Wow, Really? How the month of March passed me by...

In the past, when I've attempted to get into blogging, this is about the time that I would give up. I've got about a dozen posts in the can and a month long hiatus. But I will. not. let. this. die! Especially because I have so much content in my head that I WANT to write about. I think my downfall is the lack of time.

Anyway, so much for March . . . let's celebrate APRIL (Sure, we are already 1/3 of the way through but....better late than never!)

But first, how about a quick round of March?

In March we . . .

- Made progress on buying our house! A VA appraisal took place and the house was valued over our loan amount which is amazing! I heard on the radio this morning that home values went up 5% last month in San Diego so this may have contributed to the high appraisal. Apparently the average home price in the County is $430K . . . ours is slightly higher than that but I do wish that we lived in areas where homes were priced in the $100Ks! When I watch House Hunters and people say their budget is $120K I shake my fist in jealousy. But I wouldn't want to live anywhere that has snow . . . so I guess that's part of the trade off!

Other things that happened with regard to the house: general inspection (everything looks great), pest inspection, loan approval, lots of paperwork and signatures. We have our closing date now . . . the home is ours as of April 30 at 5 p.m.! I'm so excited!

- Flew to the Big Island of Hawai'i for a four-day whirlwind weekend for my brother's wedding. It was beautiful and relaxing and so much more than I expected. I wish we had more time to spend there but the few days that we had were perfect. One of the highlights was the villa that we stayed at - which was gorgeous. It had an outdoor shower and I took every opportunity to shower out there (it was very private - no chance of anyone seeing me in my birthday suit. :-) But probably what I loved most - aside from sharing in the love of happiness of the beautiful marriage - was remembering my own wedding to my husband. We had a great time dancing together at the reception - it brought back so many wonderful memories for us. I love weddings!

As for my goals in March - I guess I'd say I did OK. Not great . . . but okay. Could have drank more water . . . could have been more sweet and loving to my hubby in general . . . could have been better at spending. I feel like I got derailed about mid-month and never got back on track. I unexpectedly got a flat tire and had to spend $100 on a new one (it was too damaged to fix).I spent way too much on eating out and convenience foods at work. I also spent too much on groceries.

But I already feel really great about April. My spending feels very controlled and I am thinking outside of the box for new solutions to problems that previously I would have just thrown money at.

 

 

-Keep the TV off in the mornings before work and bring peacefulness back into my routine. We'll be canceling cable when we move and I'm actually looking forward to it.
-Read more
-Blog more
-Minimize spending on breakfast and lunch foods during the work week.
-Make it through the month without touching my credit cards.
-File our taxes.
-Romance my husband.
-Begin decluttering and minimizing unneeded and unwanted items in our apartment in anticipation of our move.
-Begin preparing for moving into our new house: successfully close escrow, select a move date, hire movers, schedule estimates for flooring, purchase appliances, switch over utilities, etc., etc., etc. Oh there is so much to do!!

If there is anyone out there actually reading, thank you for sticking with me!

Oh, how Pinteresting!

A quick house hunt update:

Last night we toured another house (tour #4). It went on the market Monday and the sellers are going to review offers tonight. By the time we saw it, they had already received two offers - crazy!  Because of the tight deadline we had to go view it last night after work.

Hubby and I were actually really excited about it. The 3 bed/2.5 bath 1650 sq. ft. townhouse is located in our number one choice neighborhood/city. Coastal with easy freeway access AND just a block from our best friends’ home! Great schools . . . a park just a five minute walk away!

But sometimes it’s not good enough to have the “location, location, location.” The home was previously owned by an elderly person who actually passed away of natural causes there. That fact didn’t bother me, surprisingly. What did bother me was that the place hadn’t been updated since the 1980s. It needed major TLC from the floors to the windows to the kitchen counters/appliances. And the lighting! Oh man, major issues with the awful lighting fixtures through out.

This is one reason why online photos of homes are not to be trusted!  Photographers are very good at adjusting the lighting, adding a soft glow, or cropping out the "ugly" to make everything appear so lovely.

Unfortunately we decided to walk away from the house even though we both died a little bit on the inside. Certainly if we had an extra $50K or if we were the roll-up-our-sleeves-and-get-in-there DIY types it would have been wonderful but neither of us were willing to do the work required to get it up to our standards.

Sadness.

Anyway, on that note:

This week I've been pinning a lot of home decor . . . dreaming of that perfect house I could have if money were no object:

 

 

I just realized that I had this bathroom pinned twice - so I guess I really like it!  I love the crisp colors (black and white on gray with a pop of green) and the use of shelving over the toilet - a good use of space for a small powder room or guest bathroom.

 

(source)

 

 

And this was another one that I accidentally pinned twice! I love just about everything this kitchen has to offer from the white cabinets to the slate gray counters to the aqua subway tile and pops of mustard yellow in the rug. That's what I love about using Pinterest for decorating inspiration - I would never think to combine those colors but it totally works!

 

(source)

 

 

Here's another kitchen I adore. I guess you might say this is a mix of country chic with pops of more industrial pieces (like the stool in the foreground and the lighting). This is definitely my style but the Hubs would hate this. Too much going on for him - he would prefer something more sleek and modern.

 

(source)

 

 

Oh man, I love this space. So bright and cheerful! A perfect place to sit down to pay a bill or two or write a thank you letter.  Those curtains, that rug, that chair! Love it all.

 

(source)

 

 

I love that wash basin! The white/gray theme is so clean and refreshing.

 

(source)

 

It's fun to dream, right?! If only buying and decorating a house was as easy as pinning!

Happy Wednesday!

 

First home offer: rejected



This weekend our fledgling house hunt reached a milestone: we made our first official offer and we received our first official rejection.

 

Looks like I will have to wait a little longer before I can tie on my apron and get cooking in a kitchen that is all my own.  By the way, this kitchen looks eerily similar to the one that my mom had back in the 1980s, down to the yellow oven, counter tops and fridge! The only difference was that our wall paper was white with yellow flowers.

Offer Number One went to a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse in a great location. Even better was the price - nearly $40K below our lowest budget! We never thought we would find something "move-in ready" in that price range. There were SOME compromises: the patio was small and not very private. The square footage was only 1,450. The kitchen and bathrooms were basic and no "frills." But it had a lot that we DID like: hardwood floors on the bottom, a spacious bottom floor floor-plan, a playground and swimming pool just half a block away . . . and yes, the price was so amazing.  But apparently others thoughts so too.

The house was listed on Friday. By the time we viewed it on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. it had already received two offers. We decided to make an offer and went slightly above asking to be competitive. On Sunday we found out the townhouse went to someone who had $250K in cash and made a much large offer.

I guess it wasn't meant to be. We'll continue to look although as of today there is nothing on the market that looks at all like something I'd want to tour much less live in.  Hopefully more houses will become available as the year continues to unfold.  Ideally, we'd like to move by June when our apartment lease is up.  It's either that or go month-to-month starting in July and face a heft monthly penalty for not signing another lease.

We've heard that this is a process and we should be prepared to tour dozens of homes and make a handful if not dozens of offers. 

I'm really curious - do you remember how many homes you toured when you were house hunting? How many offers did you make before an offer was actually accepted?

 

House Hunting - What I've learned so far...

(photo credit)



Yesterday we received wonderful news: Hubby and I are pre-approved to purchase our first home!  Hopefully it will be at least slightly larger than this charming garden cottage!

This is very exciting as it's something I have dreamed of for many years but wondered if it would ever be a reality for a variety of reasons including: the high cost of housing in San Diego and my credit-worthiness (I spent my early twenties wrecking absolute havoc on my credit. As a result I have spent the better part of my mid to late twenties and early thirties doing major damage control.

Late last year the hubs and I started really thinking about this and decided it was a step we were ready to make. During the months of November and December we drove around the neighborhoods we'd like to purchase in, visited open houses and toured "new construction" models.

In fact we found a model townhome that we really liked. We decided to apply for lender financing through the builder's mortgage company and were approved. And then things took a turn . . . we found out that because we did not have a realtor representing us when we first toured the property that we couldn't have anyone represent us through the negotiation and paperwork signing process. We learned that the builder was REALLY SHADY about not wanting to tell us up front how much flooring and other upgrades were. In fact, we wouldn't find out any of that until after we signed our purchase agreement and handed over our earnest money (earnest money is a deposit that the buyer provides to the seller which says, "hey, I'm really serious about this and this cash proves it). In the end, it started to feel wrong. We were getting pressured to come in and sign and we wanted to have more time to review documents and figure out exactly how much the townhome would cost us. In the end, it just didn't feel right anymore and we backed out.  

Subsequently, we decided we really needed a professional to help us. Luckily, one of our close couple friends bought a house last summer. They used a realtor another couple friend of ours used.  So we asked them for the referral and met the agent over coffee to discuss our needs.  It seemed like a good fit so we are now working with him.  It's nice to know that we are working with a "tried and true" realtor with two sets of happy clients.

Last week, we prepared all of our paperwork again and submitted a loan application to a loan officer that our realtor works frequently with. And as I just mentioned, we found out yesterday that we can OFFICIALLY move forward.

I check Redfin and Zillow several times a day looking for updates on homes that have gone on the market. There isn't a lot of inventory in our price range in the locations we want.  I admit, we have some pretty strict parameters - and I imagine over time those may get loosened up a bit. To be honest, I'm willing to be flexible on most of our parameters except price, of course (don't want to spend more than we can afford!). It's Hubby who is fairly selective. 

This is what I've learned in the very short time that we have been looking:

-It is a really competitive market place.  There seems to be a lot of other buyers and investors out there and not a lot of inventory.

- As a result of the above, we have to be prepared to make a decision very fast. I always thought there would be more time to mull it over but no . . . this is NOT your average HGTV House Hunters episode (I love that show even though it is completely staged!)

- This may take some time.  I feel frustrated at the moment because I'm not really seeing the perfect fit. We are slated to view two homes this weekend but we are sort of "eh" on the location. I think I need to prepare myself to see a lot of houses and even wait a few months until the right thing comes around.

Anybody out there have any tips for us or recent home buying experiences to share?  I'd love to hear them!