Yay!

Just finished signing the contract on a house! :) Super exciting!

Homes, homes, and more homes:

We looked at 4 more houses today, and took my family to check out the two we liked best that we viewed this weekend. The first one was on an obscenely huge lot, with a large pretty house, but it needed WAY too much work, and had structural issues. The second is a lot closer to my parents, really nice neighborhood, still really nice yard, and very little to fix. We need to replace two rooms or flooring, the sink in the master bath, and hopefully the tubs in both bathrooms, get a dryer and a few light fixtures, and it's pretty much done. We put in an offer on it earlier today, and hope to hear back by Tuesday. :) My family likes it, and we like it. We want to knock out a wall separating the "dining room" and hallway, but it's not mandatory. We're figuring around $2500 to $3000 to do everything we want with it. We need to buy a dining set too.

Houses

We looked at three today, and only like one. Tomorrow we will look at 2 more, possibly 3. We'll keep you posted.

On the lookout again:

So tomorrow David and I will be continuing our search for our perfect home. Sadly we've already missed out on two, but we're still on the lookout. Tomorrow we'll be looking at two in Sherwood Estates, and hopefully two in Royal Oak, but we're not positive if we can get into the Royal Oak ones tomorrow or not. We'll keep you posted, but keep your fingers crossed. I'm really hoping for the one on Longbow.

On the Prowl Again

The house we offered on isn't happening. After our offer/their counter-offer, we re-offered with nearly 5% more, and in that time their offer came down a whopping 0.2%. Something about how they still owe on the mortgage. Oh well, not our job to pay extra tens of thousands of dollars just because someone else was dumb enough to get tied up in two mortgages they can't afford.

...maybe we'll buy it next month for 20K less.

Cameraland.

So yesterday Erin and I went to look at our three competitors to the original Trailwood home we'd been considering. Yesterday we did receive the nail-in-coffin call about Trailwood, citing that the bank now wants us to get into a bidding war with at least two other contendors (sic: for the home which they'd already verbally accepted 135,000 from us for).

The homes we visited yesterday were all somewhat similar, each with their own strong-point. One had nice architectural designs that got us interested (but the highest price, some $20K more than the lowest-home); The next was less architectural "nicety", but a .27 acre lot (a far cry from the .18 acres of the other two), and fell in at ~$5K less than the most expensive; The last was $15-20K cheaper from the other two - and well, that was about the only thing going for it.

All three homes:

• Were built 2001-2003


• Are in neighborhoods of surrounding 150-220K homes


• Are within a 5 mile 'by bird' radius of our current area


• 1400-1550sq/ft


• 2 car garages


• 3 (1-4), bedroom


• Split floorplan


• 2 bathroom

The second home we visited was a small lot. Supposedly the same .18 acres we currently live on, but with the surrounding homes as well as shape of the property, it felt ridiculously small. With the amount of half-running trucks on the street, as well as what I am safe in saying is the worst floor-plan of a home that I have ever seen in my life, we walked in and out of this home faster than I could've set fire to it to salvage all that is holy. The floorplan was terrible, the home was filthy and in disrepair (despite being only six years old), and was useless to even consider.

The third home was truly nice. It felt like someplace that should be stayed in for a weekend in a foreign city rather than lived in. The architecture and layout fit the still-residing-owner's furniture and taste extremely well; however, for our lifestyle we would have needed to exchange all of our furniture just to be able to live there without it looking ridiculous. The home next to it had a second story that looked like it was about to topple off, and a rather small yard area and an awkward kitchen design (coupled with the need to purchase furniture, etc, to live there - plus the highest purchase cost) got us out of there.

Now to the first home we visited; which we also visited last (again). We actually ended up submitting a bid for this propertly as of late last night; however it's not owned by a bank so hopefully this time we'll hear back slightly more quickly. The last home is situation on .27 acres, with a long-skinny lot style. With the back porch within 6' of the back-yard's fence there is a gate, which separates two large side-yards so that they may be divided easily. The floorplan is simple, very square and no real foyer, dining area, or family room; just the large kitchen (which could be eat-in with a smaller table) and the living room. The property is on a cul-de-sac with two empty properties next to it owned by the city for utilities access, and backs up to a reserve. The only downsides of the entire home were that the three bedrooms all needed new flooring (the carpetting was a mess)

We visited BJ's Flooring and spoke to them about doing a wood laminate in the three bedrooms to replace the carpet, and with the size of the rooms we believe (self-installed) that it would run us just under $800 to cover all of them. The interior would need some paint, and the 4x4 posts for the privacy fence could use a bag of quik-crete here-and-there to stabilize them. Add some trees and such to the yard and the place would be just fine for our lifestyle/how we use a home/the rooms. Now it's just another episode of the waiting game.

Other options?

Well, it's been a few days, and we haven't heard back from the bank on the Trailwood house, and not sure if they'll even come back and say GREAT! or if they'll want us to play games and pay a bunch more because of another offer. If they come back and say yes, than great, we'll still take it, but if they come back and say how much are you willing to pay, we're pretty much going to move on. We looked online today and found 3 more that we are interested. One is right down the road from the Trailwood house, and two are right off War Eagle. We have an appointment tomorrow with the realtor, so we'll see how it goes. :) We'll definitely have to do some comparing.

:(

Today I learned that my great-grandfather passed away lastnight.

R.I.P. Pappap.

Good and bad news:

So I've got good news and bad news...bad news first..

Marker (David's family's cat) had to be put to sleep this morning. He recently suffered from colon cancer that was removed but recently again stopped eating and began having breathing/liver/heart problems. He will be missed.

*moment of silence for reflection*

And the good news, or rather the fantastic news is...the realtor called me earlier and said that the bank came back and said the price we offered (20k below asking) is fine, the only thing they changed is that we have to have the inspection done in 9 days instead of 15 which isn't a big deal at all. I'm so happy and so excited. The only flaw in this is that there is another offer, so we'll have to get the papers signed like asap so the other person doesn't take it from us. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!

House offer:

So David dealt with all the paperwork and contract stuff this morning/afternoon, and it looks like we have officially submitted our offer, and should hope to hear back in about a week from the bank to see if they take the bait or counteroffer. Hopefully they just take the deal, which saves us money and time and gets us in there faster, which would be fantastic. Unfortunately though, even if we get the house, it'll be a little while before we can actually move in, because we have to fix the walls and repaint, but I'm hoping that we will have people that are willing to help us get it finished so we can get in there quicker. We wouldn't really be able to pay anyone for their help, but I would be more than happy to make a large meal for everyone that helps. :)

So exciting!

So we met back at the house again today, and both my family and his dad both agree that it is definitely worth getting the house should it pass inspection. So as of today, we are putting in our first offer! I'm so excited! It's such a beautiful house!

House hunting:

So today was our meeting with the realtor, and we checked out the two houses. We went to the Trailwood one first. I instantly fell in love. It's huge and beautiful. The kitchen is gorgeous, and don't even get me started on the master bath and walk-in closet. I'm in love. The house is absolutely perfect. The only flaw in the entire house is that there are a few cracks in the walls, so we're going back tomorrow and bringing David's dad, and my family to re-look at it, to hopefully find that it is simply issues with the drywall and not actually a structural concern. Should it be just the drywall, we will hopefully be putting in a bid a.s.a.p. We are definitely keeping our fingers crossed. :) We will hopefully add some good pictures tomorrow. :) Yay!

Yay! House hunting!

Yay! I'm so excited! Saturday morning David and I are meeting with our realtor to go check out two houses. I'm pretty set on one of them already. They both cost the same, but one is 400 sq ft larger, and has a slightly bigger lot with a privacy fence already up, and in a super super nice neighborhood. We've already talked with the finance lady once, and she said we should have absolutely no problem getting the loan for it. We need to call her back tomorrow though, so she can send the letter to the realtor, so that if all goes well Saturday as anticipated, we can put in a bid on the house. If we do decide on one this weekend, I'll be sure to post pictures. :) Wish us luck though! It'll be so great to have our own home that we can do whatever with, and allow growth in our family anyway we want! :) Can't wait!

Wet 'N Wild

Tuesday, this being the Brevard County spring break, Erin and I got to use the passes the McDaniels picked up last year for weekdays at Wet 'N Wild and go with Nick, Renee, and Katie. The weather rolled through somewhat ominously, but ultimately stayed decent (despite mistaking the water-gun blast at one ride for thunder more than once). Great times were had, including new patented moves like the "sneak up and pance-&-flip-tube" as well as favourite quotes such as Nick's gem to a group he thought was Erin/Renee/Katie whilst floating down the lazy river of: "If you swam under me right now... it feels like you may see some crack." Lastly, none will forget the look of tourist faces when they were told the rafts were empty because everyone fell out and went sliding down without it... necks askew. Ah, these things will haunt forever.

...somewhere deep in the back seat of the F-150 sat the waterproof camera from last summer's outings to Wet 'N Wild, but alas, there it stayed.

New pics!

Here's a couple of the promised pictures of our new little girl. :)

Home again, home again...

Our little angel is home already! What a pleasant surprise! She is the sweetest thing in the whole world. She had her surgery yesterday so she's a little sore, but she's super sweet and quiet, and has been just laying next to me all day. Tomorrow she's heading to the groomers. :) I'll definitely post pix asap after dinner.

New Family Member

We're hoping to have the newest edition to our family sometime early next week. We adopted a beautiful 4 year old girl. :) So precious, so perfect. We should hear back sometime around Friday and should hope to pick her up around Tuesday or so. :)