Verbal Confirmation

We have the house!!! The contract has to be changed and initialed, but last night we verbally agreed to their counter-offer. We made our offer with the expectation that they would come back with a counter, quite possibly this one. And, we are confident that it is a fair deal. We're paying full price and they are paying all of the closing costs. Fine by us, seeing as the comps show we're paying less per sq. ft. than other houses in the neighborhood (which is fairly small)! We'll know for sure after the appraisal. It's funny, though, we feel such a sense of relief and like it's all over, but there's still so much to do. For right now, closing date is the 15th of September. We  originally wanted to set it at the 25th of Aug., but they don't have anywhere to move yet, so we gave them a couple of weeks. We met the couple the first time we saw the house, and they told us they have to move b/c the husband has spine and knee issues and can no longer go up the stairs. Apparently, they had a contract on another house, but the woman selling it fell ill and could no longer sell it. So, we wait. Which gives us more time to pack. How do we have this much stuff crammed into such a little space?

Trying again

We've found another house. Hopefully, this is it. I'm a little gunshy after the first two no-gos, but this one looks good. There are no other offers on it and it's only been on the market 3 weeks. It's the same floor plan as the last one (not only are all 4 bedrooms upstairs, but the utility room is also! how cool is that? and, the master has a sitting area), it's impeccable (it's 13 yrs. old, but looks brand new - original owners who are an older couple), has beautiful back yard, and the best part is, we don't even have to paint to move in. How often do you see that?  We'll see how things go! Here's a couple of pictures!

And just like that

it's gone. No house for us. It turns out the homeowner had already accepted one of the other offers and the realtor didn't know. How did the realtor not know? We can't figure that one out. Nevertheless, we don't get that house. He apologized profusely and said that if this deal falls through, he'll be sure we know. It's okay. Chris is more upset than I am. Obviously it wasn't meant to be. But oh, it was just so perfect. We'll find something else, I know we will. Our realtor is awesome. So, together we'll find the right thing.

We Found One!

Chris and I finally found a house we really want last night - it's an unbelievable house and exactly what I wanted. So perfect. When our realtor called their realtor, he said there were two other offers on the house, but they were still at a stage where they could consider another offer. So starting at 9:30 last night, we were trying to put together an offer. It's been crazy! Now, we've already heard back from them and they want a letter of approval from us. This house is more than we'd planned on spending, so we have to go back to the lender. Which, may not end up being our lender. Our realtor said she thought some of the costs looked high...like one and two hundred dollars high, so she suggested another lender. This may actually work. Oh my gosh!!!

house hunting is hard work

I had no idea! Holy cow...it seems like my thoughts are consumed with finding the right house all day long. I can honestly say that I think it's a good thing I'm no longer at the pool. I have the time to go through the listings (the 500 that Chris finds while at lunch) and say yay or nay. I can't imagine what it was like before the internet. We're able to look at them online and map them and make a decision as to whether or not we want to see them based on locale and price. In looking at the listings, we saw that the house we tried to buy was put back up on the market - for $5000 more. My jaw dropped. It should have been for $5000 less. But, they're trying to get as much as possible out of it before it goes into foreclosure (which apparently is this saturday). We found a house that I absolutely love and would be super, but it just isn't quite right for Chris. So, it isn't quite right for us. I know we'll find the right thing....someday! LOL!

That's pretty much all we're doing right now. We're boring house hunters. I've been pondering the idea of selling

We're Homeless

Not as in the have no where to live homeless, but as in the have nowhere to move homeless. That's right, no house for us. Not yet, anyway. It just didn't work out. Once they did the inspections, we realized just how much was wrong with the house. It's a fixer-upper at a non-fixer-upper price. So, we submitted our requests and we couldn't come to an agreement. Actually, they didn't really try to come to an agreement with us. It was a little odd. When we (Chris) asked if there was a time constraint on getting in the requests, the answer was no, it was open-ended. Then, we found out today it had to be agreed upon by midnight tonight. Yikes! I guess that's why they weren't willing to talk to us. On top of that, it sounds like if they don't have it sold by Sat., it's going into forclosure. They really tried to pressure us, and we didn't go for it. So, no house. We're sad. We were excited about the house. It had tons of room and that's what we liked about it. But, surely we can find another house with lots of space/room. We're going to open houses tomorrow. Hopefully the next go-around won't be quite like this one. Hopefully we'll find just the right place.

SOLD! We think

Chris talked to the realtor on Monday, and she said the bank that holds the 2nd mortgage on th e house is willing to accept our offer as long as the seller knows he still has to pay them back in full. That is not our problem, but they are putting it in writing, so we should have a final yes soon. We hung out with Rachel & Josh on Monday nite, and on our way home from their house decided to swing by "ours." We were shocked when we saw a sold sign in the front yard. Holy cow! Still no official yes, but the sold sign bodes well! Closing is set for the 21st. Who knows, we could actually be in our own house by the end of the month. Scary! Speaking of scary, when we stopped to look on Mon. nite, we noticed some orange lights flickering against the house. They were actually quite large and quite bright. I was worried that some local yocal moron was setting off fireworks and started a fire. It would be just my luck to have gone through all this and then have the house burn down. So, Chris went up to the fence to check it out. The guy who's living there had flames several feet high coming from his Weber grill. Yikes! You've got to work pretty darn hard to get flames that bad from a grill that small! No house problems, and the guy didn't notice Chris and wonder what this big guy was doing peeking over his fence!

I am 30

Yesterday was my birthday. And now I am 30. It doesn't really bother me. It doesn't make sense to me to get upset about getting older. There's nothing you can do about it. But, it does amaze me that I can be 30 years old. I have seen all of the things that happened in the past 30 years. There are people who work for me that are half my age. Literally. Wow! How is it possible?

We had a fabulous day yesterday. Nice, quite, and easy. Usually there's a big party involved, so there's all the craziness that goes along. The last minute cleaning and lamenting that it's not clean enough. The worrying, the arguing. Never fails. This year, I didn't even have time to think about a party, so Bob decided to put it off a little. There will still be one, just not yet. Chris and I started the day with Starbucks and bagels. We actually sat outside at the Starbucks and looked at the paper a bit. Something we never do since we live 1/2 a mile from said Starbucks. It was totally relaxing and perfect. We kept cracking each other up. The people next to us had to be glad when we left. I am not a quiet laugher.

We spent the afternoon at Bob's house. Chris, Bob, Scooby and I went swimming at Bob's neighbor's house. Mimi came along, but stayed as far away from the pool as possible. Again, totally relaxing. We spent 2+ hours lounging in the pool. Very nice. Then, back to Bob's for food. Grilled steak. Yum. Finally, we headed off to The Lion King. It was fabulous. Just outstanding. I would go again if I could, but last night was the last one of the run. The whole thing just blew me away. I took my camera in and snuck some pictures. Just couldn't resist. We finished off the day with ice cream cake. Couldn't have been a better day. And, I still got presents. A Coach purse from Chris. The tickets from mom, plus a SB gift certificate & SB bag. All in all, it was a totally memorable day. My husband and mom are the best.

Doh! I almost forgot to mention. My crazy awesome husband made me a card. Yes, that's right, made me a card. He raided my scrap stash and hand-crafted a card with stickers and rubons and stamps. He said he had to wait until after I went to bed to finish it, and he learned that he hates rubons. According to him, "Rubons suck." Bob couldn't agree more. Too funny. And, too sweet.

By the way, we still don't know about the house. We're so tired of it all. And what with the holiday this week, who knows when we'll know. The contract says they have 10 days, and they started it June 28. So that means they have until the 7th. IF, that is, they include the weekend days. If not, they have until next week. I guess we'll find out something eventually.