Happy Valentine's Day Means..... New Adventures!!

Well.... I know it's been a while, however, I do feel the need to play a little catch up!!  There have been many ups and downs since my last visit, however, the whole picture is just plain BEAUTIFUL!!

This year for Valentines day, we didn't really celebrate it... yet we celebrated it beautifully! This year I got one of the best gifts ever. He gave me a gift of a new life together and many new adventures! Brian bought me a house!... so to speak. We decided months ago that we wanted to start looking for a home to call our own. One that we could grow together in and start our lives together... as a family.... the three of us. So we started down one of the most exciting and stressful paths a couple could ever go down. We found a wonderful realtor through a friend of ours who set us up with one of the best loan officers a young couple could ask for. Mary Beth was a true delight and was possibly one of the most patient people we've had the pleasure of encountering. She is sweet as honey but will fight for you like a momma bear defending her young. She is always so positive, but will tell you like it is when she doesn't think a home is in your best interest. And my goodness, Kyndle (our loan officer) was amazing and helping us to understand the numbers and figures and helped us get some grant money and get us into a home of our own with as little of our own money down as she could. 

We started out with little requirements in mind.... there were the obvious things:

• Good school district for Ciara
• enough room for all three of us
• enough space for the dogs
• preferably close to where we are now... relatively speaking
• had to be close enough to work to be realistic

And we started looking. We were ambitious at first, taking whole days to look at 8 houses or more. But after a few of those trips we realized the houses all start to blur together that day and we end up sore and exhausted.... and poor Brian with his knee...

Needless to say, we slowed our roll after all that. We looked a few different things, The One with The Triangle Lot, The Smoke House, The Little House with The Deck, The Fixer Upper, The One With The Great Room, The Tiny But It Could Work House, Nick Road, The One With the Great View of The Bay, The Big One on The Shore, The Cottage, The One With The Kayak, The Blue House...... And so many more. 

The very first house we looked at, we absolutely loved (despite the strange lot shape). This was The One With The Triangle Lot. It had beautiful floors, move in ready, beautiful front porch, great kitchen, perfect size.... but it was out of our price range. So we moved on.

Then there was the Little House With The Deck. I loved this house.... it had a rough kitchen, but it had a moderately private lot (best in the neighborhood for sure!) and it had a fantastic screened in porch out back. It was pretty level and had room for a swing set even. The bedrooms were a good size and we would have been comfortable. But after thinking it through, the layout of the kitchen was very uncomfortable and we are glad we didn't get that house!

Then there was The Fixer Upper.... great price ($170,000), but it needed a ton of work... new floors, new paint, new kitchen cabinets, new laundry room (it was moldy), repaired dry wall, new doors to bedrooms.... the more we walked through it, the more work it needed and we knew the VA probably wouldn't approve us for the property due to safety issues. So we walked away.

Then there was this cute little house, The One With The Great Room, that was just too cute. It had a pretty big yard and it was basically one great big room with a few little offshoots. The great room was all open with very high ceilings... meaning no attic... and it had two decent sized bedrooms. The bathroom was big, but there was only one, and the kitchen was decent but there was no dining area. We decided that the size wasn't good for us since we have Ciara and two dogs.

Then we had the Tiny But It Could Work house.... This one was actually pretty ok. However, each room felt just a little too small. Small kitchen, but not bad. Small dining room, but at least it has one! Small living room, but we could make it happen. Tiny bedrooms, but what kind of time do you really spend in those anyway... but the time we were through the house, which didn't take long... we realized it would never work.

Nick Road was a decent sized house on a 1 acre lot... which sounds great, right?.. it wasn't. the lot was an acre of woods and there really wasn't any usable yard. The rooms were a decent size, but there essential things missing.... my biggest issue though, was that there was some unknown fungus growing in the dining room. I was out.

Then there was the little One With The Great View Of The Bay. This one was just feet from the water front. This house was a sight for sore eyes. It had a great outdoor space including a garage. a wonderful living room, a half decent kitchen, ok sized bedrooms with an extra one upstairs. The room upstairs had a balcony with a view of the water. It was great.... until we noticed the drooping fan... which led us to the massive hole in the roof... which was being sold "as is". So we kept looking.

Then there was the Blue House. This house was THE house. I loved it! New carpets, great living room and kitchen, perfect sized bedrooms, laundry on the second floor. Great sized yard in need of some light TLC. Great location, three bedrooms.... it was everything! Until I investigated a hole in the wall revealing some water damage that led us to the discovery of a major support beam under the house that had rotted out and would need to be replaced. Again... sold "as is".... so my dream was torn and we retracted our contract and walked away.

We found The Cottage not long after that. It had a larger lot, newly redone interior with new carpets, big bedrooms, great kitchen area... my second favorite house so far!.... but it was out of our price range. Seeing as it had just gone on the market there was a good chance the price would drop, but we didn't want to sit around waiting for something we may have never gotten. So we continued our search. 

We found a quaint house in a gated community that we enjoyed, however, the space wasn't exactly usable for us and it didn't seem big enough for the family we had.... but it would've come with a kayak (which was almost reason enough for me to go for it!).... but it wasn't worth what they were asking, so we kept on moving. 

After looking for so long in this area, we decided to try looking on the Eastern Shore.... Where we found a decent foreclosure that was in a great neighborhood and had almost 2 acres! It was great... however there were a few things that really needed attention... like the floors on the second floor were in need of replacement... subflooring and all. Which turned out to be a decent red flag that made us rethink our decision to try to live a bay away from work. We looked at a couple others on the eastern shore and finally realized that right now is not a good time for us to be living so far from work.... so we kept looking.

Then Brian suggested we go back and look at one of the homes from early in our house hunt.... we affectionately called it The Smoke House. We actually looked at this house the very first day we went out with Mary Beth. The day I immediately said "NO!" because the stench of cigarettes burned my eyes and smacked you in the face the moment you walked in the front door. I refused to raise my child in a house that smelled like a lifetime of bad decisions. However, Brian convinced me to go back. So we did.... and somehow, the smell seemed to be better than that first day. So I walked through the home with him and entertained the idea of this house. We put it back on our maybe list and looked at some more houses.....

Houses that were too big... to small... needed too much work... were too expensive... were not the right fit.... not in a good neighborhood..... and so many other things.

So Brian and I went back one more time to the Smoke house..... and this third time was the time it all came to fruition. This was going to be our house. While the previous owner may not have taken the best care of it, the house still stood sturdy and firm. It needed a lot of TLC, but that is something that we are happy to do. So we put a contract down on that house right before Halloween.

BUT.... That was only the beginning of the longest 104 days of our lives. 

This house was a short sale, the name of which gives a deceiving impression. We started out by offering about $8k less than asking, but the bank refused to go any lower than the asking price. We gave in and agreed. At that point we had a home inspection which resulted in a novel sized list of things that would need repair but all in all, it passed and we could go on. Bobby, the home inspector, was wonderful in that he prioritized all of the things that needed repairs or replacements so that we knew where to start in fixing up this home. He also "shockingly" found that there was an issue with the well. It was charged! He had gotten shocked by the cap and then we also found that there was almost no water pressure. The homeowner had a guy come out and fix the well and the electrical issues. Then there was the VA inspection... which yield two problems. They appraised the home for $3k less than the original price (sort of a good thing) and there were a couple minor repairs that the homeowner needed to do. He had them done, however, they are half rated jobs at best so we will eventually be redoing it. Then there was the termite inspection, which the seller is supposed to pay for but we had to.... thankfully we work for a pest control company that is in the process of training employees so we got a good deal! Then when treatment was recommended, the bank said that we had to pay for that too... ya know "as is" and all. So we had to have that taken care of, but again, we got a good deal.

Then after all this, it was simply a waiting game. We had to wait to hear back from the bank that held the previous owner's loan. That was like waiting for rain in a drought.... it was horrible. There was confusion in the paper work, they had numbers wrong, the insurance premium wasn't right, we had to adjust for flood insurance.... it was just plain painful. In fact, at one point I went to Brian on the verge of tears and told him I wasn't sure if I could handle any more of this.

But shortly after all of that, we got everything moving and within about 10 days, we were at settlement.

We spent our first Valentine's Day together working on our new house so that we can make it our own home, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. That day beats any diamond necklace or bouquet of flowers or box of chocolate. We have our own home! 

As we adventure down this new path in life I am sure that we will grow in so many ways. I can't wait to see what this new part of our life together holds! So here's to a new adventure full of hard work and a lot of love!