Being An Adult

Brian and I have yet to buy a new dishwasher, but there's a model in mind that I told Brian to buy that we both agreed was our best option! We were going to purchase a dishwasher from Home Depot, but Brian knows a guy who owns a furniture/appliance store here in Tacoma, and he said he'd give us a "deal" if we buy a dishwasher...and a washer and dryer. More money up front, BUT, if it's a good enough deal - we'll be going to him!

So since we didn't get a dishwasher this weekend, our Sunday was uneventful. At 4 in the morning, after a 3-hour nap, I drove a friend to the airport so she could see her husband, I got home around 5:30AM, Brian woke me at 11 to go get breakfast, and I went back to bed till about 4. Lazy - yes. Delightful to not do anything but rest on a Sunday - absolutely!

This week I signed up for The She Art Workshop, which is an online course to learn new techniques in multimedia art. It starts Feb. 28th, and I'm super excited to get started!

It's important for me to have a creative outlet to serve as a therapy. The beginning of 2011 has been rough, with my best friend of 10 years having moved to Missouri (or Misery, depending on how you look at it), with our other very very close friend moving with her husband to Germany in March. These two women have served as my rocks for so much, and them not being with me physically will be amazingly difficult to heal from. By no fault of theirs, I've used the two of them as an excuse as to why I don't make more friends.

"I have D and R, I don't need anyone else..."

And now, here I am, without the two of them, and I'm...lost. Now my Friday nights and Saturday afternoons are void of anyone to really waste time with. If I want to get dressed up and go to an adult prom, I really won't have anyone to be down with that. Brian scoffs at the idea, and I'm not close enough with anyone else to feel comfortable being that level of dork with.

So, because of this huge void that their reloation has made, I felt that diving head first into a community of arts and crafts will be a brilliant idea! Not only will I be able to funnel my emotions into a creative outlet, but in the process meet and (my social anxiety permitting) make some new, like-minded friends!

I'm hoping in March to sign up for the Soul Restoration class offered on Brave Girls Club, as not only is it about creating art, but using art as a form of self-healing - which is EXACTLY what I'm looking to do! There's been so much good feedback from the class, and I am ITCHING to heal this lost soul of mine!

Brave Girls Club also offers a daily email containing a "Daily Truth" - here's a glimps into today's truth:

"Dear Unique Girl,

The very thing that may make you stand out, make you feel preculiar... and maybe even sometimes a little bit like an outcast...is probably the thing in your life that will have the most impact on others...as well as yourself."

It's truely inspirational and moving to read these truths everyday, and can connect with how TRUE it is! Usually I'll forward them to a couple girls at work, just as a little pick-me-up to get through the day!

Be brave!

Black Hole

Since we've moved into the house, Brian and I have sort of lucked out when it came to appliance - the range, fridge and microwave were all brand new. The dishwasher was in working order, and even though the house didn't have the washer and dryer installed in the laundry room, at least there was a very used set in the garage, eagerly awaiting to wash and dry our garments!

About a month after moving in, the washer decided to die on us. Brian and his step dad looked into buying a new one, but with it being within days of paying our first mortgage payment, and still trying to pay off others things related to the move, we were sort of SOL! Luckily, a good friend of ours had a washer in his garage that he was looking to donate, so instead he brought it over to us! Granted, it makes a terrible screeching sound when the spin cycle ends, but it works!

Then, shortly after, the dishwasher decided that it didn't want to wash our dishes anymore. It would fill up with water, and do the drying, but that's about it. So, for the past couple of months, we've been using it as a drying rack for when we hand wash. I have no problem with hand washing the dishes - especially since I have an awesome window in front of the sink - but there was standing water inside the dishwasher, and I saw yesterday that it was starting to grow mold.

THAT, I have a problem with.

So Brian took out the dishwasher, and now we're left with this:

A beautiful iPhone picture of the beautiful garbage bag/painters tape hole that is where a dishwasher used to be! Mostly to keep the cats out - there is a capped, although still LIVE, wire hidden back there. And, I didn't want to look at what's left over from him tearing that sucker out!

So now we're on the hunt for a new dishwasher. This will be our first major purchase for the house, and it'll be a tough one! My car has been paid off just this past week, so now we have extra cash in the pool to go towards something that we want, not something that will simply just do.

Items to consider:

• Is it worth going energy efficient? Apparently there's a tax break for those, but I've also read that the appliances being made now are just as efficient as the Energy Star ones, they just don't have the special sticker?

• The brand new fridge and stove are both white, but I'd like to eventually go stainless steel. Should we get a white dishwasher, or get the stainless steel for when we eventually DO replace the other appliances - which could be 2-3 years later?

• Is it worth going name brand, or are the lesser brands comparable? I'm thinking about going GE, simply because I feel like I can trust the name, and because there are certain features that I like.

• We're thinking of going to Home Depot, is Sears Outlet a better option? Usually they don't offer all the same appliances as what's in other stores.

Brian doesn't really care what we get, so long as we can afford it. I'm trying to get the best dishwasher for our money! We're trying to be ADULTS here, people!!! :)

And, a friend just told me that we need to save receipts for tax write off next year! Everyday, ya learn something new!!

The Humble Abode

This week has been full of sniffles, sneezes and a one-night event of a super high fever, resulting in an ice bath! No motivation to do much except sleep, and watch lots of Star Wars.

As promised, more pictures of the house! Since these are photos from the listing online, you can see what I mean that the pictures distort the rooms a bit - they really aren't as long as the pictures suggest!

Without further adieu -

The living room! Door to the right is the front door, with our wood-burning fireplace to the left! Brand new carpeting with brand new wood flooring in the entry, and a really nice light tan color paint throughout the house.

Another view of the living room from the front door. The entry to the left of the picture is the dinning room - go to the right in the dinning room and you'll go to the kitchen; go to the left and you'll enter the hallway that takes you back to the bedrooms and our 1 bathroom.

Kitchen! Appliances were added after the pictures were taken - a fridge consumes the empty part of the wall at the end of the cabinets (right side of the kitchen), with the stove under where you see the microwave (under the upper cabinets). The sliding glass door goes out to our patio/backyard.

The "Man Cave"! This used to be the garage, which explains the step into the room. The open door on the right goes into the living room. Behind where the picture was taken is another large picture window that faces the front of the house (sharing the same wall as the front door and living room picture window). The other entry in the middle of the picture is the small, but very useful, laundry room, which has another entry to the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. If you were to walk out the door from the laundry room into the hall way, you would turn right and face the dinning room/kitchen.

Our main bedroom! Small, but cozy. Brian and I don't require a gigantic room, since we don't need to make our room multi-use anymore! It can now be just the BEDROOM. The closet is to the left, the window faces our neighbor to the east (and their RV), and the wall shares the driveway to our garage.


The 2nd bedroom, about the same size as our main bedroom, but its the one closest to the Man Cave/laundry room/dinning room. The window shares the same wall as our bedroom window, which shares the same wall as the driveway to our garage. Out of sight, and on the right is the closet. The wall to the left shares the same wall as the entertainment center in the Man Cave, with the picture being taken from the bedroom door.

Probably my most favorite room in the entire house - the hobby room! The picture is being taken against the wall that the closet is on, which shares the same wall as the bathroom. The sliding glass door is on the south side of the house, with a view of the garage wall (fantastic, right?). There's a window on the right sharing a wall with the back patio, with a view of the backyard, the rest of the neighborhood (since we sit on a hill), tree tops when I'm sitting at the computer, amazing sunsets on a clear day and sometimes the air force base if we're lucky! The door on the left leads to the hallway, and you can see through to our main bedroom - both our master bed and hobby room are the two southernmost rooms in the house. I have my craft supplies, sewing machine, computer, and giant bookcase all set up in here right now. Brian wanted this to be a "shared" room, but he gets his giant man cave AND a huge garage - so I commandeered the "hobby room". I might paint it pink...

The laundry room - which has an entry from the hallway or the Man Cave. The door on the left goes into the hallway (you can see a glimpse of the entryway to the dinning room!) with the picture being taken from the entry from the Man Cave. To the right and out of sight is the water heater, with floor to ceiling cabinets! When we bought the house, the washer and dryer were in the garage for storage, so we thought, "Well, this is a pretty nice sized laundry room!" That is, until we actually isntalled the washer and dryer. When you open the dryer door, is reaches to the opposite wall with no room to stand in front. Brian wants to close off the entry from the Man Cave, but I told him that ain't gonna happen unless we do a major overhaul of this room! I need a stackable washer and dryer, or at least get a stacking kit for separate washer/dryer. Once we get that, and re-arrange the cabinets, we could even turn this into a half-bath! Just a toilet and sink, which is really all we need!

Speaking of the bathroom! Here it is! View from the door - what you see is what you get! The wall with the toilet and sink share the same wall as the dinning room, with the window in the shower facing the patio/backyard, and the wall on the left sharing with the hobby room! It was completely remodeled, and I love it! Granted, its a small size, but it's enough for us to get done what we need - we're rather practical people! Only issue is the use of the potty, since Brian is known to use a lot of time up in there, if you know what I mean! That's why it's so critical for us to get the laundry room re-done, so that we can work on getting plumbing done in there, and have it be a 2nd toilet and sink!

THE GARAGE! This is a monster of a garage, too! For sure a dream for Brian! The top photo is taken from the opposite corner as the bottom photo - top taken from the south east corner; bottom taken from the north west corner. As you can see, there is storage at the top, all around the garage. Right now we have all of our other boxes and Christmas decorations up there, which is ideal! And even though we have so much stuff up there, it really only takes up one side of the overhead storage in the garage! The rest he can use to store parts, or have a sectioned off area for his friend's kids to hang out when they come over with their dad (and I'm not home to watch them in the house). Any of the old cabinets used inside the house have been re-purposed for the garage, which I love! The garage is taller than the house, and just a couple square feet shy in size of the house, as well! The usable area in the garage is tall enough to lift a car, and from what we've found so far, the attic could be finished into additional space for protected storage. This thing is so massive that we currently have three cars in there, with room for another car and still have room to open all car doors, lift the cars if needed and work around them....it's....ridiculous. Seriously!

The patio/backyard, picture taken from the sliding glass door in the kitchen! The patio at this point is just a slab of cement, with the gravel RV parking on the west side, shed directly in front on the south side, and you have access to the garage to the left of the shed. The far corner, in the middle of the picture, is where we would like to put raised beds for a fruit/veggie garden, but the land slopes - so we'll have to figure out something else! The patio is really a great size, and I can see us having our friends with their kids over to hang out and BBQ during the summer, and maybe set up a bedsheet on the shed to project movies onto during a warm summer night! There's so much we can do, and it's all so exciting...and VERY overwhelming! :)

View of the backyard from the sloped south west corner of the property - shed to the right, entry to the garage right next to that, followed by the sliding glass door to the hobby room, window in the hobby room, window in the bathroom, sliding glass door to the kitchen and another view of the RV gravel parking. We plan on replacing all the dead grass, AND THE GRAVEL, with either new grass or grass seeds. Depends on when we can get that project started. The yard is a decent size, and will be even more usable once we replace the gravel. We MIGHT keep a patch of the gravel that connects to the patio for maybe a fire pit, but we'll see.
Another final view of the gravel RV parking. The gravel was freshly laid when the rest of the house was updated for selling, so I wonder if the original owner stored cars on that side of the house, and the ground was ruined? Regardless, Brian and I have no intentions of getting an RV anytime soon, and if we do, there is plenty of space on the other (east) side of the house to store an RV. There aren't pictures of the driveway to the garage, which is why Brian was at firs not interested. By the looks of the above picture, we thought that you would have to use the gravel drive way to move cars in and out of the garage, leaving NO area for grass or kids to play! But once we saw the house, there is a dedicated drive way for the garage, and we can use this space for lush grass and a garden! :)

For a slightly better idea of how the house is positioned, here is a super crappy MS Paint drawing of our house/property!

Light blue lines = windows
Brown lines = doors
Dark blue lines = sliding glass doors
Tan areas = carpet
Brown areas = wood floor

Gray solid = cement

Gray spotted = gravel

Green spotted = dead and/or dying grass

If we had even this crappy MS Paint map of the house, I think Brian would have been more accepting of viewing the house. Also, don't think that the bathroom is really that big - room's are grossly disproportioned in this drawing! :)

We have major goals of renovating the laundry room, and better organizing the hobby room. So future posts will hopefully hold amazingly boring pictures of "during" renovation, and concluded with awesome photos of "after"! We also want to get started soon on cleaning up the yard/gravel pit!

The house has it's flaws, but they are nothing that we can't work around or live with! We are so fortunate to have found this house, and living in it for the past couple months we just feel like we belong here! It flows well, we have our own space when we need it and theres so MUCH STORAGE!!!!

So, here's to the future!

Third Time's a Charm!

How about we skip the excuses of why I haven't posted in just shy of a year, and move on with our relationship, 'kay? This'll be my 3rd time trying to write a blog, maybe it'll work out?

2010 proved to be somewhat uneventful - we had moved in fall of '09 into a split level house in Tacoma with two roommates, and that ended up to be the worst AND best choice we made. Bad - because the roommates ended up being irresponsible idiots who couldn't seem to pay rent; Good - it prompted Brian and I to really focus on buying ourselves a house.

It all started one very warm, bright and happy Sunday in July. Brian was in the drive way washing his car, I was sitting on a blanket in the yard next to him reading a magazine. Suddenly I wanted a coffee, so I drove yonder to the nearest coffee stand, purchased myself an ice latte, and drove a different way home - kinda of a backwards way, but I wanted to avoid turning left on a busy road! Taking that route might have been the catalyst of a 3 month hunt for our new home.

Around the block I noticed a very cute and modestly sized craftsman home for sale - craftsman homes being my ABSOLUTE WEAKNESS IN LIFE. The large inviting front porch that could be used as a 2nd living room during the summer, the charming built-ins, the cabled windows on the second floor, just EVERYTHING about a craftsman home makes my heart go pitter-patter.

When I got back home, I quickly used my new-fangled computer-phone to look up the listing. The house was a 4-bedroom, 2-bath craftsman built in the 1920's, with a very small yard, and a pathetic excuse for a garage. The listing admitted that the home itself was a bit neglected, but the bones were good. In my mind this all translated to, "ITS A PERFECT HOME FOR YOU TO PRACTICE YOUR HOME DECORATOR/DESIGNER SKILLS!!!!"; Brian's mind translated this into, "Lots of work after work, and you'll be w

orking during the day to pay for the extra work you'll be doing at home. No thanks."

Brian reluctantly checked the house out, and while we both ended up agreeing to pass on that venture, it did peak his interest in IF he could even get a loan to buy a house.

That curiosity lead him to a lender, who then approved him and lead him to a real estate agent, who then lead us to the most FANTASTIC and understanding home inspection officer. The lender, agent and inspector were probably the most amazing people we could ever ask for to assist in the very unnerving and incredibly e

motion process of first time home buying.

Our agent sat us down, and asked what it is we each would like in a home.

My major wants were:

• Fire place
• Front porch (substantial; NOT a stoop)
• Flowing floor plan (preferably open-floor plan)
• A large and functional kitchen
• 3 bedrooms
• Decent sized back yard

Brian's major wants were:

• Big garage
• Big garage
• Big garage
• A room with a toilet

While I had some pretty specific qualifications for a home to make me smile, Brian was fairly easy to please. Although, he did lean towards ranch-style homes, where it's a single floor and the rooms are divided (i.e.: not open-floor plan).

Another element that made our home search a little....challenging...was the fact that we were going through a city program to assist us with the down payment. The stipulations were that the house be in certain pocket neighborhoods of Tacoma. Also, since the down payment assistance was an FHA loan, the house had to pass a certain inspection to ensure that it's move in ready (not having to replace the roof, the foundation is in prime condition, the siding doesn't have rot - basically all major elements of the home don't need to be replaced).

____________________________________________

The first home we looked at was a rambler/ranch-style home with a somewhat open floor plan. It was a couple blocks from Fred Meyer (local grocer), was fully fenced with three bedrooms, two baths, a fireplace, room out front to build a porch, a decent garage and a back yard that would be a clean slate for our green-thumbed dreams! The house was very VERY cute, needed some fixing up, but the one killer for me was the kitchen - it was a galley kitchen. Meaning, you have counters and cabinets to your left, counters and cabinets to your right, and no other space to really put much of anything.

Example of a galley kitchen:

While some people may prefer this layout for their kitchen, its one that I find difficult working in. I need my workspace to be continuous so I can see EVERYTHING when I take a step back and the flow just WORKS for me. It was a struggle to tell Brian, "No, I don't like it" because I tried all I could in my little head to figure out how to rework the kitchen either by extending it into the dinning room, and not have a formal dinning room, or extend it the other direction and get rid of the family room, and just live with having one living room. No matter how I tried planning out the kitchen I would want, in the end, it wouldn't have worked without an absolute overhaul of the south side of that house due to sliding glass doors, the door to the garage, windows, walls and just EVERYTHING.

We passed on that house, which was fine because it was literally the first house we looked at - in person or otherwise.

Move forward about a week later, and our agent wants us to see a house that fits my little wishlist.

____________________________________________

House 1: Craftsman style home with an ADORABLE front yard, mature landscaping, front porch, fireplace with built-in bookcases on either side, an old, but for sure remodel-able kitchen, 4-bedrooms, 1-bath, a super private back yard, and a very VERY dilapidated garage. The house was also just feet away from a quiet and well-kept city park with a running trail, playground and tennis court. When I saw the house, I fell in love instantly! Surprisingly, even considering the joke for a garage, Brian loved it too! It had character, it was cozy, the backyard and landscaping were a DREAM, and it was wellllll below our budget.

We decide to put in an offer at about 2 thousand above asking price, and scheduled an inspection. The inspection was scheduled for when I would be out of town visiting my mom, but luckily Brian and his mom were able to attend with our agent. That day, Brian called me with upsetting news that the house wouldn't pass for an FHA loan, which would mean that if we do decide to go with it, we would have to come up with all of our down payment, which wasn't an option at the time.

So we moved on.

Our agent sends us a couple houses to look at online, and none of them really fit the bill. We still had the first house stuck in our minds, and most of what she was sending us either didn't have a garage, or just looked like a boring box. Brian wants the function, I want the charm.

For a couple weeks we went back and forth with our agent, her sending us listings to consider, us sending her listings to get information on. In the span of a month we had PHYSICALLY looked at about 5-15 houses within 2 days every week. For a couple who decided to buy a house out of curiosity, we became VERY serious and committed to it.

We looked at homes that didn't even apply to EITHER of our wants - one home only had 2 bedrooms, no garage and a STOOP (I HATE STOOPS!). Another house was in northern Tacoma across the street from a hospital, literally had a bus stop in the front yard and the cement shower in the basement was straight out of Silence of the Lambs. The last half of our search in Tacoma was laughable at best, horrifying at worst.

After a month, we had pretty much exhausted our searching criteria, and were about to give up on our search, sit back and save some money for a full down payment, and approach the next search without the restrictions that come with FHA assistance.

Then, being the resourceful and committed agent she is, we were given the suggestion of looking into a down payment assistance program with the COUNTY, rather than the city. We would have the same strict guidelines for the condition of the home, but we could start looking at homes outside of the Tacoma and Lakewood city limits. While we wanted very much to stay in Tacoma (thanks to it being the epicenter of anything and everything we ever want to do on our time off from work), we decided to give it a try and see what we can find.

If you were to go towards Seattle, the area encompassing the city limits is your traditional suburban atmosphere - pockets of nice homes with a grocery store every couple blocks, maybe a couple nice shopping centers, nice restaurants and parks where you can let your yappy little dog shit everywhere while you sit in your SUV waiting for your child to get out of cheer leading practice.

In Pierce County, the areas surrounding the city are considered more rural than suburban. The homes are older (maybe, 60s/70s ramblers), the properties larger and more spread out, you only have your shopping on one major road, and it takes a little longer to get to where you want to go. The options for dinner out or date night is limited to going "back into the city", even though the city limits is just two miles down the road from you.

Since the area is structured in that way, we were a bit hesitant to start looking for homes around the county. We were either going to find much older, rambler style homes, or brand new homes that don't require you to even leave the house to borrow sugar - you could just reach out your kitchen window and into your neighbor's. Neither of those options were at all appealing to me.

Our agent sent us a couple homes, most of them appealing to Brian's needs and not so much my wants. Which, in all honesty, is acceptable because he was the one with the loan, but I would be the Suzie Homemaker!

After Brian and I debated on which homes were acceptable to either of us, we agreed to meet our agent at a home in Parkland, just south of Pacific Lutheran University.

____________________________________________

House 2: A home that was originally a rambler, with a finished attic, 2-bedrooms, 2-bath, an awesome laundry room, walk in closet in the main bath/bedroom, confusing living room/kitchen situation, a PERFECT back deck (no yard) for entertaining, and a garage that would make Tim "The Toolman" Taylor moan like a gorilla. It had three bays that were tall enough to fit a camper inside, with a 4th smaller bay that had a friggin BATHROOM IN IT. There'd be no reason for Brian to leave that damn garage!!! It...was....beautiful.

The inside, though, had the most confusing layout. The upstairs, while finished, wasn't very usable because the previous owner kept the slope of the roof same - meaning that I'd be the only one able to walk upright in that room. The living room, we think, was an addition because it was a square area that was separated from the rest of the house with french doors. The french doors opened into this...I suppose..."hallway" and kitchen. The kitchen was the biggest area of the house, and probably the largest galley kitchen I've seen. In short - I wasn't much enthused about the layout of the house, but the rest of the property and the garage were what sold us.

We put in an offer, with the house being in the middle of our price range, and we scheduled inspection NUMBA 2!

The inspector and our agent scheduled for just after I got off work and just after Brian would get back in town after he was off work. So, I headed over to the house, and was there before Brian and his parents did. When I walked up to our agent, she had a very sad look on her face, and I knew this was another no-go. The foundation was GARBAGE. The inspector was actually shocked to see that a large hole in the foundation was covered up with a piece of plywood painted with cement - trying to camouflage the issue? Our agent was so SOOOO nervous to tell Brian the bad news when he showed up, because she knew just how much he wanted this house. After all the homes we looked at, already going through one bad inspection, this was going to break him.

So Brian shows up JUST after his mom gets there, and luckily she told him with our agent that the house wouldn't pass. The siding was also bad, and there were spots on the roof where the "addition" was made that was leaking. His dream garage, and my nightmare of a floor plan, is now off the plan.

Brian and I debated for a couple days on if we even wanted to continue with the search. We kept saying, "Third time is a charm! THIRD TIME IS A CHARRRRRMMMM!!!!!", but inspections cost money each time we have one done, and while we were SO fortunate to have an inspector who discounted the cost for us, we didn't want to run our luck out with him.

We told our agent that we wanted to take a break from looking, but if she found anything that she felt would be WELL worth looking at, to give us a call.

A week later, not wanting to give up completely, I found another house in Parkland, this time just north of Pacific Luthern University, that I was very interested in seeing in-person. The pictures were taken with a slight fish-eye, so I couldn't fully comprehend the general size of the rooms, or even the layout for that matter. But, the one thing that I kept pointing out to Brian was that the garage was detached and looked VERY spacious. So much room for activities!

Brian's thing was that the pictures didn't look worth-it, and the asking price was slightly over our price-cap. BUT, being the nag I am, I kept pointing out the garage, and that we should at least take a look.

We send the listing to our inspector, she does her magic and within a couple days we're inside looking at the house. It had only been on the market for a couple months, and only had 3 viewings. My theory is that most people were put off by the listing pictures - they SERIOUSLY did not do this house justice.

____________________________________________

House 3: Rambler style home, a 3+ car detached garage, 3-bedrooms, 1-bath, wood burning fireplace in the main living room, the attached garage converted into a family room/man cave, remodeled kitchen, brand new carpet throughout, remodeled bathroom, and a fully fenced property just shy of .25 acres.

This house seriously had EVERYTHING we both were looking for (except for the obvious Craftsman style - but I kinda got over that desire about 10 houses into our search). The rooms ended up being larger than what the pictures suggested, there was a laundry room (which most of the houses we looked at didn't have) and the garage, while not as amazing as the one on House 2, was clearly a garage built for a car fanatic. The amount of power being pumped into the garage alone could support an entire 2nd household, and I think THAT was the ultimate selling point for Brian. For me it was the kitchen, the 3rd bedroom that would work PERFECT for a craft room/office, and the fact that the way the property sits, we have a lot of privacy in the back yard. It was also only a couple blocks away from the air force base, so Brian and I had visions of sititng on the roof in July to watch the airshow.

Unlike the other homes, we decided AT THE HOUSE to make an offer. We went lower than asking to see if the seller would bite, and we ended up getting into a slight bidding war with another potential buyer. The time it took to get an answer from the seller on if they chose us to work with was probably one of the most stressful weeks in our lives. The other two homes we made offers on were very nice homes, but the 1st one had everything I wanted, and lacked what Brian wanted. The 2nd home had everything that Brian wanted, but lacked what I wanted. THIS home, however, was a perfect combination of all the things Brian and I found to be important to us when buying a home, and just VIEWING the house, we felt like we NEEDED to be there.

We wait longer, and we get a call from our agent - the buyer wants to work with US!!!! BUT, they didn't accept our offer. We ended up getting back up towards the asking price, which was a bit over our budget, but the interest rate Brian would be getting for the loan would be so low that it wouldn't kill us. Plus, with the house being remodeled, the money we would be "saving" on a less expensive house would be spent on remolding it, anyway. So regardless of the price, we'd be spending about the same.

While the whole bidding debates were going on, we had our inspection scheduled. This time around, we wanted it to just be US at the inspection - no family, no friends.

During the inspection, Brian walked around the house with our agent, a little nervous because this will be the 3rd house we've made an offer on and have had an inspection done to - it's not just money riding on this working out, it's all of our hopes and dreams. The inspector dealt with me following him around asking questions, being a 5'5'' sack of stress and emotions. He viewed the roof, it was good. He checked out the siding, no rot. He inspected the attic, all good. Finally he gets to the foundation and the crawl space, which was the ONE thing on the other two houses that were the killers of the deal. He looks around the house at the foundation, the vents, the crawl space, makes sure there aren't any dead bodies hiding under there, and after what felt like an eternity he comes back out, with his little clip board in hand and space suit on and says, "Well......................looks like we have a winner here, kids!"

IT PASSED INSPECTION.

Almost flawlessly! There were very VERY minor things of getting the entry to the crawl space covered, steps installed for the back sliding glass door, and a couple other things, but all that we cared about was that IT PASSED.

Some time passes, Brian gets everything finalized with the lender in getting his ridiculous low interest rate of 3.something% and we are looking at moving into OUR new house. JUST US. NO ONE ELSE.

We moved in October, and have been here for about 4 months now, and I don't think that's it has completely settled in yet that, WE OWN THIS HOUSE. If we want to paint or tear down a wall, ITS OK! If we want to put a pool in the backyard, LANDLORD CAN'T STOP US. And, the most important part of all, NO ROOM MATES (well, other than the cats). It's euphoric to think about, and even more so when we talk about the future we have in this house. We are going to get married while living here, and hopefully bring our first born child into this home. It's beautiful, and no amount of works for exclimation points can fully express my gratitude for the way the planets aligned during this process where, honestly, THIRD TIME WAS A CHARM. If the other two homes had passed inspection, we would be living in a home that either one of us didn't really like, and we'd be dealing with remodeling the place before we could actually LIVE in it. But, because fate did it's work, we were matched up with the house that was perfect for us - functional, stylish, modest, and with enough of a blank slate to allow us to customize in the future (I REALLLLLLLY want to remodel the laundry room SOOOOOOOOOO BAD!)

Tonight (or, this morning...whatever...schematics), I leave you with just one picture of the front of The House That Was Meant-To-Be:

BASK IN ITS GLORY!!!!!!!!