It Actually Happened

We got a contract on a house. I still can't believe it happened. There were times when I felt so discouraged that it seemed like we would be living in this basement forever.

It's actually pretty funny how it happened. I was at work the other day, and I was quickly checking my e-mail before I left work and I discovered one of our offers got accepted! Remember, we have seen at least 100 houses by this point and put offers in on about 10 houses while praying that something gets accepted. The part that really surprised me was that our offer was accepted immediately. There weren't any counter offers or anything. Accepted as is. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I was so excited. I couldn't believe it....but then I wasn't too excited because I couldn't even remember what house that was. I do remember seeing that particular house less than a week ago, but we had seen about 5 houses that day and they all had the exact same floor plan. Was it the one with all the upgraded fixtures? Was it the one with the bigger backyard? Was it the one with the funky basement? I couldn't remember. But we had a contract on a house.

I quickly called Jason to share the funny yet exciting news. We both laughed at our similar responses to the house. "I guess it'll work." We said. I was struggling a little with the fact that I couldn't even remember the house! My mom just laughed at me when I called her. She couldn't believe I had a contract on a house I couldn't even remember. I told her that we wouldn't have put an offer on a house if we didn't like it enough to live in it. I believe that near the end of seeing all those houses that looked exactly the same, we were eventually thinking, "That'll do. I'll just take any house. Please, someone. Just give me a house!"

While I was still on my way home from work, I got a call from my realtor congratulating me on the contract on the house. I laughed and told him about Jason and my similar responses regarding the house, and he said, "No, not that house, the other one. You got a contract on your favorite house." "What???? We got two contracts?" Yup. We sure did. That was a no-brainer. I didn't even need to talk to Jason first before telling the realtor which house we would go with. Both of us liked this house from the beginning.

Here's some pictures from the listing:

I love how the front of this house looks. Yeah, the yard needs some serious revival, but it's nothing we haven't dealt with before. Jason loves the 3-car garage. He wants to make it his little shop for tinkering. Whatever that is. Every man needs their man-cave, and I guess this will be his.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this staircase. It just looks so cool. I love how it is so open. Thankfully I won't have to worry about walking up and down those stairs with a load of laundry. The washer and dryer are on the top floor to the far right.
The family room. The first room we will be painting. In natural light the ceiling is not blue. The walls are currently a rusty orange. Maybe the people had some sort of southwestern theme going on. No thanks. I love how this room is right off the kitchen so I'm not exiled to the kitchen when entertaining guests. The decent-sized kitchen. I like how there is the island. In our old house, I was so limited with cooking space. I hated that. Thankfully there is still a good amount of space around the island so you don't feel too cramped with other people working in the kitchen. I think. I'd have to test it out to be sure.

I am really excited about this house. It really has so much to offer us. We were really thinking hard about what we wanted in our new house, and I think we really got a keeper with this one. We really want that house that lasts us a LONG time. Others don't seem to think we'd stay that long, but that is something we really want. We want that house the girls live in the entire time they are in school. I don't want them to have to worry about going from one school to the next....except for the natural transitions between elementary to middle school and from middle to high school.

Now all I have to do is wait...again. It seems like my big lesson in life is patience. I'm just so excited, though! It just seems extra long because we are so cramped in this basement. We've lasted this long, what's another month? We close on our new house on May 21st.

Looking For The Perfect Home

Okay, so things have been pretty crazy here.

I had my long-awaited Spring Break a couple weeks ago, and it sure seemed to go much faster than I anticipated. I guess it never seems long enough when you have a lot to do. My primary purpose for break was to do some serious house shopping.

My brother's father-in-law is a realtor, and he happily agreed to help us find our perfect house. The big challenge for us is finding the house that we can afford as well as the house we can see ourselves living in for many years to come. We have always said that it would be nice to live in one house the entire time the kids are in school. I want them to have the opportunity to go to the same schools with the same friends and not have to worry too much about going to different schools and making new friends.

I have seen so many houses, that by this point I am really having a hard time keeping them straight. I think there were only two days during my Spring Break where I did not physically go and see houses. Since we started looking, I'd have to say that we've seen at least 50 houses. That's pretty amazing when you think about it. Right now, we are in the best position to buy a house. The market is flooded with houses for sale, short sales, and foreclosures. It's pretty exciting, but also very exhausting. I know that our new home is out there somewhere, but it almost feels like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We've seen a lot of really nice homes, but not necessarily one that we feel could be "the one." We actually put offers on three different houses last week. We haven't heard back from one of them yet, but I don't expect to hear anything on that house anytime soon. It is a short sale that already had a contract on it before we got to it. The other houses were great possibilities, but the homeowners seem to think they can get more money for their houses than we were willing to pay. I'm okay with that. I wasn't totally feeling it with those houses anyways. When you look at the recent sales in the area, there is no way those people could get as much as they were asking. It all depends on how quickly the sellers are willing to get out of their house. They'd be lucky to find buyers in similar situations like us. We can move quickly. We don't have a house to sell first. Their loss.

We were able to go out again yesterday, and I think we have made some serious progress. I think the greatest success of the weekend was that we were both able to agree on our #1 pick of houses. Previously, there was one house that was my particular favorite, and then there was one that was Jason's favorite. Now we both like the same house. That's a big deal for me. I don't want it to be that one of us is settling with one house wishing we got a different one. I am really excited about this house, and I just pray that it works out. We should be putting in an offer on this house hopefully by tomorrow.

I am SO ready to have our own place again. Now that the weather is getting nicer, I am really longing for my own place to spread out and do what I want to do and to get settled. I am looking forward to establishing a new routine for our new place. I am looking forward to the girls being able to play in and out of the house and not having to worry about where they are and whose stuff they might be messing with . I am practically counting down the days to where I don't have to share a room with my girls and always worry about them messing up my space or getting into my things. I am looking forward to finally knowing where we are going to be living so I can get started on getting Meghan ready for Kindergarten (gasp!) this fall. I still don't know where she will be going. I pray that this issue will get settled pretty quickly when we actually move. I am really looking forward to this summer where I can have fun with my girls again and finally get to feeling like normal. It will be nice. I think I will appreciate it more than I thought I would just because I haven't had my own space for almost 6 months now.