We're Homeowners!!

It's official...we're homeowners! A week after our scheduled closing date, we finally closed on our house! The seller (the foreclosure bank) submitted their signed paperwork this morning, so the funds were able to be transferred. The deed was recorded in our name this afternoon...and we own a house!

After Shawn got off work, we borrowed a friend's SUV and went to buy a washer and dryer from a couple off of Craigslist (who actually moved here from Denver about 2 years ago!). We could only fit one appliance in the SUV, so we left with the dryer. We'll go back for the washer on Thursday. Then we met our realtor for dinner, where she treated us to wonderful steaks and gave us our keys! (And an amazingly generous housewarming gift...a Lowe's gift card!)

Then we headed to the house. Here it is! (Shawn's bent over behind the huge group of weeds, tying his shoe.)

This is Shawn, trying to see the keys in the dark:

Here we are, about to unlock our front door for the first time! (Sorry about the creepy face I'm making...I was trying to avoid going blind from the flash at 9:00 at night.) I unlocked the door, and we opened it together. Then Shawn picked me up and carried me over the threshold (awwwwww......). Yeah...it was a fireman's carry. :-)

After we ran a few "victory laps" (and put the new dryer into the garage and took our friend's car back to him), we hung out for a little while on our new deck! We enjoyed a glass of wine, and we looked at the stars. We can actually see the stars from our new deck!! No more light pollution from Walmart and I-5! Yay! Shawn was ready to sleep out here. I made him go back to the apartment where our bed is located. :-) (Although I did mention that I wouldn't wholeheartedly object to sleeping on the deck on occasion...as long as he inflates the air mattress for me first.)

And finally...here's a little message about what we hope we'll be doing in our new house! (Yes, I do plan on keeping the previous owners' vinyl letters that are on the dining room wall, above the French doors leading onto the deck.)

House/Weekend Update

As I'm writing this, it's Sunday evening. Still no house. On Thursday, we received confirmation from the Escrow company that the seller had finally received the information from the HOA that they had been waiting on. However, we also learned that it would probably take two more days for the seller to sign their paperwork...and they don't count weekends. So chances are, the paperwork won't be signed until sometime on Monday, meaning that we'll quite possibly get the money transferred and the deed recorded on Tuesday. Or maybe Wednesday. We should get the keys to the house the same day that the deed is recorded.

Our plans for this weekend had been to paint. And paint. And paint some more. Obviously, we can't paint a house we don't own. We did still buy some painting supplies last week (brushes, rollers, paint trays, tape, paint samples) so that we'll be ready to go as soon as we get keys. We've been "window" shopping for appliances this week. I actually found a laundry set on Craigslist this weekend that we're going to check out on Tuesday. We also think we've picked out the fridge.

While we were at Lowe's checking on appliance (and lawn mower) prices, we went over to the lighting area. The previous owners of our house took the entryway chandelier, so I've been trying to get an idea of prices for a new one. We saw one chandelier at Lowe's that we liked, and I noticed it was marked down to $44 from $88. Thinking that was a great deal (and cheaper than what I'd been finding), we decided to go ahead and buy it. We didn't want to come back later and find out it had been sold out. However, when we went through the checkout line, the chandelier rang up at a different price...only $22! So after tax, our brand new chandelier cost us a whopping $24. Here's a pic of the box:

I didn't even notice at first that the chandelier is actually brass...it's pretty light colored. Maybe someday down the road I'll refinish it to make it silver.

Last night, we went over to our friends' house. It was nice to hang out with our group of friends from church, playing games, chatting, and eating some yummy food. :) This particular couple who was hosting us all has recently purchased their home and already done a lot of renovation. When we left last night, they let us borrow their ladder and drop cloths for painting. So nice of them!

So Close...Yet So Far

Today is September 15th...Closing Day!! Shawn and I have been getting really excited for this, especially over the last few days. We've been looking at appliance prices and picking out paint colors. We've been making extensive to-do lists and trying to prioritize those. Last night, around 9:00, we looked at the time and made the comment, "By this time tomorrow, we should be homeowners!" We were actually up past midnight, and shortly after 12:00, I said to Shawn, "We're becoming homeowners today!"

I think I jinxed us.

We had been told that the funds should transfer before 11:00am. Once the funds transferred to the Escrow company, the process would begin to get the deed recorded. We were estimating that it would be between 4 and 5pm when our realtor would get the call saying that our deed was recorded and she would legally be allowed to give us the keys. She was planning to take us out to dinner to celebrate, and then we were going to head on over and bask in the glory of our new home.

Change of plans.

Our realtor called me just after noon. She had just been informed that we wouldn't be closing today. Apparently, the seller (which is the bank who owns the foreclosure) needs some information from the HOA before they can sign their documents. However, they haven't been able to get in touch with the HOA, and therefore, they haven't signed their documents. Therefore...we don't get our keys. No closing.

What's especially bizarre is that nobody knew they hadn't signed. Our lender attempted to wire the funds this morning, and the escrow company essentially sent it back, saying, "Sorry, the seller hasn't signed. We can't take the money." Once that happened, our loan officer called our realtor to let her know. Our realtor called the listing agent to ask what was up, and even the listing agent didn't know about it! I'm not sure how that happens.

So...it's frustrating. At this point, we have no idea how long this will be delayed. They could sign and we could close tomorrow, or it could be another week. We're definitely keeping our fingers crossed for getting the keys sometime before the weekend! There's just a lot of stuff we want to do before the official move, and this weekend is really the only big chunk of free time we'll have between now and the end of our apartment lease. So here's hoping I have good news to share soon!

So Much Going On!

Whew...we've had a lot going on lately! Maui was awesome. Obviously, we paid for the condo and the plane tickets, but once we got there, we were pretty much operating on a budget. Other than food and gas, the only thing we spent money on was a snorkel trip, and even that was pretty inexpensive. So all that considered.....it's even better that Shawn and I agree that we don't feel at all like we missed out on anything! We spent lots of time on the beach and in the ocean, and we saw oodles of amazing scenery. And the best part, of course, was that we were able to spend an entire week together, just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. I'll try to do a few posts within the next week or so that'll give more specifics about the things we saw and did...and I'll include pictures, of course!

Our flight left Hawaii at 10:00pm on Monday night, and we arrived in Seattle at 6:30 Tuesday morning. Once we got home, poor Shawn had to get changed and go to work...and I took a nap. :) Shawn knew he'd have lots of work to do once his vacation was over, and that's already proving true. I did a little bit of work in Hawaii (with my online teaching), but I really only needed to put in about an hour a day, if that. But when I checked my email on Tuesday afternoon, I discovered that I had been given four more sections and 17 additional students! That may not sound like a lot, but that more than doubled the number of students I had, and there's a lot to do up front when students are enrolled in the class. But between yesterday and today, I feel like I've gotten myself much more organized, and I think I'm making things easier on myself from here on out. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Oh yeah, we had one other major thing happen today. We signed all of our closing paperwork for the house! We've known for awhile that we have a closing date of September 15th, so we were a little surprised when someone called late last week to set up an appointment to sign all the paperwork. Both Shawn and I had it in our heads that we would sign all our paperwork and pay the rest of our down payment on the same day as closing. I've seen it on HGTV...everyone sitting at one big table, signing documents, and at the end of it, the keys are handed to the new homeowners. But apparently, that's not the way things are done, at least not in Washington. A notary came to our apartment this afternoon, and our loan officer was nice enough to come, too, to help explain things to us. Shawn and I spent two hours signing our lives away, and at the end of it.....well, nothing really happened. It was rather anticlimactic. But we've been told that we've done everything we need to do, and the only thing left is for the deed to be transferred and for our realtor to hand us our keys! That will still happen on the official closing date...next Tuesday.

Like I said....we've had a lot going on this week! It's a good life. :-)

Final Approval!

Our realtor called last night to let us know that we've received final approval from the underwriters on our mortgage! I believe that this is what I've heard people refer to as the "clear to close." According to our mortgage officer, the final closing paperwork is now in the process of being drawn up!

In our contract with the bank (because, if you remember, it's a bank-owned home), we agreed to close on September 15th. However, it sounds like nothing has technically been scheduled yet, so it could be slightly sooner than that. Frankly, Shawn and I would be happy with the 15th, because the only advantage we can see to doing it sooner is that we'd have a few extra days to get in there and do some work. Our lease at the apartment doesn't end until October 6th, so it's not like we're really in a hurry to get things done between closing and moving, though. And closing earlier means that we pay more in loan interest at closing. So...if we have a say in the matter, we'll stick with the 15th as our closing date. :)

In non-house news....not much has been going on this week. We went bowling last night. There were about 15 of us from church who went, so that was fun (even though I'm really not a good bowler!). I should've practiced first on the Wii. :) I've bought the materials to make a "home improvement binder"...I'll post pictures once I actually get it started. I've also been getting started on my online teaching job....I had four students enroll on Monday, and so far, one of them has done one assignment. I was wondering how quickly high school students jump into starting their online classes...I guess that's my answer!

Today is Shawn's last day of work before vacation! We leave first thing Monday morning for Hawaii! :)

More Hurdles Cleared

I actually can't believe it's Friday! It's been a busy week around here. Now that I think about it, it's actually been a good balance of fun and responsibility.

In house news...after my parents left on Tuesday morning, I was able to go hang out at the house with the realtor. We knew that Lowe's would be delivering our new stove between 11:00 and 1:00...and they actually showed up at 11:15! Also on Tuesday, we received our title report and title insurance information, and we were able to confirm that there are no leins on the property or anything else for us to be worried about. Later that afternoon, I was also able to get things squared away for our homeowners' insurance (and we're going to switch auto insurance, too...so much cheaper than what we've been paying, with better coverage!). We had our appraisal done on Wednesday, and we received the report last night. The valuation is higher than our purchase price, and the appraiser didn't find anything negative to report! It's been sent off to the underwriters, and now both our realtor and our mortgage officer feel very confident that we've cleared all the hurdles and should have smooth sailing from here until closing (knock on wood!).

In work news...I've been busy this week with meetings for my new online teaching job. I've gotten my courses loaded (with no students yet), and I'll be teaching American Lit. I've been told that this is a challenging course (for various reason), but I'm excited to get started. I need to spend more time going through the course more carefully, and I need to read Of Mice and Men (which I've actually never read, but which is required reading for my students this semester). Also, Shawn had a bit of a panic moment yesterday when 5 or 6 engineers at his job were laid off unexpectedly, but he was told by a "higher up" that there are no plans for anymore lay offs (and this guy said that he's heard "nothing but good things" about Shawn...which is good to hear!).

In social news...on Wednesday night, Shawn went over to a friend's house to play video games with the boys on a projection TV. Since the guys were all over there, I invited the girls to come over here. There ended up being six of us that enjoyed ourselves, just hanging out, chatting, eating food, and playing with babies. :)

And now we're heading into the weekend! We're hoping for another good mix of fun, relaxing, and responsibility this weekend, too. Maybe we should go pick out paint colors for the new house......

Passed Inspection!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. My parents got here on Wednesday night, and we've been busy hanging out with them. We've also been busy with some house stuff!

The big news is that we had our inspection on Thursday afternoon. Leading up to it, we were kinda nervous. First of all, we're buying a foreclosure, and we've heard lots of horror stories about things that people will do to the home out of anger and spite towards the bank. For example, our realtor once had a couple attempting to buy a foreclosure, and they discovered that the previous owner had poured cement down the toilets! They only figured it out when the inspector ran the water for a looooong time and it started backing up. Also, we know that we're buying a 30-year old house. The major things we were worried about were the roof and the furnace.

Our inspector was there for about 4 hours and was very thorough. He didn't find anything wrong that we didn't already know about! In fact, he commented that for the age of the house, he's pleasantly surprised by how good the condition of the house is...and even more impressed that it's this good and a foreclosure! He checked out the roof and let us know that it's not original to the house. It's probably got 5-8 years of life left in it. The furnace is working just fine, despite its age. We might look into replacing it before too long anyways, just to get something that's much more energy efficient (and there are tax rebates out there for purchasing energy efficient furnaces). When we visited the house on Monday evening, we found a problem with the garage door, and we thought we'd have to replace it. However, the inspector told us that he thinks it can probably be easily fixed for the price of a simple service call!

So we were pleased with our inspection. We let the bank know that we're not backing out of our contract using the inspection contingency, so now we move on to the appraisal! That's currently scheduled for Wednesday.

Our realtor let us know that in order to get our financing, there must be a working stove in the house before the appraisal takes place. As of now, the only appliance in the home is the dishwasher. So this morning, Shawn and I bought our first major appliance together! We bought ourselves a Whirlpool range. It'll be delivered to our new home on Tuesday! This is what it looks like:

Lovin' our new 'Hood

On Saturday, Shawn and I decided to drive over to the house. We're both laughing at ourselves a little bit for offering to buy a house that we'd only seen once. We knew next to nothing about the neighborhood it was in, either. Obviously, we weren't able to get inside the house, but we could explore the neighborhood a little bit and see the outside of the house.

First of all, for the most part...we love our yard. Someone has taken pretty good care of the front yard, with nice green grass and some extra landscaping. We'd like to continue what's already there, and hopefully also add in some extra bushes or something in the spring. In the backyard, we do have one gigantic tree. In the picture below, you can see maybe 1/4 of the tree. It's definitely Shawn's favorite part of the backyard. We know that it's some kind of maple with gigantic leaves...I'm guessing that once upon a time, it may have been about 10 or 15 small trees planted really close together. Whatever the case, all of the trunks have pretty much morphed together. We're going to need to invest in a couple really sturdy rakes!

The rest of the backyard will need a little work, but it's still pretty nice. A few of the fence slats will need to be replaced, and there's a large area that will need something...grass or a stone patio or a garden or some combination of things. It's where we think the previous owners had a large playset for their kids.

We realized last week (after googling the name of the neighborhood) that our development has a pretty well established Home Owners' Association. That made me nervous at first, but then we realized that the annual dues are very reasonable, and the covenant seemed pretty reasonable, too. One thing that I like about the area is that we are, in fact, in a development, but it's not one of those cookie-cutter places. There's a variety of housing looks, and the yards are big with lots of tall trees and older growth bushes and landscaping.

Our favorite thing (so far) about the neighborhood is what the HOA does with the dues. There are a number of "common areas" for everyone to use, like a couple playfields, a soccer field, a playground, and what I assume could be a sledding hill in the winter (during the few times it might actually snow). What we love about this is that there is an actual trail system that connects all these areas! When you're on the trail, there's enough trees and other "natural" things that it's easy to forget that you're walking between backyards (and there's still privacy for the homes that back onto the trails). We also found lots of blackberry bushes filled with ripe berries in one of the common fields. :-)

In addition to the actual development itself, what's around it is great. There are two main "entrances" for the neighborhood. We're pretty close to one entrance, and on that end, there's a large, newer Safeway (grocery store) with a gas station. There's also a little shopping area right there that has a few little shops and restaurants and an Applebee's! I love Applebee's. :) Of course, because of this rather large financial obligation we'll soon be saddled with, our monthly "eating out" budget is going to be pretty small. This entrance also has a YMCA that's in the middle of a huge expansion...we just have to decide if it's worth the money to get passes. By the other "entrance" of the neighborhood, there's a little shopping area that has a take-n-bake pizza place, a bakery, a burger place, and an Italian restaurant.

So after spending an hour or two in our new neighborhood, we're getting more excited for the move! Now we just need to keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well during the inspection on Thursday!

House Buying Update!

So...shortly after I wrote the post yesterday, Shawn and I talked it over and decided not to put another offer on that first house. Basically, we knew that we'd have to up our offer price by a pretty decent chunk of money, and with the amount of work that the house would definitely need (even before we moved in), we decided that we just weren't comfortable with it anymore. So we let our realtor know that we were going to pass this time around. (We'll admit...we were kind of hoping that the bank would've annoyed everybody with this little "relist" stunt and they'd come crawling back to us, begging us to take the house for our original offer. Haha!) :-)

Today, our realtor sent us some more listings, and while we we knew that we still had our offer out there on the second house, we decided to start looking at some other places. Given the fact that this other house is also bank-owned, and given the fact that we knew that there were at least seven other offers submitted besides ours, we weren't going to hold our breath waiting for this one, either. I was intrigued by a couple of the listings that our realtor had sent, and I had sent her a couple questions.

This afternoon, while Shawn was getting ready to go out for a quick bike ride, our realtor called me. She let me know that she had been in the process of responding to my emailed questions when she got a call from the bank. Our second offer was accepted!!

Shawn and I really weren't expecting to hear anything back this quickly from the bank. They were only accepting offers until Tuesday morning, so we figured it would be at least a few days before we heard anything. But they chose our offer!

Obviously, we're not totally in the clear yet. We have some paperwork to sign, and then we'll need to get an inspection and an appraisal. Assuming everything goes well, and assuming there are no problems with financing or anything, we're scheduled to close on September 15th!

Here's our new house!

More Offers

I already mentioned in rather great detail that Shawn and I put an offer on a house last week. Our offer technically expired on Monday night, but we didn't hear anything from the bank until this afternoon. But I'll get to that in a minute...

Yesterday, after talking with our realtor, we decided to go look at a few more houses. One was actually a short sale (which wasn't mentioned on the listing...darn sneaky realtors!). We looked at it anyways, even though we're not really interested in going that route because of our time frame, and it was...interesting. The kitchen was beautiful! I would love that kitchen someday. But these people literally took over most of the original "living room" space when they redid the kitchen. Then they turned most of the one-car garage into a living room. But they left the garage door on, and part of the original garage is still there for storage space behind the drywall of the living room. So bizarre.

Another house we looked at was owner occupied, and it was just extremely outdated. We would've had to update lots of stuff, including some wall and ceiling repair in the lower level.

And the third house we looked at was another bank owned. There's great curb appeal and a big backyard with a deck. There will eventually need to be some updates, but nothing that would have to be done before moving in...except installing appliances. So...we put out another offer! We talked about it with our realtor for quite awhile, and again, if the bank takes our offer, it's just a good financial deal.

Going back to the original house we put an offer on, we finally heard back from the bank today. They've decided not to accept ANY of the offers they received! Instead, they want any interested parties to re-offer, and they officially changed the "listing". Basically, they're now offering to list for the original listing price but without doing any repairs, or they'll list it for quite a bit more but include some repairs. Shawn and I will need to talk about what we want to do on this one. I know that we like the place, but I'm pretty sure we'd need to up our offer by a pretty decent chunk. Like I said, we just need to talk about it. But if we're going to put another offer on it, we have to do it tonight so that our realtor can submit it first thing in the morning...because that's the new "cut off" for offers.

So...that's where we are right now. We need to decide if we want to put another offer on house #1, and I don't know when we might hear back about house #2. In the meantime...we're about to head out to drive by a place or two. Who knows...maybe we'll put an offer on house #3 soon! (Ugh...this doesn't seem to be the way these things go on House Hunters.)

Holy Poo!!!

We put an offer on a house!!

Yeah...let me back up a minute. Shawn and I decided that once we got back from our travels this summer, we'd start looking into the idea of buying a home. We met with a realtor that some friends highly recommended, and then we talked with a couple mortgage brokers that she recommended. It took us about two weeks to discuss things with each other (and with Shawn's mom, who's a realtor in Denver) before we decided to let the realtor know that we'd like to work with her and that we were ready to start looking at houses.

On Wednesday, our realtor, Grace, emailed us a couple listings that were in our price range, and we decided to go look at one of them. That evening, Shawn and I drove over to the one that really intrigued us, and we confirmed that it's in a pretty ideal location for us. (Basically, it's close enough to where we live now that Shawn could still ride his bike to work.) When we did our drive-by, we noticed that there were 3 or 4 other people/couples looking at the house. This made me wonder...if we end up liking this house, how quickly will we need to move on it? It seems like a really great deal on paper, and there is obviously a pretty decent amount of interest being shown on this house.

On Thursday, Shawn emailed Grace to ask her that question...and she called him back pretty quickly. She said that she found out that there were already multiple offers on the house, and that the bank had decided to only accept offers until 9:00 that night (it's a bank-owned house). So about an hour later, we met her at the house to take a look around! After looking through it and asking Grace lots of questions, Shawn and I went to a restaurant to get a snack and talk it over. And we decided to go for it! So we called Grace, and she met us at the restaurant with all the paperwork, and we put in what Grace thought was a "strong offer." Wow!

On Friday afternoon, Grace let us know that our offer was definitely in on time, and the listing agent said that at this point, it's up to the bank to decide which offer has terms that they like best...but we're definitely contenders! Unfortunately, they won't let us know anything until sometime on Monday.

So yeah.......we literally have put an offer on the first house we looked at! When we were talking about, we basically decided that it is a pretty darn good financial deal, and although we're offering more than what we had originally intended to spend, we can make it work. There's also LOTS of work that will need to be done on this house...so if we get it, feel free to come visit and help us out! :-) But overall, our main thought is this......if it's God's will for us to get this house, then the bank will accept our offer. If God has something else in mind for us, then we won't get this one. Not a really big deal.

So that's the latest news on our end! We spent the afternoon today wandering through Lowe's, just getting an idea of how much certain things cost (like flooring, kitchen cabinets, countertops, bathroom vanities, tub surrounds, overhead lighting, paint...you know, the basics). I'll let you know when we find something out!

Why I'd Like a House

Shawn and I have been somewhat seriously talking lately about the possibility of buying a house later this year. (Read that sentence again...how's that for commitment for ya'?) That nice $8000 tax credit for first time homebuyers is certainly appealing, but honestly, there are a number of other reasons that we'd really like to own our own place. I think that we both feel a little like late bloomers when we think about certain aspects of our lives. We didn't get married until we were 29 and 30 (the current average age at marriage in the U.S. is 26.8 for men and 25.1 for women). Obviously, we don't have kids yet, so we'll be in the "later" category for that, too. (The average age of a first-time mom in the U.S. is 25.2. Hmmmm...notice how close that is to the average age at marriage?) Although according to the National Association of Home Builders, the average age of a first time homebuyer is 33, we still have lots of friends who have already purchased their first (or second) home.

All those statistics aside, there are definitely some things that Shawn and I are looking forward to about actually owning the place where we live. Here are just a few things I've been thinking of lately:

• Paint: I actually really enjoy painting walls. I haven't been able to do it since I lived with my parents, with the exception of helping my friend Matt paint a bedroom when he bought his condo.
• Remodel/redecorate: We watch enough design shows that we'd really like to purchase a house that needs some updating and then spend the time and effort together to make those changes. We think it would be fun!
• A yard: I realize that it takes a certain amount of upkeep, but it would be so nice to be able to step outside and stand on grass (or even just dirt!) that actually belongs to us!
• A dog: We'd like to get a dog. Okay, admittedly, I'd like to get a cat...but since that's not going to happen, I'll go with a dog. However, we don't think it would be fair to get a dog when we live in an apartment, so until we have that yard I just mentioned, it's no dog for us.
• No communal parking: It's really annoying to have to deal with a communal parking lot. If we had a driveway (or even a garage!) where we could park, it would make so many things just a tiny bit simpler.
• No flights of stairs: I just had to carry in the groceries. It's 32 stairs from the parking lot to our apartment (and that's after walking a little ways from the assigned parking spot). I'm really looking forward to the day when I can just carry the groceries from the car to the kitchen without having to climb multiple flights of stairs or go up in an elevator and walk down long hallways. (Although I have gotten really good at carrying up to 7 bags of groceries in one hand!)
• Privacy: At this point, I'm very grateful not to have anyone living above us! That's one nice thing about living on the top floor. We also don't share any walls with neighbors in this building, which is awesome. I do, however, occasionally wonder if we ever bother the people living below us. And I don't always love listening to the bass line of whatever song the guy downstairs is playing loudly.

I think I'll stop there. :) Obviously, there are some perks to renting (like the apartment complex pool...which we have yet to use...and the maintenance guy that we don't have to pay when he comes to fix things). But I am excited to start looking for a house to buy. It probably won't happen for a couple more months (especially since our lease isn't up until October), but I'm still looking forward to it.