Wednesday, October 21, 2009
House Update #2
We have official documents in our hands! We're moving on November 7th! Hooray! It's almost hard to believe. Gabe has a countdown going on his phone and I think we're down to 16 days. That doesn't seem like enough time! But we'll make it work. I'm currently in the process of calling all of the utilities and everyone in the world to give them our address change and to start and stop services. I don't think I could be having any less fun if I tried. But I'm almost through my list and what I don't have checked off is mostly phone calls that Gabe has to make. Gotta run, though. Caleb is still sleeping, which means I might get a few more calls in before he wakes up!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
House Update
I realize it's been awhile since I've given an update on the house situation. Due to the fact that things have been changing daily, it didn't really seem worth posting anything, but now I feel I can.
I'm not sure where everyone is on knowing what has been going on, so I'll try to back-track to where I think I left most of you. All was well with the house that we planned to buy. The inspection came back great, so there are no worries there. Then the last step was to get the appraisal done.
Long story short, the appraisal was done and it came back $6000 under our negotiated sale price. Good for us, right? You would think. However the sellers decided that they were unhappy about the difference. They saw no problem with the actual appraisal, just that it wasn't the price they wanted. So this led to a variety of different offers on their part to make up that difference, which led to a variety of counter-offers that said "no" on our part. The last offer on the table, was that they wanted to get a second appraisal. They would pay for it, but we would have to switch banks. After much research and discussion, we said we would do this. In response to our agreement, they wanted us to use a specific mortgage company to find our new bank (gave us names, numbers, appt times, etc). This seemed fishy to us and would have required us to change loan officers which we did not want to do.
So on Saturday I drafted an email that gave the sellers 3 options - #1. sell it to us for the original appraisal price, #2. don't sell it to us at all, or #3. seek the second appraisal, but on our terms. This email went to them on Monday night with a deadline of 12pm on Wednesday.
It is now 1:30pm on Wednesday and here is how it turned out. I got a call on Tuesday morning from our real estate agent saying that the sellers were willing to sell it to us for the original appraisal if they could cut our agent's commission to $500. Uh.....that's crazy-talk! Our agent has done so much work for this house and has already taken a cut in his commission to do it. So I wholeheartedly told them "no." About 10 minutes later, my agent called back and said that we had lost the house. Immediate sobbing ensued. I had tried to mentally prepare myself for this, but alas, I lost it anyway.
Fast forward an hour. I'm sitting at home desperately wanting Gabe to come home for lunch so we can talk and so I can cry some more. My phone rings. It's my agent. He says, "how are your emotions right now?" I say, "well, I've pretty much been crying all morning." He continues to tell me that apparently we called their bluff, that they didn't think we'd walk away, and they're now going to sell it to us for the original appraisal price and the full commission for our agent. What????!!! I had to sit down. I almost didn't believe him. But it's true! Isn't God great!
So now we're being cautiously excited. We still haven't seen the actual paper copy of the new negotiated price with their signatures on it and until then, I don't think I can believe we have the house. I take nothing for granted now after this long process. But my hope is that I have no more updates to give you and that we're moving on November 7th!
I'm not sure where everyone is on knowing what has been going on, so I'll try to back-track to where I think I left most of you. All was well with the house that we planned to buy. The inspection came back great, so there are no worries there. Then the last step was to get the appraisal done.
Long story short, the appraisal was done and it came back $6000 under our negotiated sale price. Good for us, right? You would think. However the sellers decided that they were unhappy about the difference. They saw no problem with the actual appraisal, just that it wasn't the price they wanted. So this led to a variety of different offers on their part to make up that difference, which led to a variety of counter-offers that said "no" on our part. The last offer on the table, was that they wanted to get a second appraisal. They would pay for it, but we would have to switch banks. After much research and discussion, we said we would do this. In response to our agreement, they wanted us to use a specific mortgage company to find our new bank (gave us names, numbers, appt times, etc). This seemed fishy to us and would have required us to change loan officers which we did not want to do.
So on Saturday I drafted an email that gave the sellers 3 options - #1. sell it to us for the original appraisal price, #2. don't sell it to us at all, or #3. seek the second appraisal, but on our terms. This email went to them on Monday night with a deadline of 12pm on Wednesday.
It is now 1:30pm on Wednesday and here is how it turned out. I got a call on Tuesday morning from our real estate agent saying that the sellers were willing to sell it to us for the original appraisal if they could cut our agent's commission to $500. Uh.....that's crazy-talk! Our agent has done so much work for this house and has already taken a cut in his commission to do it. So I wholeheartedly told them "no." About 10 minutes later, my agent called back and said that we had lost the house. Immediate sobbing ensued. I had tried to mentally prepare myself for this, but alas, I lost it anyway.
Fast forward an hour. I'm sitting at home desperately wanting Gabe to come home for lunch so we can talk and so I can cry some more. My phone rings. It's my agent. He says, "how are your emotions right now?" I say, "well, I've pretty much been crying all morning." He continues to tell me that apparently we called their bluff, that they didn't think we'd walk away, and they're now going to sell it to us for the original appraisal price and the full commission for our agent. What????!!! I had to sit down. I almost didn't believe him. But it's true! Isn't God great!
So now we're being cautiously excited. We still haven't seen the actual paper copy of the new negotiated price with their signatures on it and until then, I don't think I can believe we have the house. I take nothing for granted now after this long process. But my hope is that I have no more updates to give you and that we're moving on November 7th!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Nothing New
I don't know anything new, other than that Caleb is starting to feel better. So here are some pics of the past week:
Aren't daddies great!
CHEESE!
He loves this blankie!
It's hard to go to the playground when you don't want to put down your juice or your George.
Cold weather means cute hats!Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Under the weather
Caleb has been a bit under the weather the past couple of days. We came back from Highland on Sunday night and now his nose is constantly running and/or stuffy. In fact, I'm listening to my little one snoring right now over the monitor. Not sure what's up. I'm thinking it might be teeth? flucuation of the weather? Don't you love when you're the mom and you have no idea what's wrong with your kid?
Doesn't he look so pathetic all curled up in the blanket with his mouth open so he can breathe?
Doesn't he look so pathetic all curled up in the blanket with his mouth open so he can breathe?Monday, September 21, 2009
What are these things?!
Is it just B-N? Or is everybody being attacked by these miniscule little bugs in the last week? It's becoming a problem by our house. We can't even go play outside because we come back covered in them. They just float through the air like dust, but they're bugs. And they're smaller than gnats, so you can't really swat them away Ugh! They are so gross! And just to prove that we have a problem, I took some pictures of the back part of our house. We have quite the plethora of spiders due to living right by weeds and the Trail, so these unpleasant little visitors seem to be getting caught very easily by the webs.
All the little black spots you see on the siding are swarms of the little bugs stuck to spider webs on the back part of our house. Classy! Good thing we're not trying to sell this place anymore!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Mama...potty?
We've recently made the dive into the potty-training world. Let me preface this by saying that I in no way really think that Caleb is ready for this. He's a boy, under the age of 2 - it's just not likely. So I'm trying not to get too hopeful.
However, since his 18 month doctor's appointment, we were given some literature from the dr. to start thinking about it and start using words, encouraging him in that area, etc. I haven't been making a real big effort, but he's given me some warning signs that have prompted me to buy the ever-so-classy "potty chair".
Warning Sign #1: A few days ago, he turned over one of his buckets, sat down, and said "Potty?"
Warning Sign #2: Last night, while having dinner guests (of course), he came over to me while we were playing, grabbed his diaper, and said "Mama...potty?" I asked him if he wanted to go potty and he shook his head yes and ran to the bathroom. I was a bit bewildered. We went in, I took his diaper off and had him sit on the big potty. He sat there, smiled all the while, touched the toilet paper and then sure enough, he had peed.
Gabe said he hadn't seen me this excited in a really long time. I'm not going to deny it, it was pretty cool. So we now have his own potty chair, which he helped me put together today. We've sat on it once, but no luck.
I'm trying not to be too hopeful...but oh, to be done with diapers!!!
However, since his 18 month doctor's appointment, we were given some literature from the dr. to start thinking about it and start using words, encouraging him in that area, etc. I haven't been making a real big effort, but he's given me some warning signs that have prompted me to buy the ever-so-classy "potty chair".
Warning Sign #1: A few days ago, he turned over one of his buckets, sat down, and said "Potty?"
Warning Sign #2: Last night, while having dinner guests (of course), he came over to me while we were playing, grabbed his diaper, and said "Mama...potty?" I asked him if he wanted to go potty and he shook his head yes and ran to the bathroom. I was a bit bewildered. We went in, I took his diaper off and had him sit on the big potty. He sat there, smiled all the while, touched the toilet paper and then sure enough, he had peed.
Gabe said he hadn't seen me this excited in a really long time. I'm not going to deny it, it was pretty cool. So we now have his own potty chair, which he helped me put together today. We've sat on it once, but no luck.
I'm trying not to be too hopeful...but oh, to be done with diapers!!!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Why I've been missing...
I apologize that I've been few and far between with my blog posts lately. I know how disappointing it is to go out to someone's blog hoping for something new and seeing the same old stuff for weeks at a time. So without further ado, the reason I've been missing is that WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE!!!
It's really been an unbelievable couple of weeks. I just feel like God has blessed us on so many levels of this decision. He helped us find a house we love, at a great price, in a great location. Gabe and I did not start out particularly looking for a house. We both had a desire in our hearts to be in a house someday - specifically something with a yard and a place that really felt like a home. Not sharing walls was a plus. Earlier this summer I drove by a cute little house on my way to the office and decided to look it up online when I got home. Gabe and I both liked it, so we asked our friend Dave, who is a realtor, to show it to us. And thus, the home search began.
It's almost hard to believe that we're doing this, as I never thought we would be able to find a house living on one income. But God certainly had different plans, knew the desires of our hearts and has blessed us so tremendously in the entire situation. He couldn't have made the decision any clearer or easier.
For anyone who has ever ventured into buying a house, you know what I mean when I use the words "exciting but stressful." Add the additional task of selling the house that you're living in, and you've got a migraine on the horizon. However, we couldn't have asked for more.
We found a beautiful home in the school district that Gabe teaches in. We're very excited about this, as it will cut down on drive time, as well as, meaning that Caleb and any future kiddos will be at Gabe's school. What kid wouldn't want to go to the music room after school and bang on the drums?
In addition, the people that we're working with are incredibly awesome, from the sellers to the buyers, to our real estate agent and our mortgage lender. We also were tremendously blessed with some unexpected money during this process, which we will forever be grateful for. Just another small (or big I should say) step in achieving the American dream of owning a house. My grandma also surprised us just a few days ago and told us we could have her lawnmower. Now that's awesome! That would have been our first major purchase once we were in the house - now we don't have to worry about it.
I also just have to point out the timeline of this thing. We put an offer on the house we're moving to on August 20th. By August 31st we had a signed purchase agreement in our hands for the house we're currently in. That's 11 days!! And we didn't even have to list it with an agent. Praise the Lord for no agent fees!!
So anyway, that's where I've been! It's been a crazy last couple of months, but we're excited! We're looking forward to being moved in (probaby end of October) so that you can all come and see the new place!
It's really been an unbelievable couple of weeks. I just feel like God has blessed us on so many levels of this decision. He helped us find a house we love, at a great price, in a great location. Gabe and I did not start out particularly looking for a house. We both had a desire in our hearts to be in a house someday - specifically something with a yard and a place that really felt like a home. Not sharing walls was a plus. Earlier this summer I drove by a cute little house on my way to the office and decided to look it up online when I got home. Gabe and I both liked it, so we asked our friend Dave, who is a realtor, to show it to us. And thus, the home search began.
It's almost hard to believe that we're doing this, as I never thought we would be able to find a house living on one income. But God certainly had different plans, knew the desires of our hearts and has blessed us so tremendously in the entire situation. He couldn't have made the decision any clearer or easier.
For anyone who has ever ventured into buying a house, you know what I mean when I use the words "exciting but stressful." Add the additional task of selling the house that you're living in, and you've got a migraine on the horizon. However, we couldn't have asked for more.
We found a beautiful home in the school district that Gabe teaches in. We're very excited about this, as it will cut down on drive time, as well as, meaning that Caleb and any future kiddos will be at Gabe's school. What kid wouldn't want to go to the music room after school and bang on the drums?
In addition, the people that we're working with are incredibly awesome, from the sellers to the buyers, to our real estate agent and our mortgage lender. We also were tremendously blessed with some unexpected money during this process, which we will forever be grateful for. Just another small (or big I should say) step in achieving the American dream of owning a house. My grandma also surprised us just a few days ago and told us we could have her lawnmower. Now that's awesome! That would have been our first major purchase once we were in the house - now we don't have to worry about it.
I also just have to point out the timeline of this thing. We put an offer on the house we're moving to on August 20th. By August 31st we had a signed purchase agreement in our hands for the house we're currently in. That's 11 days!! And we didn't even have to list it with an agent. Praise the Lord for no agent fees!!
So anyway, that's where I've been! It's been a crazy last couple of months, but we're excited! We're looking forward to being moved in (probaby end of October) so that you can all come and see the new place!
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