A LONG Time Coming

I know many of you already know this, but there are many that do not so I might as well share the news with everyone…We bought a house! As of yesterday it has been made official. We receive our keys today and are so excited to be leaving the ghetto!

Our house!

This has been the longest drawn out process of our lives! I had made a previous post about being ‘in waiting’ (which most of you thought I meant I was pregnant but boy I can’t tell you how wrong you all were!) and that was an understatement.

First of all let me say that our realtor has been amazing. She has stepped up and has done everything (and more) she can to assure we got this house. We love her and highly recommend her to anyone. With that said…

We put an offer on this house the beginning of September. Of course our first offer was not accepted, so after a few counteroffers we agreed on a reasonable price and the process continued. We prequalified for our loan with a loan officer we thought would do a wonderful job. We also did MANY walkthroughs of the house as we made a list of a few things we wanted the owner to complete for us. Things were moving along. The owner agreed to complete what we asked (which was a make it or break it decision for us if he didn’t agree) and so we were just waiting for our loan to process…and we waited…and waited…and after three closing date extensions, pulling our loan from our wonderful loan officer, meeting with a new loan officer, deciding not to use that loan officer and going with a better one we closed yesterday evening (FINALLY!). We have hated the past three weeks of this whole home buying process. We talked to many people that could not believe all the problems we were running into. The worst part about it was we were helpless. We had done all we could do on our part. We have excellent credit and minimal debt (only our cars, no school debt…what a blessing!) so we didn’t understand why we were having such issues. We knew we were making the right decision because we had prayed about it. And never once were confused, only frustrated (which neither of us took as a ‘back out’ sign). I should have never prayed for patience. My prayers were answered and I was put to the test. Poor Gordon was also put to the test. But we’re a team and I feel like we did pretty good with this whole situation. We tried to have a positive outlook on things (I’m not saying I never complained…that would be a miracle. I just tried to stay positive. I knew this was all happening for a reason, although I'm not sure what that reason is yet).

Enough about the horrible purchasing process, let me tell you the details about our house! This house was the very last house we looked at on our list. Driving to the house Gordon kept saying “I just know this is going to be the one.” I thought he was saying that because it was the newest house we were looking at (by over 50 years!) and would need minimal work done (the yard needs a little TLC). As we drove through the neighborhood we fell more and more in love with the home (which we hadn’t even seen yet). The area is exactly what we were looking for… mountains, hiking trails, and rock climbing right in our front yard (or pretty dang close). The view is amazing! We are so excited to actually have a home where we have talked about living since we were dating.

The home is brand new, completed May 2008 (The original home burnt down and the owner is a builder so he built it from the foundation up. They were able to reuse the foundation which is from the 1950’s). The inside is all new…knotty alder cupboards, tile in the kitchen, entry ways and bathrooms, new carpet, and appliances. It has 3 bedrooms (one is the master with a walk in closet and own bathroom), two family rooms (one on the main level and one downstairs which is wired for surround sound and is also double insulated for noise control), 2 ½ baths, and a big laundry room. It also has a 2 car garage (which was a must per Gordon). The backyard is decent size for our dogs (once we finish the fence we can let them all run loose!). It sounds like it could be very big, but it’s really not. It’s a little shy of 1800 square feet (which is double the size of our apartment so we’re moving on up! The only downside is my cleaning duties have doubled, which means the time has doubled maybe even tripled. Goodbye Saturdays).

We feel very blessed to have the opportunity to purchase a home. It is a wish come true. I am not only excited to decorate and paint, but I am excited to not have to smell cigarette smoke in my home anymore, or be a part of situations like this, or live in the ghetto and have my husband wake up with me in the middle of the night to take our dogs out just in case (I’m making it sound like I should be carrying a gun with me for protection. It’s not that bad…).

The big moving day is Saturday. My mom and I are ‘prepping’ the house on Friday with a good cleaning (carpets included). We’ll set up the kitchen and bathrooms, and then Saturday we can finish up. Don’t worry; this whole moving thing will not interfere with our Halloween plans (although if Gordon had his way he would let it) or baby shower plans (which I’m co-throwing with Jodi). Busy, busy weekend ahead…Let the craziness begin!