Welcome, HOME!

So it has been a long and stressful few months waiting and searching for the right house. Its come down to the wire and it's the night before closing. My husband and I looked at over 50 houses during our house hunting adventures and just when we were about to give up hope, we found the one. Things have gone smoothly overall, with just a little rocks in the road along the way, and of course the emergency phone calls. But tomorrow is the day we close on the house and get handed the keys. We are looking forward to the big move and though I'd share some photos and welcome you into our soon to be new home.

~ You can see more photos at my FLICKR!

House Hunting Adventures: Part 3

What a nightmare! Oh pooy, so here is the latest on our search for our first home. Remember the house we loved, well we put an offer on the house back on September 4th, we went in low but were hoping they would counter, so we wait in excitement over the Labor Day weekend through the following week. Apparently their realtor doesn't work on the weekends, wtf, I thought real estate never sleeps. So Friday, the 11th came, we finally heard back a week later, that there was a counter offer, but didn't know the number. At this point, it had already taken too long and had talked to our realtor who had talked to theirs. We found out there were two owners of the house, so they were waiting for both of their decisions I guess, these people are crazy! We made a decision if we didn't hear back by the 16th, we were going to with draw our offer. So come yesterday, I got a horrible call from my realtor that the family is taking the house OFF the MARKET! 

Can you believe the nerve of these people?!!!! I don't understand why people can be so inconsiderate of other people's time. We wasted a whole week and a half on this house, when we could of been looking at other houses, houses go fast in the market now and days, and since we need to close by November 31st to get the tax stimulus money, we are on a very tight schedule. JERKS!

Tomorrow night, we are going to go look at houses again, back to the drawing board! ugh…

House Hunting Adventures: Part 2

Being thrown into the housing market and being a first time home buyer is not an easy task. So many houses to choose from and I hear it only gets worse. In the past two weeks, my husband Bruce and I have viewed around 30 houses. While it can be very overwhelming, it is extremely exciting to walk into homes and imagine them as your own. With this comes many variables which we need to factor when choosing the right home: How would we lay out our furniture? Is there enough room for a child in the future? Can it fit all of Bruce's comics? Is it gas or oil heating? Central air? New windows? The list goes on and on…

During our house hunting adventures, we have looked at so many houses with lovely layouts and some that were atrocious. A couple in particular featured basements that smelled of mildew, a foreclosure home where the previous owner destroyed the space and one house which reeked of cigarette smoke and cat urine. We also had our eye on two in this one particular development, but after asking around, we found out the neighborhood is semi shady and too close to other bad neighborhoods across the way. Plus heard the houses aren't built well and grounds are mostly sand based.

However, looking on the bright side, we fallen in love with one house in particular, which is a nice neighborhood and is close to the grocery store, I-95 for work access and close to family. This week we are hoping to go for a 2nd viewing and are possibly thinking of making an offer; wish us luck please! I'm hoping to get more pictures when we go, but below are some pics of the lovely house and its features.

$226,00: Ranch brick house located on a dead end street. 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, finished full basement with a large family room with fire place, 4th bedroom and renovated full bath with jacuzzi, oooh yeah.

The backyard is very spacious and features an above ground pool, patio and shed.

The kitchen has been renovated with granite counter tops, lovely cabinets and updated appliances. This is plus for us, since Bruce and I aren't handy around the house. The kitchen also has space for a small bistro table.

Nice size living room and dining room with crown molding. The upstairs is very spacious, including the newly renovated bathroom with jet stream bathtub.

House Hunting Adventures: Part 1

Last week some of you might of run into some hidden lines in my previous blogs about my husband and I looking to buy our first home! It's true, it's true; I feel so grown up. I thought it would be cool and informative to share our experience and also would love to receive your insight on tips and any useful info for first time home buyers.

1) First things first, we have a lovely realtor which we met through my parents who recently just moved, she has provided us with some contacts of loan officers she knows and who to call to get pre-approved. A good realtor will be able to help you answer all your questions, which I have plenty of!

2) I called three companies to find out their rates, only one has really responded and was super informative in explaining how a mortgage works and she walked me through their interest rates, fees and our credit. When you call loan officers, a couple things, you want to find their interest rate and the APR at the time to get a good idea, these rates will go up or down but all depends on when you close. Bruce was pre-approved and is considered a first time home buyer and may be eligible for the $8,000 tax credit or at least some of it, very complicated all the stipulations but we are currently looking into it.

3) Once you get your pre-approval letter, then the fun begins! Once you find your house, that is when you have to do more homework, your going to want to call around again to find out the best rates and who you are most comfortable with.

The HOUSE HUNTING ADVENTURE started last night, we went and saw four houses that we found online.

102 Darwin Drive, $209,900

1) The first house was cute from the outside, I'm a big fan of brick. 

• As we pulled into the drive way, we noticed the cement was cracked and later it rained collecting water, hmmm. 

• Needed a new garage door, looked warped. 

• Inside lies the horror: Lime green carpets with 70s flare 

• New windows and lots of storage, but a hidden crawl space that we couldn't get too, anything lurking inside?

•  There was a family room with fireplace, floor was uneven

•  The backyard was a nice size but had this strange cinder block structure, plus lost yard space because of the corner location.

32 MillWright Drive, $209,900

The second house, very nice, out of all the houses we liked this one the most! 

• Much cosmetic worked needed: painting, floors, hornets nest, deck older, cleaning.

• Nice size kitchen and huge backyard, bad fencing

• Flood zone?

• Bedrooms medium size, master bedroom small had horrible mirrors on the walls (freaks)

• Huge finished basement

• 2 full bathrooms, including a hot tub, marble floor half ass'd done.

• Nice neighborhood

2 Turf Lane, $209,000

Bruce had found this one, so we checked it out, he was really bummed out after we looked.

• Exterior nice from a far, up close asbestos siding

• No framing for screen front door

• Wonkly drive way

• Horrible cheap stick on flooring in the lower level

• 2 bathrooms

• Lots of light and nice size kitchen and bedrooms

• Above ground pool that had no cover, located next to highway

• No entrance to the backyard from the inside, weird!

• Two high priced for condition.

1123 Maplefield Road, $193,000

The online listing had so images of the inside of the house, hmmm.

• Nice from the outside, semi shady neighborhood

• The only + of this house was the kitchen, with new appliances and new cabinets.

• The finished basement was weird, smelled like mildew and looked as if someone painted the walls in the dark.

• Stains on carpet

• Fenced in backyard and deck

• Bathroom good size

So as you can see this is just the beginning of our journey, it was alot of fun.

We have more houses we want to look at soon, so stay tuned! 

We would love to hear from you all on any tips or insight from your experiences buying your first home!