Well my faithful 40, this will be the last blog post for a bit. Because as of tomorrow, the computer is being unplugged and the Brewer's are moving to the new place! And with only a few nights of crashing with the 'rents in between! BUT, our Internet and TV are not being hooked up until July 12th. SO it will be at least after then before I can post again.
Unless I snag my mom's laptop and post while we are there.
Which I might.
Or might not.
I don't know.
What I DO know is that, thanks to an awesome realtor, an amazing loan officer, and tons of support from the best family and friends ever, this hair brained, half-thought out, crazy plan to sell and move for a specific house that we ended up not getting anyway....has become an exciting and wonderful new journey and experience for our family, and we are so thankful for the blessings that the LORD has given us. Including our beautiful new home!!! We couldn't be happier at the way it has all worked out, and we are just thrilled!!! And will be even more thrilled when this is all behind us! HA!
Until then, toodles peeps!!!!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Big Move
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Moving Along...Well, Moving Anyway....
We are **STILL** waiting on the repair addendum to get back from our sellers. But I drove by today and there was a roofing truck there, so I hope that is a sign that we are going to get the needed repairs done so that we can buy the house and not be homeless!!! AHHH! Echm. Sorry. Minor flip out. I seem to be having several of those a day recently. :)
Anyway, the appraisal came back good (yay) so we should be set to close next week! YAY! Which is really good because as it turns out, Cole got his S92 transition at work, and will be out of town for most of July and some of August. Sad note: despite what I previously thought, he will, yet AGAIN, miss my birthday. :( We have been together since 2006 and I have yet to spend a birthday with him. He has promised to make it up to me. I hope that means really nice granite. ;) And he has promised that, come hell or high water, we will spend my birthday next year (the big 3-0) together. We will see....
So things are moving forward on the new house. Not as rapido as I would like. I need a close date and a plan! Try getting utilities moved when you don't have a date for them to move on! HA! They mostly laughed at me. Great....
But we are packing up and getting the heck out of Dodge, er, Mesa Verde, by this weekend and will be bunking with my parents for a week or so. Fun times ahead. But I am just thankful that it is all happening fairly smoothly. So far. Stay tuned.... (KNOCK ON WOOD)
:)
Friday, June 17, 2011
Steal of a Deal
You know how sometimes, you go into a store to look for one thing, and then something that is on MEGA sale catches your eye, and you think, "I really do need that!" even though 9/10, you don't actually need it, but you use the price to justify the purchase anyway??? What, you don't do that. Huh. You're weird. ;) Anyway, this is that one in ten moment where that happened to me and I actually really, truly, needed it!!!
I was in Home Depot to drool over carpet and counter tops for our new house, and I thought I would check out the appliances just for kicks, and since we need a new fridge (ours conveys) I figured why not check those out too.
Then I saw it. The clearance tag with 948$. And the tag under it that said an additional 20% off. On this beauty...
Cole didn't know I did this. But thankfully he was just happy that I saved him a TON o' MONEY! We couldn't even buy the cheap, off brand, white fridge for $814.00!!!!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Who Would'a Thought???
The sell of our home has gone really well...not that I am trying to tempt fate. Knocking on wood RIGHT NOW. But we have a great buyer with a wonderful realtor and everything on that transaction (including the crazy things we have asked from them for our buying transaction) have panned out really nicely.
So my most recent "who would'a thought" question has been "Who would'a thought that selling a house would be the EASY part?!!?" Not that it is "easy"....or cheap. Mercy sakes alive moving is expensive and stressful!!! I don't know how people do it on a regular basis. I told Cole that I might always look at houses- I just like doing that. But make no mistake, I am not interested in moving again. EVER. EEEVVVVEEERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The home we are buying (see pictures below) is a great house that was on the market FSBO for a while. When we lost our Cannes house, we started looking for a new home right away since we had already sold our current house at that point. We looked. and looked. and looked. We found one that was okay. But that was it...just okay. It will be a fabulous house for someone I know. But for us, and our needs, it just didn't work. But it was clean, big, and on budget. And I was really fighting my need to have a home for our family with my desire not to settle on what we want to be our "long term" home.
The night after our second showing on the "okay" house, I was really wrestling with what we should do. Cole liked the house (mostly the price) and was in agreement to make an offer...IF I would be happy there. And I probably would be happy in that house. For 5-6 years. Not 20-25 years like we really want. So I was at the computer, and just prayed that the Lord would show me the way.
Well the day of that second showing, we had driven down a friend's street because she said there was a really nice house with a great backyard that was FSBO. We drove the street and didn't see any houses that were for sale. So we figured it had sold. Well after I prayed that night, and did ANOTHER (what I thought would be fruitless) search, BAM! There it was. I was SO excited that I called our realtor right then to make the appointment. It was the house that was for sale by owner, and they had just listed it! We got in the next morning at 9 am. Cole had gone to the store, and when he walked in the door, I told him that I had found our house! And that it was UNDER our budget!!!
...fast forward two offers, one counter, and one lackluster inspection later.... This is the house I wrote about last time that they countered our full price offer with some crazy stipulations and we walked away. Well we gave them a few days to prove that the buyers in this market at that price were not going to be beating down the door. So we put in another offer and met them halfway on their terms. And they accepted! So Monday we had the inspection. Overall, it was an okay inspection for a 15 year old house. But there are some roof issues. I don't really want to go into it, but lets just say that somethings need to be fixed or replaced before we will move forward. Our realtor is due here in about 30 minutes to write up the repair requests. Please say a little prayer that all goes well. The longer this takes, the longer we will be crashing with my parents, and the harder this whole thing will be!
Now the fun part... PICTURES!!! I took these at the inspection. We are planning on new carpet ASAP and new countertops very soon too. And of course paint and light fixtures along the way. Oh, and the WALLPAPER is coming down IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!! But the bones are good, and we love the backyard. I know, I know. I said I wanted a "turn key" house (didn't I say that on here? Well I did in person...at first...). But truth is, I like the fact that I can make it "ours." That is important to me.
ENJOY!!!
Our new home!!!
Back deck 2 levels!
Top level of deck with speakers and fan.
Walk-in pantry
Living room with built ins.
My new craft room.
Ava's room. All of the bedrooms are HUGE!
Guest room.
Guest bath
Guest bath again
Built ins....LOVE THEM!
Front door...going to be painted black. That is my signature I have decided. And I like black doors better with red brick than any other color. :)
SOOO glad it has a storm door! I love ours and really wanted one in our new house!
Huge formal dining room! Never had one of these before...super excited!!!
Eating area off kitchen. Goodbye wallpaper!
TADA! Kitchen!!! Gas JennAir range, double ovens, deep sink, TONS of cabinet space, walk-in pantry. I could live in this room. Minus the green and wallpaper! ;)
Switches in the master bathroom. This house was custom built and has light switches EVERYWHERE! TONS! Very thoughtful in the design.
Storage in the master bath water closet.
water closet in master bath. Cole's favorite room. :)
Master vanity (and guest appearance by ME!)
Ahhhh LURV this tub. It is HUGE!
Master bedroom. I have already bought new window treatments. :)
Laundry with built in office area. Love this! It is off of the kitchen so I think it will be really functional for the way we live. Thursday, June 9, 2011
Backing Up to Punt
I have been an absentee blogger! Sorry!!! Been super busy! So the last post I was talking about how we sold our house and we were waiting to hear about the house we wanted to buy. Remember? It had another contingent offer and we were the backup? Well, the other buyers were able to remove their contingent offer and we lost the house. And honestly, I was not as sad as I expected to be. I think because panic immediately set in. I knew we would probably have to crash with my parents for a bit, and we are okay with that. They have plenty of space and are generous enough to take us in. But the idea of my family not having a home is a bit scary!
So the day after we found out that Cannes was not going to be our new home, we began looking for another house. We really didn't want to go above what we were going to pay for Cannes, but I was so afraid we were going to be forced to wait it out or look at more expensive homes. Something Cole would NOT have been okay with! HA!
Well we were looking at a house in our desired neighborhood, but in a different area. This particular neighborhood is large and has lots of different "sub-neighborhoods" I would call them. And this house was in an okay area, but it didn't have any trees. Cole and I tend to lean towards a little older homes (mid to late 90s) in this neighborhood because they have mature trees and shady, private lots. And we are into that. So we were still unsure of the house, and I just had that sick feeling. It was a super nice house, but I just knew it was a mistake. We were talking about what to do when I did yet ANOTHER search and saw that a new home had JUST been listed. I called our poor realtor at 8:00 that night, and we had an appointment to see it the next morning. I loved it online and didn't sleep at all! I just stayed up wondering and thinking and praying.
Well we saw the house at 9 that morning, and loved it! It is a bit smaller than the Cannes house (it is about 2300 sqft) and it doesn't have a half bath. But it is a great house with lots of potential! I say that because, true to form, it needs some cosmetic help. But no knocking down walls and new kitchens this time! Just take down some wallpaper, new counter tops, and new carpet. And paint, but I would do that in any house! ;)
So we made a full price offer. And you will never, ever believe this...they COUNTERED!!!! A FULL PRICE OFFER!!!! We thought we were being really generous and knew we could be because the house was less than Cannes by about 8k and because it had so much potential! But they countered down the price with no closing costs paid, which is all the same really to us. But the thing that we had to walk away from was the terms. They apparently had been burned in the past and were not eager to make a deal with someone who had not yet closed on their other home. The paperwork they wanted was doable. Not fun, but we were willing to provide that. But they wanted things within 5 days. Things like the inspection and appraisal contingencies removed from our house by our buyer. Things that were not in our control. We would never have been able to keep those promises, so we walked away. We were going to wait until our house closed, then go back to them. But we decided the longer we wait, the longer we are living out of suitcases and boxes, and with a 16 month old, that is hard.
So yesterday, we put in another offer. The money is the same (actually we increased our offer $500) but the terms are more reasonable. We have given them everything they wanted, but just said we will give them the documents as they become available to us. We were told they would have an answer by noon. It is now almost 2, and we are still waiting. I just want this to be done with, and know where we are going to be living!!!! I know that the Lord has the perfect home for us, and I truly believe this is it! So I am just praying that He will clear the path! And if this doesn't work out, I know that there is an even better home out there for us!
Speaking of homes, our buyer had his inspection Monday, and that evening we got the report. TWO items!!!! Our hot water heater was leaking and failing and he wanted a new one, and he wanted our AC serviced. The hot water heater is in (no wonder our water bill has been high lately!!!) and the AC people come Tuesday! PTL! That was the one thing I was worried about. I didn't think that there would be an issue, but you just never know!!!
If we get the house we want, I will share with you the MLS link. But for now I am keeping it to myself. Sorry for the suspense, but no use in sharing if it doesn't happen!!! ;)
