Hubby and I have been looking to buy a house since the end of March, and we found one in April which we really liked. It was a short-sale, though, so it was almost 3 months before our offer was accepted. We were so excited about that house. That is, until we had the inspection done (on July 4th of all days!). It ended up having a lot of unexpected, big, problems which we couldn't really contend with. With much sadness, we decided the only thing we could do was back out.
We started looking again at the end of that same week - no point wasting any more time, right? We looked and looked, and saw some nice houses but nothing that really compared to the one we'd wanted to buy before. Anyway, on July 13th we saw a gorgeous house and the next morning we made an offer. Two other couples also offered on that house the same day, so we weren't too hopeful. However, we got lucky and our offer was accepted that evening (it's a traditional sale by the owner, so none of this 'waiting around to hear from a bank' rubbish!). The inspection was done July 15th, everything is good apart from some very minor issues which are to be expected at this point (the house was built in 2002). The seller agreed to our request that he fix the minor plumbing issues, so we were happy! Then came a stumbling block, the appraisal... The appraiser valued it way below asking price. I guess some people would've been happy about that, but we were filled with a sense of dread because we really didn't think the seller would sell it for the appraisal price. We were right, he wanted more. We really didn't want to lose this house, it's in great condition and it's almost 2200 square feet (the last one was almost 1700 square feet, so it's a big difference!) and the seller was even leaving the appliances (fridge, washer and dryer - the washer and dryer look pretty new, too). It's in an area we like, it's pretty close to the in-laws (maybe a little too close, it's literally 1.3 miles!) and we like the layout of the house too. So, we reached a compromise with the seller - we're paying him more than the appraisal came out at, but not as much as he would've liked. He accepted the revised offer within a few hours, so all is good! Now the mortgage is progressing nicely and we're all set. We should be getting the keys by the end of this month, and we'll probably move a week or so later. We haven't started packing yet but I'll get onto it next week, when my period is gone!
Hubby's parents are very kindly giving us their La-Z-Boy leather reclining couch and love-seat set, which we're thrilled about because despite being about 8 years old they look pretty much brand new, and they're super-comfortable of course! The new house has 2 living areas so we would've had to buy another couch set, so this is going to save us a lot of money. They're also buying us a really good Oreck vacuum cleaner as a house-warming gift! Yay! They wanted to buy us a fridge or something like that but because all of that comes with the house, they decided on the vacuum cleaner. That works really well for us (well, me in particular since I'll be the one using it!) because the one we have now isn't exactly very good and this new one is meant to be really good at getting pet hair out, which is something the old one doesn't do very well. Since we have 2 pugs, who shed a ton, that's gonna be awesome! There's more carpet in the house than we would've liked, but it all looks good and I want to keep it that way, so this will really help :-)
The new house has 4 good-sized bedrooms, and I'm not sure yet which one will be our future baby's room... Hubby works from home so one of them will be his office, the master bedroom will obviously be ours, and then there are 2 other rooms - 1 will be a guest bedroom and the other will be the baby's room. Maybe we should have the baby's room next to ours, I'm not sure. I definitely don't want the guest bedroom to be the biggest of the smaller bedrooms - not to sound awful or anything, but that room won't get that much use and when people are staying with us free of charge, they'll get what they're given! Also, while I'm sounding like a bitch, we won't be getting the most comfortable bed for that room either... For the sole reason that I just know people would outstay their welcome if we make it tempting enough! I want our guests to be comfortable in our house but we've had a couple of guests in our current house, which was a nightmare because it's too small (2 bedrooms, but the second bedroom is hubby's office, so it's definitely not ideal having people stay). One of our guests (my Dad, actually) really took the piss when he stayed, made such a mess everywhere and wouldn't lift a finger, he wouldn't even let our dog out when she needed to go potty and I was in the middle of cleaning the bathroom (he was maybe 10 feet away from the back door!). I like having guests but it's also a pain in the butt, honestly. I don't want my Dad turning up for 2 months, his 10 day visit was more than long enough and because he criticizes me all the time it got old very quickly, bending over backwards to please him and make sure he had a nice vacation etc... So yeah, the bed we buy for the guest room won't be like our lovely comfy king size bed, hehe. :-)
I'm thinking it'll go something like this: The far right bedroom (master) is ours of course, the next is the baby's. To the left of the baby's room is guest room and the one on the far left is hubby's office. That would make his office the second biggest bedroom, but at least he uses that room pretty much every single day so it's not going to waste. The guest room might get used once a year, if that, who knows? I might put some other stuff in there too, or use it for something else the rest of the time. Maybe instead of a proper bed we could get a sofa bed for that room, I don't know. It's something to consider, anyway.
So aside from TTC, the new house is also our project! Not that we really need to do anything to it, it doesn't need painting or anything, but we'll have to buy a few things for it and make it truly ours :-) It's really exciting! Our first home that's actually ours. Oh and we might even be moving in a year to the day since I arrived in the US! How crazy is that?! :-)
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