think we are going to take down the bead board, just because we want to put in up in the dining room. I don't want the first floor to all be bead board. But of course, our minds could change between now and painting. We are both on the same page with going with a tan color, but Mike wants a more brown-tan, and I want a more yellow/golden-tan. We will see who wins this battle! :)

This is a pretty big room (like 14' x 25'), so I will definitely have my work cut out for me. Plus, with all the trim and the built-ins.....long days of painting are in my future. Mike is a horrible painter; his hands are too shaky. So I may spend most of my time on the trim/built-ins and Mike will do the big open space on the walls. :)

more inspection

After the inspection , Mike went back to the realtors and asked for $1, 000 off the house price to do some little things found in the inspection. We were kind of shorting ourselves with the amount but didn't want to sound too "greedy". There were a few things wrong that weren't in the last post because my lovely husband didn't tell me about them. :) Aren't men great?! I know he didn't want to explain electrical stuff, and all the knit picking stuff that were found in the inspection, but I want to know what's going on with the house. So when I was told about the $1,000 off, I was really confused, because I thought the pipes and the insulation were it. So Mike explained everything to me.

• One of the bedroom windows has a crack.
• The dryer circuit is over fused.
• Full bathrooms sink drain doesn't work very well.
• The downstairs half bath is gutted.  We knew this buying the home, and it will most likely been our first project.
• Half the kitchen counter is off. Again something we knew going into it and we would of replaced.
• One of the fireplaces' corners needs to be re-tucked....I have no idea what this means.....
• The dining room and living rooms' outlets have cross polarity.

So we put in the $1,000 offer, the seller came back and declined it. But he's going to fix everything on our list instead!! We couldn't be happier! It's better for us so we can move in and take our time with the remodeling we want to do, instead of rushing. I'm really happy about the half bath and the kitchen counter the most. Even though we will be redoing the bathroom still and it will most likely still be the first big project, but at least it's functional for the time being.

Also, the seller was really upset when he found out the gas wasn't on to check the furnace. It turns out the renter in the seller's nephew, so I'm sure he had a few choice words for him. ;)  I kind of felt like I was overreacting, because Mike was so calm about it.  So I'm really happy the seller was upset, so I wasn't the only one.

inspection...part 1

So we had our home inspection yesterday! I was so excited for it to happen, since it was the deciding factor on if we were buying the house or not. It started at 9am and it was just Mike and the inspector....and it took 5 hours!! I can't believe it took that long. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted them to go through everything, but I didn't think it would take all day. Right??

Everything went really well. There are just a couple things that are pretty standard things.

• There could be more insulation in the attic but it's up to code. We want  to insulate the garage, so we will just do it all at the same time - no problem.
• Some of the pipes are original to the 1935 house. They aren't in bad condition, just old. The inspector recommended to replace them before we resell - no problem.

Now here is the problem (and it's not really a problem just a set back). The gas isn't turned on in the house so they couldn't check the furnace. I'm a little ticked! We have had this inspection set for 2 weeks, they knew this was coming. And who doesn't have everything that's staying with the house running during the darn house inspection???? So now we have to get the gas turned on (don't worry we aren't paying for it) and the inspector is going to come back (free of charge). It's just frustrating... so note to anyone house hunting, when you schedule your inspection make sure everything is on so you only have to do it once. There's a fireplace with an insert (this makes it basically like a wood burning stove), and this is what the renter has been using this winter, so that's why the gas wasn't on, but still...

So we have 2 weeks until our closing date (March 1st) to get the furnace checked, and one of those weeks we are going to be in Mexico. So we have a small window to get this done, but I think it can do it.

one week

 .....and we will be in paradise!

I cannot wait for this vacation. My sister is getting married first of all! So excited for that. She's going to be the most beautiful bride and she gets to do it on a beach! And Mike and I get a relaxing mexican vacation at a resort to go with it. We haven't had a proper vacation since our honeymoon in Ireland, so it is much needed. We are having our house inspection tomorrow; fingers crossed everyone! And if everything goes well, the stress of the house will almost cease to exist.  Then this vacation can truly be a stress/worry free week.

a wedding dress moment

Any married or engaged woman knows what I'm talking about. That moment you see your wedding dress, you just know that it's the one. Everything in your mind is so clear and you have the highest level of assurance that your making the right decision. Well, we totally had that when we saw our new house. Mike and I were talking about it in the car yesterday, and he said as soon as he walked into the house he knew it was the one. I told him he had his "wedding dress" moment. :) I had to explain it to him, and he thought I was crazy I'm sure. But it's the truth, and I know I had it for the second time in my life with this house. I'm pretty sure this is just a starter home for us, but it's our dream starter home.

Mike left yet again this afternoon for a week of work in Rolla. This weekend was great, but was definitely too short. We went bowling with Brad and Lindsey and had a great time with friends we haven't really been able to hang out this recently. They've  been really busy with him about ready to go into surgery, and us with the whole house/moving thing. It was nice to just relax with them.

With Mike being gone for a week at a time and not having the a proper kitchen where he's staying, I've been making food for him to reheat. Today, I was a cooking fool! I made a weeks worth of dinners for us and split it up. The good thing is, no cooking for the rest of the week for me. :)

I'm not a huge football fan, but this Indiana girl is rooting for the COLTS! I'm heading over to a co-workers to watch with her and her husband. It should be a fun time; they're Saints fans. But like me, are super into the game. So I'm sure someone will end up gloating, and hopefully its me!

change

It's so weird how much can change in just one month. Our whole lives are completely different than last month. Yesterday marks one month on knowing Mike got promoted and we were going to move. I can not believe what we have accomplished in this month, I honestly didn't think we would be half a far as we actually are. January went by in what seemed to be a blink. First off, I couldn't be prouder of my husband; being the first one at his level to get promoted says a lot about how well he's doing.

Now we are homeowners. Something we didn't plan on doing for 6-8 months from now. This new time line scare us both to death in the beginning, but we have made it through. We found a house we love! We went to 'Home Depot' yesterday and planned day dreamed our house all out. Even though somethings won't happen for a while, we know we are both in the same mind set, which is great! It amazes me all the things we can do now that we are homeowners. I've trained myself to live in rentals for the past 6 years, that it's strange that we can do whatever we want. When my parents come to visit, they can bring their dog, Tanner. Our rental doesn't even allow visiting animals.  It's those silly little things that I can't wait to discover in home-ownership.

Today also marks a new part of the moving adventure of ours: Mike left today because he starts his new position bright and early tomorrow. It's going to be hard, but it was for the best decision for us. Good thing is is that he will be home on weekends, and we have my sister's week long Mexican wedding vacation; so February will go by as fast as January. Maybe even faster!

In house news: Nothing really big has happened. We've heard back from the bank and closing papers are basically done and ready. :) We have our inspection on the 9th. Mike will be there, not me. Mike's really excited for the inspection. Since Mike worked construction during college, he know quite a bit about buildings. So he wants to see what he knows versus what the inspector knows. Since inspecting things is this guys job, I'm assuming he will catch something that Mike doesn't....but you never know.  If everything goes well, our tentative closing date is March 1st! We will know if that date is locked in after the inspection.

homeowners!?!?!?!

This weekend has just been a crazy one, that's for sure. I went to Indianapolis for my sister's bachlorette party. I have a great time and it was nice to see her and my mom. Overall, it was just nice to spend a weekend with my sister. I don't know how long it's been since we were able just to hang out the two of us. I think everyone had a great time at the bachlorette party and the best part was I wasn't the first one to pass out! I never go out, I never drink a lot, and I always go to bed early; so I thought I was going to have a hard time keeping up with everyone and falling asleep at the bar. But I did great, had fun and everyone got home safe and sound. The only bad thing is I woke up with possibly the worst hangover of my life. I mixed alcohols and of course that didn't mix well with my head in the morning. I had a long 5 hour drive home and it was fabulous. (a little sarcasm)

I can't wait for my sister's wedding in a few weeks! It's going to be a fantastic week. :)

So, I'm sure everyone is eager for info on the house, right??? Well, the way I left it with you all is we put in an offer on Wednesday and gave the seller until Friday at 5pm to respond. We figured we would of heard something Thursday, but no! The seller's realtor waited until Friday at 4:45pm to call our realtor. (gee, thanks!) The seller put in a counter offer (he came down a bit), so we countered back (we moved up a bit) and gave the seller until Saturday at 5pm to respond. Saturday at 5pm came and went - no response! I got really nervous; our realtor called and said he could be just "playing hard ball" and our realtor would call us back on Sunday. Our realtor call and told us the seller was out of town and didn't want to do any business while away and would get back to us on Monday. Well, Monday came and Mike heard from the realtor, yet again, and he told us that the seller offered us a "verbal offer". He came down a bit more. Our realtor warned us that if we accept it, papers still need to be drawn up and the seller could change his mind because nothing was on paper. And since we basically "showed our cards" and told the seller what we would be willing to pay, he could raise his offer. But our realtor has worked with the sellers realtor before and confident it would work out, but just wanted to let us know what could happen. (Sorry if this is boring, but it may be helpful to first time home buyers)

So, I got the call from Mike (who is down in Rolla today) that the seller did put in the verbal offer to paper and he was on his way to sign for it!! WOOHOO!  So we still have the inspection coming up, but we are one step closer to buying this house. : ) 

offering

So I don't know if anyone reads this who isn't my friend on facebook, but I figured I should announce here as well.

I got the call tonight from Mike that we officially put in our first offer on a home! We were waiting for our financing to completely go through before doing so (we heard your offer is taken more seriously that way). I'm so excited and yet so nervous. We gave the owner until 5pm on Friday to respond, so it will definitely be a long 2 days. The realtor said it probably won't take that long, so maybe we'll know something tomorrow. I'm not really expecting him to take our first offer; I'm sure he will counter with something.....

I'll update you all when I know something! :)

non-house post

I figured the blog has been on house-hunting over load. So I will only say one thing with regards to the house; our realtor has figured out the style of the home. It's dutch colonial. I'm glad we've finally figured it out so IF we get the house we can keep with the period of it.

Mike's gone for the week for training. Luckily he's in Rolla, so we can easily put in an offer this week. It's going to be lonely, but I'm going to be able to get a lot done. I may even get a purse sewn! I figured with this whole moving thing I wouldn't be able to sew until we do move. And just in time too, I'm headed to Indianapolis this weekend for my sister's bachlorette party. It was very last minute, but I'm super excited. I'm in charge of the food while my sister's future sister-in-law is in charge of the games. I'm so excited to make the food! We are doing a Mexican theme since she's getting married in Mexico next month. I can't wait to go to Mexico! I need a vacation....

Completely off the wall, but I'm getting a sewing serger!! I never thought I would be able to get one because they are so expensive and I wasn't sure how often I would use one. But on the bright side, I'm getting it for FREE!! And it's NEW! I'm sure your asking yourself how can that be??? Well, my job gives us "bonus bucks" and we got a lot for working during the holidays. Bonus bucks are basically money to use in the catalogs I work for and we get our discount too. So with those 2 things the serger will be free. I can't wait! I'll be able to make clothes for my kids, and just more of a variety of projects in general. I always see these cute kids patterns and dream of making them, and now I'll be able to in a professional way.

a picture and a poll

Tomorrow is going to be a big day! We are going down to Rolla for an afternoon of house hunting. We are looking at 4 or 5 houses, so hopefully we will be able to make a decision after that. I wish we could take our time and look for months for the perfect house, it's just moving very quickly. Maybe that is the normal pace of buying a home? It's just hard for me to make this kind of purchase with only seeing it maybe twice. At least for me anyway, Mike will be down there before me, and we will be able to go a lot more often then me. I'm very appreciative of what Mike's job is reimbursing us or just out right paying for, but they only will pay for 2 visits of the spouse, but unlimited ones for the employee. Obviously, I will have to go down more then twice, but we will definitely limit my trips as much as possible.

Here is our #1. (The one I've been talking about in the past couple posts) It's so funny that we are actually considering a 2-story. I like the look of them more than 1-stores, architecturally anyway. But Mike and I hate 2-stories, just for the fact that if you forget something upstairs you have to go right back up. We actually told the realtor that we only want to look at 1-story homes; our exact words, "it's a deal breaker if it has a second story." It's just makes me laugh, because as soon as we both saw this one online out eyes light up and said we liked it, not 10 minutes after the 'deal breaker' speech.

Now here is a question for everyone....WHAT WOULD YOU CALL THIS KIND OF HOUSE????

I would really appreciate a lot of comments on this one, even if you've never commented before and if you want to comment anonymously. I don't care, just really need feed back. I can't find this style house anywhere online to tell what it's technically called. I have a name for it and Mike hates it; I call it the dairy queen house. Just because my parents actually lived in one right after they were married and that's what they called it. The reason I want to know the style is we are going to be doing remodeling IF we buy it, and we want to keep it is style of the home.

The only help I can give you is that house was built in 1935. That's really all I have.

Thank you in advance!

mike on his own

Mike was in Rolla for the day for a meeting and he had the afternoon free, so he was able to see our #1 choice. I was pretty jealous that he went without me, but we only have so many 'reimbursable" trips. So we need to make the best of them.

But Mike saw it and finally called me about 3 hours after...I was so anxious! He was told to take pictures, but that didn't happen either. Apparently, since the house has been for sale for over a year, they now have a renter (enter sarcastic "great...") and it is not a good renter from what Mike said. And to top it off the renter wasn't told the showing was going to happen, so the renter was there when Mike walked through. Awkward!!

Mike really liked it though! He said it needs work and that's what want - a fixer upper. He said it was structurally sound, and just got a new roof a couple years ago. That was what I was worried about, major, expensive repairs. I guess the windows are original, but in good condition, so that is something we would probably replace soon. It's a big house with lots of windows, so that's going to be a big chunk o'money. But I just love the character of the house, from what I've seen. It was built in 1935 and has built ins. *sigh* I get to see the house this weekend and I can't wait....don't worry, I'll take pictures!

round one

Well the house we went to go see was a BUST!! We understood it was a foreclosure and would need to do a few things to it, but it being only 4 years old, we thought it would really just things to make it our own. WRONG....before I even get to the layout, it just had major problems. Starting with when we walked into the garage we smelled mold. The house has not been sealed properly for the winter because there was mold on all the walls, and an inch of ice on all the windows. Then Mike found some problems with the electrical, like 4 electrical outlet in a 5 foot span...Just bad news all around. Mike and I were actually both glad it didn't work out. It was kind of at the top of our price range but didn't want to pass up a chance to buy 15.5 acres with a house that cheap.

But the banker that took us to see the house was really nice and told us what rates we could get with his bank, so we did decide to go with them. It will be nice to deal with a bank in town, something we haven't had here because we still banking from Lafayette. :/ Anyway, we then asked him if he had a recommendation on a realtor in town. He said yes, made the call and the banker took us to the office so we wouldn't get lost in town. How nice!

The realtor is super nice as well, he reminds me of my dad in the way he's explaining everything. I learned a lot sitting there with him. It was too late on a Friday to set up any walk throughs for the weekend, but we took a look at his data base and found a few we liked. Saturday, Mike and I drove our town, found our barrings and found the houses we like. The town is pretty easy to drive around and we picked up on it really quick.

But we did find a house we really want to see. We probably like it too much right now. It's an older home built in 1935 with beautiful built-ins. :) The bathrooms are original but in great condition (as far as we could tell in the pictures). It definitely needs remodeling, but we LOVE that character of an old house. We like that fact that we can remodel it, but keep the integrity of the home.

Mike has a meeting in Rolla this week, so we are trying to get him a chance to see it to "pre-screen" it. Then, when I'm able to go down soon, we both are going to see it, if it passed Mike's inspection. :) I hope it does!

We got so much accomplished this weekend! So much we didn't plan for that happened. We came home feeling a lot less stress about this and not so much in the dark.

house hunting begins....

All Mike and I have been doing for a week straight is look at houses online, ask questions about houses, etc. I feel like we've been busy, but honestly, nothing really has come of it. Well, I guess I can't say nothing--we have found one thing.. a foreclosure. We've contacted the bank that owns it, and are going down to see it this weekend. I know it's probably not too responsible of us to go see a house without a realtor or being pre-approved for anything yet, but we just want to see it! Everything sounds great on paper and we saw an exterior picture of it but who knows what the inside looks like or the layout. This house and property is right up our alley....we shall see. We are both excited about this house and it could be the one, but I've been joking with Mike that I don't want it to be. I want to look at houses!! I want to do the SHOPPING and if we by the first house we see I won't get to do that. But seriously, even if we really like this house we will still look at other houses.

The reason why we are going this quick should be obvious...houses sell quick and right from under you if you wait too long.

As of now that's the only house we are seeing this weekend, we really just want to see the town. We both have never been there, so it will be nice to just drive around and see the neighborhoods..... maybe find a fabric store. :)

Mike is going to be down there some of next week, so that is when we are going to get a realtor and get that ball rolling. No fear everyone! We are still on the plan of me staying back in Hannibal until we find and buy a home. Mike's job is paying the movers and we really want to take advantage of this. So if I stay behind, then they can do all the work; if I go when Mike goes, they would move us into storage and then WE would have to do the actual moving into the house. And I really don't want to do that.