Showing posts with label House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2012
Closing Date
And now the waiting begins continues... Today is the closing date on our dream house. As soon as we hear from the Lawyer's Office or from our Realtor, we can officially call the place ours! What a long, hard battle it has been. So much paperwork and phone calls and running around. I'll be happy when I can just settle into my new closet craft area and relax. This is my life!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Jumping on the Yearly Recap Bandwagon
It seems to be a trend in blog world to end the blogging year with a nice little recap. So, no need for me to disappoint.
January - We had to put down our sweet kitten Rocco. We cried. I celebrated my 26th birthday in Cottage Country with Turkey Butt.
February - We found out we were expecting our little pumpkin on the 16th.
March - Celebrated our 1st anniversary at my in-law's very cold camp.
April - Turkey Butt celebrated his 27th birthday with a homemade ice cream cake.
May - Moved to a new apartment.
June - Found out that our little pumpkin is going to be a girl.
July - Went to the zoo.
August - Had an unpleasant run-in at work that led to a few days off of work - funded by Worker's Compensation.
September - Got beautiful maternity photos taken by RavenDawn Photography. Attended my first baby shower - and it happened to be my own.
October - Turkey Butt & I got hitched on the 1st. On the 18th we welcomed our Little Miss Elle into the world. On the 31st we celebrated our first Halloween as a family of 3 (+dog) with cuddling and horror movies.
November - Took holiday photos of Little Miss Elle for our Christmas cards.
December - Found our dream house and put an offer on it. Celebrated Christmas as a family. Officially bought our dream house - now we wait for the closing date.
All in all it was such a wonderful year. I feel so very blessed to have had such an amazing year! I can only imagine what will happen for us in 2012. Will be so hard to top 2011! This is my life!
January - We had to put down our sweet kitten Rocco. We cried. I celebrated my 26th birthday in Cottage Country with Turkey Butt.
February - We found out we were expecting our little pumpkin on the 16th.
March - Celebrated our 1st anniversary at my in-law's very cold camp.
April - Turkey Butt celebrated his 27th birthday with a homemade ice cream cake.
May - Moved to a new apartment.
June - Found out that our little pumpkin is going to be a girl.
July - Went to the zoo.
August - Had an unpleasant run-in at work that led to a few days off of work - funded by Worker's Compensation.
September - Got beautiful maternity photos taken by RavenDawn Photography. Attended my first baby shower - and it happened to be my own.
October - Turkey Butt & I got hitched on the 1st. On the 18th we welcomed our Little Miss Elle into the world. On the 31st we celebrated our first Halloween as a family of 3 (+dog) with cuddling and horror movies.
November - Took holiday photos of Little Miss Elle for our Christmas cards.
December - Found our dream house and put an offer on it. Celebrated Christmas as a family. Officially bought our dream house - now we wait for the closing date.
All in all it was such a wonderful year. I feel so very blessed to have had such an amazing year! I can only imagine what will happen for us in 2012. Will be so hard to top 2011! This is my life!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Added Holiday Stress
Ohhh the stress of trying to purchase a house. Now I remember why I've rented all these years. Being not a very patient person, the waiting is literally killing me. Okay, okay not literally but still. Gah!
It all started off innocently enough - doesn't it always? - with me casually perusing MLS listings. I saw a couple nice ones and one amazing one that was shocking priced reasonably. But still, I knew we were in our lease til the end of April 2012 so it was all just for fun. But then our bedroom closet sprung a leak. By bedroom closet, I really mean the bathroom of the aparment upstairs sprung a leak. I'm talking serious water damage and an increasingly alarming mould outbreak. Turkey Butt and I had to clear out the closet, move our clothes and bed into the (already crowded) nursery and close up the room. Our landlords solution? A few days later they stopped the leak but have yet to address the fact that the closet will have to be torn out and redone, the mould issue will have to be dealt with, and the carpet will have to be ripped up.
All of a sudden, Turkey Butt and I are thinking we should fast track our home buying plans. So we contacted sweet hubby's bank and a real estate agent to get the ball rolling. Cut to a week later. After looking at 4 houses, we had my father-in-law come up to inspect our top two picks. Pick number two ended up having structural damage to the tune of approx. $50, 000 so scratch that off the list! Pick number one (a.k.a. dream house) needed a new roof ($3,000 to $5,000) and my father in law had a few questions about the spray foam insulation in the basement.
So, we put an offer on our dream house last night. We offered $7,000 less than the asking price. We felt this was generous considering the house had been on the market for a year and was located within spitting distance to a busy street. They counter offerred at $2,000 below their asking price at about the same time we found out the insulation needs to be covered to meet building code regulations and insure it isn't a fire hazard. Father-in-law estimates this would cost another $2,000. Oye.
Here's my dilemma, I am not moving my family into a house that has unsafe, flammable materials in it. This is a given. But at the same time, do I really want to add another out of pocket expense onto an already expensive home? So far we're looking at a minimum of $5,000 of work and this doesn't even include the little things (like bannisters need to be built for both staircases). This is my dream house and it is magically, just barely, in my budget due to the poor location but there has to be some give. If the Seller's agree to fix the basement and install smoke detectors ( there are none in the house), then we will accept their counter offer. If not, we may up our offer by $1,000 but that will be our final offer.
Soooo much stress over the holidays. My patience is wearing thin. Oh, and did I mention that the bank was supposed to get back to us "by the end of the week" with the amount that they'll preapprove us to borrow for a mortgage? But look at that, the bank closed forty minutes ago and it's a Friday. Now we'll have to wait til Monday to find out if we'll even be approved for enough money to purchase this house. Sigh. This is my life.
It all started off innocently enough - doesn't it always? - with me casually perusing MLS listings. I saw a couple nice ones and one amazing one that was shocking priced reasonably. But still, I knew we were in our lease til the end of April 2012 so it was all just for fun. But then our bedroom closet sprung a leak. By bedroom closet, I really mean the bathroom of the aparment upstairs sprung a leak. I'm talking serious water damage and an increasingly alarming mould outbreak. Turkey Butt and I had to clear out the closet, move our clothes and bed into the (already crowded) nursery and close up the room. Our landlords solution? A few days later they stopped the leak but have yet to address the fact that the closet will have to be torn out and redone, the mould issue will have to be dealt with, and the carpet will have to be ripped up.
All of a sudden, Turkey Butt and I are thinking we should fast track our home buying plans. So we contacted sweet hubby's bank and a real estate agent to get the ball rolling. Cut to a week later. After looking at 4 houses, we had my father-in-law come up to inspect our top two picks. Pick number two ended up having structural damage to the tune of approx. $50, 000 so scratch that off the list! Pick number one (a.k.a. dream house) needed a new roof ($3,000 to $5,000) and my father in law had a few questions about the spray foam insulation in the basement.
So, we put an offer on our dream house last night. We offered $7,000 less than the asking price. We felt this was generous considering the house had been on the market for a year and was located within spitting distance to a busy street. They counter offerred at $2,000 below their asking price at about the same time we found out the insulation needs to be covered to meet building code regulations and insure it isn't a fire hazard. Father-in-law estimates this would cost another $2,000. Oye.
Here's my dilemma, I am not moving my family into a house that has unsafe, flammable materials in it. This is a given. But at the same time, do I really want to add another out of pocket expense onto an already expensive home? So far we're looking at a minimum of $5,000 of work and this doesn't even include the little things (like bannisters need to be built for both staircases). This is my dream house and it is magically, just barely, in my budget due to the poor location but there has to be some give. If the Seller's agree to fix the basement and install smoke detectors ( there are none in the house), then we will accept their counter offer. If not, we may up our offer by $1,000 but that will be our final offer.
Soooo much stress over the holidays. My patience is wearing thin. Oh, and did I mention that the bank was supposed to get back to us "by the end of the week" with the amount that they'll preapprove us to borrow for a mortgage? But look at that, the bank closed forty minutes ago and it's a Friday. Now we'll have to wait til Monday to find out if we'll even be approved for enough money to purchase this house. Sigh. This is my life.
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