And it's out!

While some of you may have known, not all have....I did buy a house a month and a half ago.  I've kept it on the DL for awhile.  Last night things went public.  So here I am putting it out there on here too.  I have written things as they've happened, I just haven't published them.  Check the older posts (but just up) if you care to read about my process. 

  Things are on their way to being complete on the financing side of the house, and the closing date has been moved up one day....to 2 weeks from today.  While it's still 2 weeks away and I'm anxious for it to arrive quickly, I know it will go by much faster than I think it will at this time.  It'll be here before I know it, and there's plenty to do before I get possesion of the house.  All of the fun things like getting electric, gas, trash, water and those things in my name and started on my first date. 

  I'm planning on painting and taking down border the second weekend I have the house, and then slowly moving my stuff over.  I hope to move in completely around Thanksgiving.  My work schedule will make it hard to move my stuff in the beginning of December.  I have not started packing anything, and can't say I will pack for a while.  I don't want to live in boxes in my apartment, especially since I have 2.5 more months left to pay for my apartment.  I've got plenty of time to get everything moved.  I'm sure it will fly though, regardless of having a new home, the holiday season itself flys by all by itself.  I'll try to keep things updated on the process. 

Love!

Jesus take the wheel....he did.

A couple of good friends are getting married today in Valparaiso, IN.  I wanted to come up to Indiana for this special occasion, but flying was just not that feesible money wise as I'd have had to rent a car and what not.  Expensive.  I drove up from Wichita Thursday for the wedding on Friday.  Thursday's weather across the central plains and mississippi valley was well forecasted....RAIN! I left in the middle of some rain around 730am in Wichita, but it quickly moved out ahead of me and I was in a whole of dry and semi-sunny conditions.  It really was a good deal, and I was driving up to I-80 in Iowa, so I was going to miss the constant rainy conditions along I-70. 

  The unneeded excitement occurred around Emporia, KS...less than 100 miles from home.  It wasn't raining at this time, the ground was some wet, but very little standing water.  There were very few people on the road as well.  I was driving northbound on I-35 when all of a sudden, I saw a van that was driving southbound, enter the median....and enter my side of the interstate ahead of me.  The van swerved a little and didn't go straight across my side of the road, and i was able to swerve into the sholder, to avoid a head on collision.  Needless to say, by the time I completely realized what just could have happened and got pulled off to the side of the road...I was shaking.  I called 911 and when looking into my rearview mirror I didn't see this van anymore, so figured they must be in the ditch and I didn't know anything about the condition of the occupants.

  I turned around in the "police" turn arounds on the interstate to go back and try to find the van, no one else had stopped.  After a mile and turning around, I drove along the sholder for a little bit to try and find this van.  I did and went down in the ditch to see what was going on.  The van hadn't moved, no open doors or anything like that.  I was scared to find what I might for the occupants, but when I got to the drivers side door, which was blocked by a tree, a little old woman turned and waved to me.  I was happy she was alive and I again was shaking.  The sherriff's officer arrived shortly there after.  The two of us helped the woman out of her car, her ankle was hurt.  After that, the officer asked me to fill out a witness statement and after that I was able to go about my way.  I didn't see what caused the woman to loose control...but while the road was wet, I don't think she hydroplained...I think it was something medical.

  Of the many possible outcomes of this event, we had the best one possible.  I can't help but think about the outcome, where my swerving didn't make it a near miss, but a head on collision, and at the speeds we were going on the interstate...it wouldn't have been a pretty outcome.  I was nearly in tears and so thankful.  On my way driving off to continue my 700 mile treck to Indiana, when I finally remembered to turn on the radio again the first country station that I found the song that started right away was Jesus take the wheel by Carrie Underwood.  It was so true at that point!  He did take the wheel and God was carrying me in his hands on the trip.  I'm so thankful for how it turned out, but for now, as I said it is hard to not think about the other outcomes. 

 I really don't need any more excitement for the rest of my drive.  After the wedding tonight, I'm heading back into the Chicago area to pick up Sarah and we are going to drive up to Madison, WI for some wonderful wedding things.  I'm so excited to see all my friends this weekend and thankful to be alive.  Say a little prayer in thanks!

Love to all!

50% isn't bad

Well I asked the seller for 2 things after the inspection, but neither were really deal breakers to me.  I'm sure he knows that.  He got the roofer to come back out and fix the imperfections on the roof, but he refused to fix the window.  It has condensation between the panes, but he says it's just dirty.  That isn't correct, actually the thermal seal is broken.  But as I said, it's not that important.  Nothing to loose the house over.  So with that, I do believe we are under the final contract.  Now we are just working on the financing and waiting for the closing at the end of the month. 

Love

Inspection Complete

The rest of the inspection was completed this week.  The inspector was able to get into the attic and there wasn't any evidence of the leak and so things are really on their way! I've asked the seller to fix the little roof problems and the basement window.  The other things were small and I can fix them, plus the seller is quite persnicity and I don't want to get into it with him.  I'll let you know how it goes.


Love

Inspection

I had the Inspection this week. I was a little nervous not knowing what to expect, but it went well. I was a little shocked and worried when the inspector was pointing things out, but when I stepped back and looked at it, they were all pretty minor things. Just a couple bigger things, and one is already being taken care of. The seller has really taken care of the home and it shows. I just hope I can have the same thing if I continue to take care of it, so that when it's inspected when I sell it, I don't have to fix to much.

After the inspection, I stayed around and measured the rooms and did a more in depth search of the house to see things, so my little head can dream and plan for stuff. It was nice to look at things, I took more pictures. One thing that I get to keep part of the contract is the refrigerator. I'm really excited about that, it will save me lots of money and it's a nice fridge.

I have a couple months after I close before my apartment lease is up, so I'll move slowly, but I know as soon as I actually close, I'll want to move in quicker. But, this will give me time to paint, and do other things without having to move furniture or do it around the furniture. I'm looking forward to making it all mine! It will be so nice.

I'm getting more and more excited as time goes on. We are less than 6 weeks from the closing date.

love

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