Accepted...Big weekend!

My bid (counteroffer by that time) was accepted, or rather, I accepted the sellers counter offer. I'm super excited about it! YAY! I put in my first bid on friday before my parents and I headed up north to Kensington and Smith Center. After lunch with the Realtor we went and packed up and headed out.

I got a counter offer on the way up there, the seller didn't budge much. We thought about it overnight and countered back saturday morning. I was nervous most of the day, but had plenty to distract me...more about that after bit. My realtor finally called back late in the afternoon with yet another counter offer from the seller. I thought about it and thought, after dinner and on my way back to Wichita I offered one more counter.

Sunday afternoon the seller sent their counter back to me and I accepted it. I signed all the new papers and it is awaiting the sellers signature. Wow! What a whirlwind...it's hardly been 2 weeks. And if you'd have asked me if I knew this would happen labor day weekend, I'd have said you were crazy!  Below is a picture of the front of my new house.

The other big thing this weekend was that we were at an auction of my mom's aunt. She had a nice dining room table set with a hutch and buffet. I really want a hutch and the dining room table is very nice. We had to wait all day for it, and bidding was supposed to begin at 2pm. Since they had a scheduled time, I figured there would be lots of people bidding on it. I said I'd go up to 1000 for the table/6 chairs and the hutch, o 500 each. They started the bidding at $100, we nodded. Then NO ONE ELSE BID! I got the two pieces for 100 each, or 200 total! I couldn't believe, it and neither could anyone else. It was an absolute steal! Whoa!!!

Needless to say, this labor day weekend will go down in the history books as one of my biggest thus far in my life. Now the rest of the housing process continues.

love.

Did I find one?

Yesterday I went and saw a house, that I really like. I didn't love it right off the bat, but the more I walked through it and the more I thought about it afterward, I knew it was one I wanted to investigate further. It's a Ranch style house, with another unfinished basement, but I'm figuring that to get what I want on the top floor in the price range I want, I'm going to have to get an unfinished basement. The two that I've liked the most have had unfinished basements. That just makes me think that the others like them that have finished basements are out of my price range.

Alrighty...things I want in a house:

3 bedrooms

2 bathrooms on main floor (one is a master bath)

Walk in closet in master bedroom

Nice sized Kitchen

Nice home, not many fix-it's

Things that I'd like but aren't a must:

Carpet. I unlike everyone else in the world, do not care for hardwood floors.

No privacy fence, I just don't like the way it closes everything in.

So with that the house I found yesterday had:

3 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms on the main floor.

Unfinished Basement

Nice sized Kitchen

Walk-in Closet in master bath

only 11 years old

Very well taken care of

Extra awesome things it has:

Very little left on the specials (stuff from when the house was constructed like paving and water lines to all the houses in the development)

Sprinkler system

2 car garage

Open floor plan

The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was perfect for me, with it's price and what it had. I asked if my parents could come down and look to see what they thought about the house. They did come down this morning and we did another look through. I worked tonight, but I did decide that I wanted to put a bid in on the house.

I'm worried that there will be others and that I won't get the house. I've already kinda discounted it in my head so that I won't be so dissappointed if it turns out that way. There were 3 other second showings the day before my second showing, so I figured by tomorrow there will already be bids on the house. We'll have to see how it goes.

Love

Wow, and we are on

Wow...After a lot more research and talking with a loan officer, I found out on Thursday night that I do in fact qualify for a loan, and my credit score was not near as bad as I thought it might be. I was only scared, because I have more debt than I'd like to have, but I don't ever pay late, so didn't expect problems there.

I filled out an application online and had a response back to me in less than 2 hours, that I was approved (pre-qualified) for a loan up to a certain amount. I wanted this before I searched for a Realtor, cause I didn't want to find something and not be able to get it, and I wanted to know my price range and how far to go, and how to not stretch myself to far.

I had begun my search for Realtor's earlier this week, but since I waited till I heard back from the loan officer, I didn't start contacting people till friday. I called someone and also sent an e-mail to another person. Didn't hear back from them. So after a drive by some houses I found on my own on friday night...I drove by the realtor office and found out they were open on saturday's. Saturday afternoon I headed up there and just asked to speak to someone. They had someone working for a few hours to be available and she began to help me. Her name is Joy, and she knows her stuff. After her shift was over at 2pm, we went right on out and started looking at houses. We looked at 5 yesterday and then another 3 today (2 new and one again). I found one I really like, and it has an unfinished basement, but there is already a contract drawn up on it...I'll keep looking, I don't want to get into a bidding war. The next step is to wait until mid week when more houses come on the market. It's hard being patient, but I know if it's meant to be, it will be. More later

Love

Should I?

So I was talking the other day with my mom about my future in Wichita. I have decided that I've become quite picky with where I want to move next for my job and I also want to be apart of some neat things going on in Wichita. I get a lot of great opportunities here in Wichita, and am involved in some fun projects. After some talking, I decided that I should maybe start looking for a house.

This was a totally new revalation for me, I hadn't ever thought I'd be looking to buy a house this year. In fact I would have said, I don't have the money or ability to do such a thing. Moving with my job was going to be the perfect time, but now with my new revalation...maybe it's time to forge on ahead and look at homes. I'm very worried about my credit score and if I'll even be able to get a FHA loan, so we'll wait and see. I'll start digging into it this week. Research, Research, Research!

Love

June!

It's June, I've been waiting for this month to arrive for a while. Not only had the weather not cooperated with what month it is "supposed" to be, but it's the month in which SUMMER exists! I might have some other reasons, but that's ok.

My parents came down over memorial day weekend, I worked the actual weekend, but had mon/tues off. We planted flowers, and boy does my deck look good! My mom worked on a quilt when I was busy, she needed to get it done. I also did help, we had quite the little system working. We went to dinner at one of my favorite newer places....Genghis Grill which is a mongolian grill. I love it! So much food, I can have a meal and lunch then next day! Great! I did seem like I was gone most of the time they were here though, which made me sad, because I do have a great time with them. Maybe they'll come back in a couple weeks. Who knows.

On Tuesday after memorial day, the in home service repair guy called from Dell and came to set up my computer. I basically have a new computer inside the old shell. I have a new screen, hard drive, memory, fan, heat sink, ac adapter, ac cord, video card. Hopefully it will finally work like I want it TO! So far so good, but I've spent the majority of the time on it this last week setting it back up, reinstalling all the programs I had. Today I succeeded in redownloading LYX and the SSH and Xwindow's so that I can work on my journal, which is of utmost importance. I have a deadline and I need to alot time for problems and everything. No I don't have a timeline imposed by anyone that is part of the project...just that in order for me to access NC State computers I have to be a non-pay employee which I can only do for 2 years, I have till may 1st next year until they pull the plug on my access to the computers, so I need to have it done by then...So I need to alot time for it to be edited, reworked, edited and back and forth till it's submitted and then back again to please the reviewers and make a better paper...and submit officially by may 1st...If Adam can do it! I can too! So that's my thing right now. It's back up and working, now to edit figures. Oh there is a slight problem there too I guess...(I forgot this not so small problem) I have a student version of Adobe creative suite, and since my computer's crashed twice and I've put in new hardware...I haven't been able to deactivate the licenses of the software before the hard drive got scrubbed. Now I had 2 licenses and they are used and I now have 30 days to get it figured out or buy it again or something. NOT OK! I have a case # with Adobe, so hopefully they will get back to me soon, or else I'll be on the phone with them sometime soon! I have the receipts and serial number, but cannot activate it. Not fair. I need Illustrator! Oh well, life goes on and it will work out.

Well I'm off to do some more things around the apt, before I have to go to work early in the morning, it's no 6am...but 8 will be early too.

love

A 3 day weekend in May?

What to do when you don't have to work for 3 days and there isn't any weather to keep any possibility of overtime an option...well you catch up on the 60+ hours of TV shows on your DVR!!! I spent the better majority in front of the TV this week...which was honestly very nice. I know many people think I'm way lazy...but I'm sorry, it's just fine for me. I did a walk...played some Wii DDR...and even did some other things around the house and some meetings, but all in all, it was a relaxing "weekend" by the tv. I got to watch the American Idol finale LIVE...or almost live as I don't like commericials and I avoid them at all costs! I got to see Kris win...not the screecher Adam. He can sing, but the screeching is just not fun to listen to. AND!!!! I didn't watch LOST the entire season...but a week past the finale and I'm just about to finish it up. That's the plan tonight, the finale. I like it better when it's not a suspense of what's going on, I just have to quickly turn it to the next episode. I've made great waves in cleaning off my DVR.

In other news...my computer is once again dead. It's very sad, but makes me very very happy I bought the extended warranty. They are sending me yet another hard drive and memory. I replaced those in Oct '07. So we'll see what happens now, but of course it's a holiday weekend...and the part is backordered, although I'm not quite sure how a hard drive is backordered. Then a technician is coming to install and reinstall my operating system, so who knows when I'll actually have my computer back up and working. It's very sad...but I do have my old laptop whose hinge is broken...and doesn't have any up-to-date antivirus on it...and is very slow. So it works...and I keep it unplugged from the internet unless i'm on it at the time, but it's not quite the same as my other computer. It's also very sad, because I had high hopes of working on my journal article this week. I had the time, and the motivation...and didn't get it going because I had no computer. I NEED to get it done, and I have one year...so I best be getting a move. Plus I want to just get it out of my hair...and have it done with.

Well it's memorial day weekend, I'm working all weekend, but have memorial day off. Last year, I had fri-sun off and worked memorial day...so this is just my turn. Good times.

Love

A couple days off

I Welcome the next couple of days...as they are days off. I have worked or traveled a lot of the past 6 weeks and I'm ready to just relax some. I have been able to relax a little bit when not working over the past week or so, but not having to go to work will be nice. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job...it's just that everyone needs their down time. Because I've allowed myself some time to relax in the last week...I'm even rejuvenated enough to think about being productive on my days off. I hope to get some stuff done around the house...work on my journal article...and maybe even work on some fun things. Oh plus, gotta keep trying to clean off that DVR...it's probably 80-90% full, but I'm having better luck keeping up with it.
I will be back on some morning shifts friday and saturday, but that's ok...I'll have some nights free. It's kinda a toss up...well kind of. I LOVE being able to sleep in when working evenings, but you do that every day and it's just hard sometimes to accept that you are never free during the evenings. So sometimes I am pulled in different directions, sleep in, or have a free evening. I guess when Stephanie gets here, I'll have a better balance between the two, but then again..that means more mornings. The 3 I had in a row this last weekend were killer. How do I survive? They really are my midnight shifts!
Love