House news

I haven't written about this because of the uncertainty of it all, but it's now time....

Mike and I bought a new house..

Mike and I recieved an email on a house for sale in September 2009. Mike had been resistant to shopping for a new home, but when he saw the email with only 1 picture, (of the outside) he was ready to buy!

Short description:

• Built in 1981--Popcorn ceilings that gotta go
• Almost an acre of land --room for a dog to run, and multiple kids
• Split level style home--kids upstairs, parents downstairs....or vice versa ;)
• Deck off of the dining room for all the BBQs that we love to do!
• 3 bedrooms-tiny in size, but how much time do you really spend in your room?
• 2 bathrooms-disgustingly nasty and very outdated...think I'll be hiring someone to clean those
• Laundry room with no ceiling and cement floors...so that's where all the cobwebs and spiders are coming from...
• Bonus room downstairs, with a stripper pole and dance floor...sorry Mike, it's gotta go
• Converted garage: to nothing yet, mother-in-law-space? Master bedroom and huge bath?
• Detached garage/shop--Mike's "home away from home"

So we looked at the house...the first house we ever looked at together and Mike wanted to put an offer on it. So we did...and then I felt like we had to do a little shopping around so we could see and compare more that was out there and we did... but still didn't find anything we liked as much.

The house was a "short sale". Meaning the owner owed more on his loan than the house was currently worth and was going through this process instead of a foreclosure. This also meant that it could take months for a deal to go through and even then, a deal might not happen.

Our offer was accepted by the owner on September 22nd and then it had to get approval from the bank who owned the loan. They countered our offer and we accepted it, and then

The wait began....

We took these pictures when we first viewed the house:

This is the space that I loved about the house: Kitchen/dining/living room. It was all one open space:

Kitchen with new cabinets and island (without an outlet...yet)...Dining room..
Living room...This is what Mike fell in love with...the Detached Garage...

room for several cars, projects and toys... The bonus room: The dance floor with stripper pole...look to left...Loved all the high heel holes in the floor...
And the sitting room to watch....

On December 13th, our second day while in Hawaii, we heard the news from our realtor that the deal was going to go through and was scheduled to close on

January 25th, 2010! YIKES!!!

So it's been a long process and finally we hit our day and actually closed on the 22nd. Though we couldn't take possession of the house till the 25th since the current owner was still living there mortgage free...We finally walked into OUR home at 6:20 p.m. on Monday January 25th for the first time...

Now it's time to get to work!