It finally happened, we made it into our house. Not that I can even say "finally," everything went fairly smoothly, and relatively fast considering it was a short sale. If you don't know the story of how we got the house, I'll make it quick. Clayton looked into the short sale process and found out it could take as much as 8 months to get a house that's listed as a short sale. Our apartment contract wasn't up until July, so I was planning on not moving until after that baby came, but Clayton was hung-ho about being in a house before baby came. So, way earlier than I had anticipated, we were working with a relator and looking at houses. The very first time we met together with the relator, he took us out to look at a home that was unoccupied. Our relator goes to unlock the door with the key and the door just pushes open (the lock has been broken). Then, it turns out that the power has been turned off and so we pull out our cell phone flashlights to take a look at the house. The carpet was trashed, there were holes in the walls, there were marks galore on the wall: marker, crayon, gum?, and it would have taken a lot of work to fix the place up. We left that house and I was a little let down, but thought that we had seen the one house that had been trashed by inconsiderate home owners. We looked at a couple more and it turns out we hadn't seen the one and only trashed house that first night, they were all turning up like that. After the third or so house the relator asked me what I thought and I told him that if all we could afford was a trashed house like we'd been looking at, then maybe we didn't want to buy yet. He told me that if I wasn't willing to put a little work into it then I was kidding myself. I told him I had expected to put in work toward it, but these houses by no means needed "a little work." Then Clayton worked alone with the relator for a week or so and found a house he wanted me to look at, he said it was pretty nice (especially compared to the complete trash we'd seen). I went and we brought Matt and Jessica along because Matt is a contractor (-ish) and Clayton figured he could help us see if it was structurally sound or whatever. Thank goodness Matt was there! Clayton and I walked through thinking it was a pretty nice house. Yeah, there were a few holes punched into the walls, and it wasn't the cleanest, but nice compared to the others. Matt walked through, however, and noticed that the ceiling was sagging where there had been (or might still be) roof damage. He also noticed that the family room had been added on and was not up to code. There were some other issues too that Matt told us were not worth getting into. Our relator told us there was another house nearby that we could take a look at if we hurried over, so we did. This was the only house we had looked at so far that was not abandoned, it was well decorated (wall paint, curtains, etc.), clean, and there was only one hole and it was in the laundry room door. Walking through it, it was really nice, but I held my breath for what Matt thought, because I had thought the other one was nice too. Matt said from what he could see, the house was in great shape. We left the house and our relator told us, there were 5 other people looking at this house today, so if you want the house, let me know within the hour so I can put the offer in. I was freaking out because this was a big decision that I wanted to take time to think about, but we put in the offer for fear of losing the house.
It turns out that another family had put in an offer that night too, so we were going to have to up our offer. Um, except that we didn't have to put in the offer. I guess our relator found out (which I don't think he's supposed to know this) that the other people weren't going to raise their offer, so if we adjusted our closing cost request, our offer would be accepted without raising the price. That was thing number one that went right- our offer was approved. Then, our relator said that the longest part of the short sale was having the bank approve the amount, but the bank had already approved an amount before we made our offer (and we offered higher than that). He told us that the process should go by super fast because it had already been approved. Thing number 2 that went right- bank had pre approved an amount. It still didn't go as fast as our relator had predicted, but it did move faster than a typical short sale. Once the bank approved the amount, things really started to move quickly. One hold up was that we weren't sure that the roof would pass an FHA loan inspection. Thing number 3 that went right- the roof passed, so we didn't have to pay for the roof to be redone before moving in. I know there were more than 3 things that went right with us getting the house and getting it so quickly, but those are the 3 I can pin point.
I know, I know, that wasn't actually a "quick" telling of how we got the house. Anyway, moving on. When moving, we could be in our house before we had to be out of our apartment, so I was planning on cleaning the house, moving things slowly into the house with every visit we took, and then cleaning the apartment once everything was out of there. The plan worked-ish. Clayton didn't see my vision and didn't latch onto it as well, so not as many car loads got moved to the house as quickly as I would have preferred. I was able to clean the house while it was empty, though (and can I tell you how much furniture can hide imperfections- the place was not AS nice as it looked when the people were living there), and we did get some things moved before Clayton's family helped move the big stuff. The Friday after the Tuesday we got the house, Clayton's family came down to help us move out. My plan was to have the boxes moved out by now so that his family only had to help with the big stuff, like the furniture. Again, Clayton didn't see my vision and so his family helped move boxes first and then had to come back for the bigger items. The move was killing me! I am a REALLY good mover. I move fast and I can carry more than you think I can. But I wasn't able to move anything. I had to let Clayton's sisters and mother and brother-in-law carry everything out. I felt so bad that I was just sitting there watching them take everything out and that I wasn't helping one bit. Obviously they understand why (and they actually made me put things down when I tried to carry them), but I felt so terrible making them do all my moving. Like I said, it took two trips (we had 2 trucks and a trailer) but we got all of our stuff out of the apartment.
That night we set up our bed and got to sleep in our own house. All houses make weird noises, right? It's not just ours? That was 3 weeks ago, I think. I've spent every Saturday after that move unpacking and organizing everything. After 3 weekends, it's finally just about there. The biggest thing I have to do is figure out where all of my pictures are going to be hung up. It's so fun putting stuff together. The only problem is that it's getting a little expensive. Good thing I had already saved up for house things because I've made it to the limit of that budget, and we've still got a few more little things to get (obviously those will have to wait til I save up a little more money). Even the little things add up. For example, we now have 3 bathrooms instead of one, so I had to buy extra towels to go in the bathrooms, a new shower curtain for the downstairs shower, a floor mat, sticky things for the bottom of the shower because that thing is a death trap! The couch was no little investment, but we couldn't exactly have a living room without a couch (the other couch we had went into the sitting room). Paint isn't too cheap either, but Clayton was NOT okay with his office being bright, light blue, and I was not okay with baby's room being bright pink. Yeah, things add up, and organization takes time, but it really is fun to play house in my own house!!!!!
Let me explain how the house is laid out. It's a little weird, but I like it (and I'm almost guaranteed not to get fat with all the stairs I've got to go up and down every day). You walk in the front door and you enter a sitting room. That's all there is, one room. That's where we have our 2 green couches (thank you Jan and Don for those), a book case, and the coat/game closet.
Then you go up some stairs to the main living area. On this level you have the dinning area, the kitchen, and the living room. We have a beautiful fire place, but Clayton says that if it weren't for the fire place, the couch situation would have been easier :o)
Off the living room there are 2 stair cases. If you choose the one set of stairs, it takes you up to the bedrooms. We have 3 rooms upstairs, but only 1 bathroom. When walking down the hallway the bathroom comes first, then on the left there is the office, at the end of the hallway on the left is Ady's room, and at the end of the hallway on the right is the master bedroom.
If you chose the other staircase in the living room, that would lead you to the outside door, the garage, and then down again to the basemen
t (see what I mean about all the stairs?) The basement has our food storage tucked away in a little corner hole, then there is the laundry room, and Clayton's drum area.
Then you open a door into the "guest bedroom" slash scrapbooking room. I'm super excited about my scrapbooking area because I can leave all of my stuff up and out on the table and it won't be in anyone's way. We still need a mattress for the guest bed, but we're working on that. Without the mattress, I can't put the sheets on, and without the sheets, I can't figure out how I want to decorate down there, so that's why the pictures of that room are a little bare. There is a crawl space attached to the basement bedroom where the boxes and holiday decorations are stored. Also attached to the basement bedroom is a bathroom.
Going back upstairs, we'll go outside to the back yard. We have a cemented area and a shed where Clayton's lawn mower and the ATV will eventually go (once we get both of them), then you keep walking to the grass area. I can't tell you square feet wise how big our backyard is, but it's big enough to play in. And when Clayton eventually convinces me to get a dog (don't tell him I said he would eventually convince me), the dog will have enough room to run around back there.
So there you have it. That's the story of how we got our house, how we moved into our house, and how I've worked to put the house together. A minor disclaimer, however, while you're looking at the pictures. Ady's room can't be completely set up because the crib is getting fixed, Clayton is in charge of the office, so that's why that room is in utter shambles, and the kitchen table is being used as a place to put the picture frames I don't know where to set up instead of a kitchen table. We've still got a little ways to go, so just keep that in mind as you look at the pictures.
