Many of you know that we bought our first house a few months ago. I thought I’d share some of the details of our home buying/home owning/home renovating experience.
We first thought about looking at houses around Christmas time. We had been planning to buy some time in the next few years, but realized it might be possible sooner than we thought. We started looking at the beginning of January. We had a tight budget, and also wanted to stay in our ward, so we didn’t have a ton of choices, but we fell in love with the first house we looked at. A house built in 1911. A foreclosure. It had a HUGE oak tree in the yard. We looked at one more house, just to be sure, but it was super creepy and we hurried away!
We commenced praying A LOT and decided that, despite a bit of logic, this truly was meant to be our home.
This house had been on the market for about 9 months, with no interest. Then, the day before we were going to put an offer on it, someone beat us to it! We put in an offer, then a second offer, and after a few agonizing days, we got the house!
We closed on March 20th, and moved in on March 31st.
It’s only about 3 blocks from our old house. It has two bedrooms and a small bathroom upstairs, and another bedroom and bathroom downstairs. It also has an unfinished basement with a laundry room.
As I mentioned before, this house was a foreclosure. It was only available to purchase with a home path renovation loan. I really don’t want to go into detail of our renovation process, because it’s been a living hell. However, I do want to share some pictures of our progress with you.
Let me just say this, to give you a bit of perspective: You know how at the end of “The Help” Hilly Holbrook has basically lost her marbles? That girl is a hot mess. I mean, she’s lost it. Yep. She’s got nothin’ on me. I’m off the deep end people! I have holes in my floor! Will my baby stick a foot down there and break an ankle? Maybe. Has she been eating sheetrock? You betcha! We’ve got holes in the floor, holes in the ceiling, holes in the walls. I’ve got a hole in my foot from a nail that was sticking up where it shouldn’t have been. I have a hole in my head for thinking this work was going to be done when it was supposed to be.
Okay, I feel a little better now. Do I love my new house? Yes! Do I hate it a little bit right now too? You bet your bottom dollar! Do I ask a lot of annoying questions, then answer them myself when I’m feeling cynical? Yes, yes I do.
Okay, pictures to follow in my next post: Chronicles of a Money Pit, Part 2.
