Home Sweet Home!

Well, it's been a week now since we've been in our new house and can I say I LOVE being a home owner?  We moved last Saturday, and while we still have a TON of stuff to move and clean at the apartment, it's been great!  We didn't get help for moving until 1:00pm, but my BIL Devin (he's married to Jeff's sister Melissa) did us a massively huge favor and dropped off his dolly so we could use it to move our appliances in and out of the house, and then Andy, Tim and Luke -he also brought his wife and stepkids- showed up (in that order and they are Jeff's brothers) helped us take the heavy stuff out to the moving truck and then moved the stuff into the house.  It's so amazing that moving stuff out of the truck is WAY faster than putting stuff in!

We still aren't quite completely moved in aside from the obvious fact that we don't everything that we own here, but we're planning to make a trip -or two- to the apartment this week to clear it out and clean it up.  What's awesome is that I was very worried about having to go out and buy a garden hose and lawn mower and other essentials for yardkeeping, but we lucked out and the previous owner left that stuff... and BONUS for me is that there's even extra base cabinets outside in the shed!  FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC because on of the larger minor expenses I was expecting to have to pay out was a desk and storage space for my crafting stuff in my crafting room, and I was planning on spending about $300 or so doing that; instead all I have to do now is borrow a stud finder, get a length of countertop from IKEA for $80 bucks and some 2x2 and drill some holes and I'll have a workspace to run the entire length of one wall!  We went to IKEA this weekend to buy some stuff, but we're planning to make a second trip after the apartment is completely cleaned out and whatnot to go and get a dining room table and the countertop along with laundry baskets and other random stuff, since none of it would fit in our car especially because I need a 9 foot countertop!

I will post pictures of our home, but I need to wash the couch covers and just really organize and put shelves up and everything.  I gotta say, it's quite interesting being a home owner, and it's taken a few days, but it's become a home and not a weird random house.

Less Than a Week to Go!

Well, we sign the closing papers for our house in FIVE days, and then we move next Saturday!  I'm super excited, but also kind of nervous and anxious.  Last Monday, we got our interest rate locked in at 5.25%, so now we know how much our mortgage payments will be, which is great because we'll be able to plan our budget out and whatnot.  The appraisal was also this past week and our house was given a value of $175,000!  Our agent was surprised it got appraised for that, and actually said to me "I'm shocked to be quite honest, I didn't think it was going to appraise for that much."  Well then!  And I've got some more pictures too, since the appraiser took pictures, and we got them in the appraisal report.

 

 Here's the red bathroom, the one that's down in the basement!  I was initially thinking 'red is a weird color for a bathroom, but the more i think about it, the more I really like it!  We've got the perfect picture to hang over the toilet, but we need to get it laminated so the paper doesn't warp and ripple from people taking showers in there.  I also love the orientation of the shower, it's really awesome.

 

 Here is the carport and driveway, and that door leads into the kitchen.  That yellow thing on the roof is the swampcooler that's been winterized; that is to say covered so there's no leaking issues from melting snow and whatnot; an issue we had at our last apartment.

 

Here's the back patio!  The driveway carport actually continues into the patio.  This picture was actually taken to show the 'chipped' paint on the wooden fencing you see there in the lower right corner, but it's a great picture of the patio area.  One thing we do not know is if we get to keep the picnic bench or not, but I really hope we do, because that would be AWESOME!  and that shed back there isn't really a storage shed, but it houses the sprinkler system we are so lucky to get!

In case you were wondering why there's a picture of the 'chipped' paint is because we're getting an FHA loan, and they have strict requirements; and one of them is with paint.  Since the house was built before 1974, all chipped paint has to be taken care of.  I'm willing to bet this paint is alot newer than 1974, but because of the rules, it has to be painted.  It's all good though.  There's also another 'problematic' area on the other side of the fence behind the shed, I'm sure that was caused by the sprinkler water wearing the paint off based on the picture I saw.

Everything has been taken care of except for internet coverage.  We're not sure yet if we're gonna contiune to use our current provider or if we're going to go with another provider and see if we can get a better deal for internet.  The electricity is due to go into our name on next Friday or Saturday, and the gas will be switched to our name on Monday.  When I had called the gas company to transfer coverage, the lady on the phone informed me that the current owner had called in to have it shut off completely, which is actually BAD because the weather can dip down low and then there's the risk of bursting pipes or whatever.  Besides, having it switched over is going to be $8, but if it were turned off and then turned back on, it would be $15.  I'm all about saving money, even if it is just $7!

It's so close!  I'm EXCITED!