the fun of house buying

Hey yall :)
So Erik and I have exceeded my wildest dreams (literally!)...I remember telling Erik as we were dating and then planning a wedding that my DREAM home would be a double wide trailer---and he said no...but i insisted, a double wide would be AWESOME :)

Well anyway, 5 years down the road, we've exceeded that...on New Years' Day (as a Christmas present), I agreed that Erik and I could go look at houses---and I was TOTALLY thinking like way down the road (Spring breakish?)...

Okay, here's my advice column to all ppl looking to buy a house:
1) START SAVING NOW!!! SAVE LOTS NOW!!! BE READY TO SPEND MORE THAN YOU'VE EVER SPENT IN YOUR LIFE IN JUST A COUPLE OF MONTHS...

now, this totally isn't a bad thing---in fact, it's quite fun :) LOL :) But i like things nice and structured, and this move WASN'T.

We went to shop for a house (just looking) on New Year's day and ended up putting in a bid on New Year's DAY!!!!

After the bid got accepted, we got a phone call saying we needed to put up $1000 earnest money THAT DAY or the deal was off...crazy bank ppl!

The next 40 or so days (avg time to close house) was a combination of lots of spending...and not spending. We were told NOT to spend things on major purchases and to keep as much money in the bank as possible---translation, make sure that you can get your bank statement BEFORE you pay your bills---they want to see what you start with, not what your checking looks like AFTER the bills...

yeah, fun stuff....better know how to manage things.

So then you buy the house and you wait and wait and wait for closing (which by the way, there's things that come BEFORE closing such as shopping for house insurance, working on getting the loan approved, and a nerve-racking inspection...we were BLESSED to have a very informative inspector who cared more about EDUCATING us than telling us our house was in horrid condition...i hear several inspectors aren't nice like ours was)

Anyway, God blessed us through the whole thing and we had provision and very little things went haywire---in all, i think that our purchase was a smooth one.

Be ready to purchase things for your new house (and might i recommend NOT purchasing valances?) LOL :) We have about 9 or 10 windows in our house, and purchased curtains for ALL of them with a valance for ALL of them...needless to say, even if curtains were cheap (domestications.com), curtain rods were NOT.

Then of course, if you don't own your appliances- there's that fee...we were blessed to only have to buy a fridge---which i am LOVING...it's pretty darn cool :) And when it's your HOUSE, you tend to appreciate things so much more (my example? I actually put things back in the cabinets where they belonged!!! AND i cleaned up after myself---something i never did before!)

Yesterday, I prayed that God would reveal to ERik and me whether or not to go ahead and purchase our furniture (we've been waiting on tax return)...I prayed that we'd either be approved or rejected for credit, and that God would reveal to us through that...well, we got approved for financing, and I learned again what my pastors had said that you just invest the money in the bank (because our furniture will be FULLY paid for in a matter of another week or so), and then pay it off after accumulating interest...

And the furniture we chose? Oh my goodness, i'm so ready to receive it...it's a chocolate colored microfiber/leather sectional, with a separate 1 1/2 size chair----very very very very comfy for the princess :) We also are blessed to have 2 dining rooms in this house, and we needed something to go in the formal dining room (as Erik is desiring to be a host quite often for game nights and other events)...so we invested in a rectangular granite top table with six chairs that will match our sectional----very very cool :)

The furniture is so comfy, and I look forward to a completed look on the house after its arrival.

Special thanks to ALL who helped us move this past weekend---there is NO WAY that Erik and me could have made it alone...

Now we unpack boxes, and by next week (on Wednesday) the house should have a completed look.

What a blessing being a home owner (home ower?) is...there is no other feeling in the world than coming to a QUIET house and waking up to the sunlight---it's just an incredible feeling that i never really appreicated until now...

But it's wonderful, it's quiet (no noisy neighbors, no other running water as in apartments, etc...), it's just WONDERFUL.

I pray that God blesses all of you with your heart's desire of a house soon if He hasn't already done so.

God bless you all
Hugs,
Kristi