The “easier search”: Pt. 3

We’re half way done.. on part 3 of 4… and it occurs to me that I probably could have summarized the whole search in about one sentence: We looked at a thousand places, changed our mind a million times, second guessed ourselves a billions, and finally bought a house.

But that would make me a pretty crappy blogger… so here we go.

When we left off we had an appointment on Tuesday to see House #9 and we had put a hold on a lot in a different community to build House #7— both of which are the same house by the way.

Tuesday came and we went to the house. We looked around and deemed the back yard unforgivably small. When we got in the car to leave, a funny thing happened… B suddenly became worried that it was too small. We’d walked through the model twice and he’d seen photos of this house before… but in a real house with real people and real furniture (as opposed to the scantily furnished model)…. he worried about the size. Perhaps… he said… we should revisit the idea of house #8. But its too big, I protested! But he suggested we just consider it. I said okay… we could go look at both again on Thursday (which if you’re counting… is TODAY).

On Wednesday I emailed to see if a deeper lot was available to build house #8 on… recall that we were not okay with the standard lot size and would not build if we couldn’t get a lot that was at least 10 feet deeper than the others. No, came the answer… no lot that was deeper and would accommodate this home.

Hmm… I thought at first. I guess that is that and we sign the papers to build house #7 on Sunday! But then I noticed the “inventory homes” on the website and asked for details. Turns out these are homes that are almost built but are not spoken for. There were two of house #8 on deeper lots that we could choose from.

Upside of inventory home: Serious discounts.
Downside of inventory home: we don’t get to pick the stuff in the house!

We went to look at the two homes tonight and we were pleasantly surprised! One of the homes we looked at was…. perfect. Okay… not PERFECT. They installed vinyl flooring throughout the entry/kitchen/bathrooms… why?!? Very disappointing… but it won’t be too hard to install hardwood ourselves after we move in. Other than that? I love it! The cabinets and counter in the kitchen was gorgeous! It is 4 bed, 2.5 bath with a lower level “man cave.” Best of all… its almost 2600 square feet and even AFTER we pay to have hardwood installed it will come out cheaper than building the 1900 square foot house! Talk about the deal of the century!

So where are we now? We’ve talked with our realtor and she is preparing paperwork for us to put in an offer tomorrow! We have an appointment on Sunday to sign papers on the house… so really we just have a few days of negotiation to see what the bottom line will be. I hate to say it is 100% because nothing is set until the papers are signed… but we are cautiously optimistic that we have found our new house!!!!! Tune in on Sunday to hear the (hopefully happy!) conclusion of how we found our perfect house for an incredible price in under THREE WEEKS from start to finish. Eek!!

And because there have been way too many words and not enough photos lately, the front of our (hopefully!) new house:

The “easier” search pt. 2

Tuesday came and we headed out to the model house to meet with the sales rep, Jessica. We walked into the house and I was totally overwhelmed. A new house? Me? Build a house? Don’t they know I’m like… 12? But I faked like a was an adult with a job and a paycheck and the ability to buy a house, and we examined House #1 (more on that in a minute). We also walked through another model (House #2) with the teeny tiny great room (veto) and House #3 with the feel of a townhouse (veto x2).

Back to House #1: 3 bed, 2.5 bath great kitchen, great “bonus room” loft for a man cave, great bathroom (with a corner garden tub!), and great price. Not to mention, it was in a great suburb with fantastic schools and the average home price in this neighborhood was well over 300K. Are you starting to get suspicious here? I was. I’ve always lived by the rule: If something seems way too good to be true, it probably is.

And it was. We drove out to the community where we would build to check things out. We were immediately impressed by the impeccable landscaping, the large lots, and the mansions. Then we head over to where we would build. OH. Our house would be directly next to a highway. I don’t mean near a highway. I mean… our house/backyard/fence/highway. Yes… they put a nice fence in and trees for privacy… but still. You get out of the car and all you hear is highway. B loved the house and didn’t think that the highway was that big of a deal. I do live near a firestation now and it doesn’t bother me so, he reasoned, who cares about the noise? It just really bothered me though. I always pay attention to the houses along the highway and wonder who buys them… I just couldn’t be one of those people. We let this remain open as an option, but I was not sold.

We went home for Thanksgiving and came back Sunday in time for a 1pm appointment with a realtor to check out 3 already built houses.

House #4: pretty nice floor plan but brand new purple carpeting? really?

House #5: I really liked it… open floor plan, 4 bed, 2.5 bath, finished basement. B was less impressed. It was at this point he deemed himself over old houses and decided we really can’t go back from looking at models. Warning to all future homebuyers: don’t look at model homes unless you can buy them because there really is no going back!

House #6: sooooooooo old. And ugly. And tiny. so not going to happen.

The next Tuesday we had an appointment with Jessica to see another model at another community. Here we looked at Houses #7 and 8.

As we entered house #7– which she wasn’t even going to show us but it is where the sales office was– I was in love. It had a beautiful open floor plan with a fantastic vaulted great room and connected kitchen. The first floor master was vaulted and it seemed like it was a perfect size for us– about 1900 square feet. The downside is there was really no room for a man cave unless B used the big 3rd bedroom (and it is big.. 19 x 12). But still… we were smitten.

Begrudgingly we entered house #8 already sure we had found our new home. It was still under construction but the drywall was up and you could see what rooms where supposed to be. It was an unusual floor plan– a five level split– and it was huge– almost 2600 square feet! I immediately declared it too big. What the heck would we do all that space? We’d end up in a big empty house with no furniture!! B agreed, although he did love the furnished lower level which would make an ideal man cave.

We met friends for dinner that night and declared that we’d found our home– a mere week after beginning our search! Looks like the December 15 deadline was not as difficult as we’d imagined. I was done looking but I’d already made an appointment to see another house on Thursday and I figured I had better go.

B had to work late and we had no real intention of buying this house #9 so I went alone. Imagine my surprise when I realize that the house I was visiting was an already built house #7!! It was 2 years old with almost every available upgrade– way more than we could afford. Plus a professionally finished basement that was MASSIVE!! The house was built for 248 two years ago + 40K on the basement… and it was listed for 220!! What a steal! Even with the economy it seemed there must be a catch and I soon found it… the back yard! It is TINY. There is a stamped concrete patio extending 10 feet from the house and we had about 10-15 feet beyond that to a community fence. Holy tiny yard.

Despite this I came home to B and declared I’d found our new house. It seemed like kismit… despite the small back yard it had everything else we were looking for including the finished basement! It had hardwood throughout and beautiful granite countertops. I made an appointment for my dad to walk through the house on Saturday to look for any latent problems and an appointment for B to walk through with me the following Tuesday. Pending my dad’s okay and B’s approval we planned to put an offer in Tuesday at the appointment.

Saturday came and the call came in from my dad that he believed the property line only extended 4 feet beyond the patio! We declared this a deal breaker and contacted our realtor. She set to get the survey from the seller’s realtor and we planned to reconvene on Tuesday. On our way back from our trip to Michigan we weighed the options every way we could. B wanted a finished basement. I wanted a decent yard. Throughout it all I was so happy that we could talk calmly through our options and really look out for each others’ interests.

Being ever the accountant, B said he was worried about the resale value of a house with almost no yard. We can finish a basement, he reasoned… we cannot grow a bigger back yard. So when we got back to Columbus we headed to the community with houses #7 and 8 and walked through the model again. We checked out the community in the daylight, then headed to the community with house #9. Undeniably we liked the community with houses #7 and 8 better. B then remembered that there was 1 lot left at the first community with a 15′ deeper lot, and we decided to put a hold on it asap.

At this point we had an appointment to see house #9 on Tuesday, and we had put a hold on a lot to build house #7. Are you lost yet? Unfortunately things only get more complicated from here and this is already far too long! Ironic that this has been the much easier search… but hopefully now it is a bit clearer why I’ve been absent so long!

(to be continued)

The easier search: Finding a house

I’ve been wanting to buy a house since I found out about Obama’s housing credit last February. I was considering buying a house on my own this past summer, but B asked me to wait until we could buy a house together. I knew that not buying one this year might make me miss out on the housing credit… but I had a suspicion that it would be extended and I didn’t want to make a rushed decision by that summer anyways. So, I waited.

Then B and I got engaged and soon after we heard that the tax credit was being extended. As long as a contract was signed by May 1 and closing was by June 30, 2010, we would get the money! So the search started again and we both just assumed that we’d buy an already built house. We had our needs and wants ready to go:

Needs:
1) 3+ bedrooms
2) 2+ bathrooms
3) located in one of 3 suburbs that we like with good schools
4) with enough yard to fence (and ability to fence)
5) single family house (no townhouse/condo)

Wants:
1) newer house
2) vaulted ceilings
3) wood floors
4) open floor plan/attached kitchen and great room

And, of course, it had to be in our price range. Details.

I emailed my brother to ask for a recommendation on realtor, and he suggested we take a look at maybe building a house like he did. I didn’t think that we had time but he called a builder he has met with and it turns out, we could still build a house before the tax credit deadline. So, we met with builder #1 and found out that if we signed a contract by the end of the year, we could have a house built and closed on before the tax deadline. Unfortunately, the only development the builder could offer us were “technically” in the right suburb… but were so far towards the back edge that it would take us a half hour or more to get to work. PASS.

It was at that point B remembered that M/I is one of the biggest builders in Columbus and said maybe we should check them out. I emailed them through the M/I website with our wants and needs and a very nice sales rep emailed me right back and set up a time to meet the Tuesday before Thanksgiving at a model she thought we’d like. She told me that if we wanted to build a house we’d need a contract signed by… December 15!!

I figured that if we were even going to think about building a house and making that kind of decision in a matter of weeks, we needed to hit the ground running with looking at older houses. I’m an “explore all of your options” kind of girl, and commitment is scary! Especially commitment that would cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars! I made appointments to see four different houses the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

So now it was finally Tuesday and we headed to the model home to meet our sales rep, Jessica. And that is when things got crazy…

(to be continued)

I’m alive!

Just very, very busy. A whole lot of life happened all at once and blogging, like dieting, seems ever more insurmountable the longer you wait to do it. When you blog daily you can talk about breakfast. You wait a few weeks and you feel like you had better have something monumental to say!

Most pressing in my life at the moment: Venue Searching and Budget Making and House Buying… each of which really deserves a post (or eight) of its own. But… B and I are headed to Michigan tonight to see his dad and step mom for Christmas #1 this weekend (assuming, that is, that he ever gets off of work!!), so I really don’t have time to write 24 posts.

So I’ll say this, for now about Venue Searching:
It sucks.

And about Budget Making:
Also sucks.

(no worries… I have the utmost confidence that once venue, date, and budget are set the rest of the process will be much more fun!)

And about House Buying:
Does not suck! We found a house we LOVE and we hope to put an offer in next week. Keep your fingers crossed out there in blogland that we get it!!

The Birthday Post

Well… I was waiting to write about my birthday until I had my photos developed, but they’re now developed and they suck! Turns out that you CAN take pictures with an underwater plastic disposable camera… but you really shouldn’t. Now I know.

We planned to do at least one excursion while on vacation and my birthday seemed like the perfect time. We went to the excursion office to talk about our options, and we picked an all-day excursion to Las Caletas. The excursion was to include snorkeling, kayaking, and a jungle tour.

The rough part was that we had to catch a cab to the marina by 8am. I am NOT a morning person so having to set an alarm on my birthday made me a little cranky, but I quickly got over it. After a half hour trip to the marina, we found our tour booth and got checked in. There were people there with a parrot… too cute.
Not a fantastic picture… but it makes me laugh. Also keep in mind we were going snorkeling so this is totally sans makeup!

I was super excited at this point but B was a little tired..

I got even more excited when we saw this pirate ship. Confession: I love Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels. On an episode recently they went to PV and they rode on this pirate ship! So cool that we were exactly where they were filming.

Next up was the boat to Las Caletas. It was an hour down the coast. At the start of the trip I was happy and feeling pretty good..

Note B’s peeling forehead… poor boy. Then I remembered that I get sea-sick… oy! Lucky there was no… erm…. puking. But I was not feeling fabulous.

Immediately when we got to Las Caletas they sent us up the hill to get snorkeling gear. At some point I realized that I had come to Mexico during the Swine Flu crazies and was about to put a piece of used plastic in my mouth from a big bucket… but I decided to just roll with it!

First thing I learned about snorkeling: flippers are hard to work! They’re a lot flimsier than you would think and I kept tripping over myself. Second thing I learned about snorkeling: Those masks are annoying! I had such a hard time keeping it on correctly so that I could breath without getting salt water in my mouth… blech. B said that he was having a really hard time too and he has snorkeled before, so I wonder if their snorkeling gear was different than most?

Regardless.. snorkeling was a ton of fun and HARD work. We followed the instructor all the way up the coast. I kept forgetting to keep my head underwater… such a strange thing this snorkeling. It was sooo cool though when I would remember. I’d just be swimming along and remember to stick my head down… then woah! A whole school of tropical fish! I tend to forget that the ocean has so many creatures because you just don’t see them that often. Some people were able to dive down but I was not quite that advanced! The instructor did dive down and brought up a sea urchin for us to hold which was very cool.

By the time I swam back to shore my legs were TIRED. Swimming that far, even with (or maybe especially with?) flippers is seriously hard work. My legs were buttah. B made it back before me and my hopes of relaxing for a few minutes were dashed when they announced it was time for KAYAKING!

Now… B was super excited to kayak whereas I was scared. I kept thinking that we were going to flip over and I wouldn’t be able to get back on, but B assured me that we’d be fine so I jumped on board. It was actually surprisingly easy to stay upright! I hate to admit when B is right… heh. The kayak was a great rest for our legs but now it was time for our arm workout! We had some trouble staying in sync but for kayak-virgins I think we did pretty darn good! We paddled all the way down to an adjacent beach and docked on the sand. We got to spend a blissful few minutes relaxing on the beach and there was a guy there playing with his dog in the ocean… so cute and made me miss Stew!

Once we arrived back at Las Caletas in the kayaks it was time for the Jungle Trek. Our guide was a lot of fun and showed us so many cool things. Like this huuuuuge spider that he wanted us to hold. B wanted to but I put the kaibosh on that because I didn’t want it anywhere near me! haha

After our tour we headed over to get lunch. It was surprisingly good! Just a buffet but I was able to get a margarita and the food was tasty. Plus it was nice to just sit and relax for a bit… I thought I was going to fall asleep in my food!

Soon after we heard that they had a monkey on the other side of the resort area so we had to check it out for ourselves. Now… I can’t believe I’m even posting these photos because they are so. bad. But– please keep in mind… this is post snorkeling, kayaking, and jungle trekking. I had not seen a mirror in hours. I was too tired to notice my bandana was falling of my head (and I have no idea why B did not tell me this… heh)…. so ummm yea. Bad pics… but cool stuff!

It was time to head back to the boat and I was a bit nervous about getting sea-sick.. but once again I made it back without serious incident. When we finally got back to our hotel room and showered we just laid… for hours. We were too tired to sleep even! Call me weird but laying around watching mtv with B for a few hours was really the perfect late afternoon activity to me.

To finish off the night we decided to get dressed up and go to dinner at the nicest restaurant at the resort, Portofino. Holy cow was the food there good!! We had been there once earlier in the week and we were super impressed with our meals. This time I bravely ventured out getting new things (this is huge for me because usually when I find something I like I stick with it) and it was SO. GOOD. Is it weird that one of my favorite italian meals I’ve ever eaten was in Mexico? I started with a tomato basil salad, got a spicy pasta for my entree, and had tiramisu for my birthday desert. Almost too pretty to eat… almost!

We got our waiter to take a photo of us at the end of the night which turned out to be my favorite pic of us from the whole trip… even though it kind of looks like I’m naked. Note to self: do not wear a maxi-dress and lean behind a table for pics.

All in all… my 25th birthday was pretty fabulous. I got to do three things I’d never done before: snorkel, kayak, and hold a monkey. I got to go out to a fabulous dinner. And I got to spend the whole day with my brand new fiance! (That word still sounds so weiiiiird.)

Things I never cared about before I got engaged… part 1

1. Chairs

Let’s think back a few months. If you had asked me…. what kind of chairs do you like? I would have said ummmm comfortable ones?

This is the answer of a non-engaged person. Or a man.

See… most venues come standard with ugly chairs. I think they do this on purpose because they know that as a bride, you don’t want your wedding to look like a school assembly. Behold… the standard Ugly Chair:

Of course… for the low low price of anywhere from $4-8 per chair, you can rent chair covers for the night. They look really nice and definitely have that “wedding” feel… but with 100 guests an extra $400-800 for totally non-essential chair covers is just not going to cut it.

And then there are the coveted Chiavari chairs… which I had never heard of or seen until I entered wedding blog-land. Apparently these are a hot item which go for anywhere between $10-15 per chair… to RENT for your wedding. Beautiful? yes. Going to happen? Sooo not.

We did see one venue that came with chiavari chairs standard… but the food is super expensive there so it probably wasn’t meant to be. In the end we’ll most likely end up with the Ugly Chairs and I won’t even notice on the day-of…. but I kind of hate wedding-land a little bit for showing me what I’m missing!

2. Flowers
I am sooooo not a flower girl. I always thought my mom was silly for spending so much time gardening when I was little. When B got me a big beautiful bouquet around our 6 month mark I scolded him for spending wayyyyyy too much on something that I could enjoy for mere days before they died. I told him if he wanted to get me flowers in the future, I would much appreciate some wild flowers (or better yet, a flowering plant) from the grocery store. Same thought, lower price.

So I thought flowers for my wedding would be easy… I’d get silk flowers and make my own bouquet a few months prior! Easy peasy… I’d get exactly what I wanted for a fraction of the price and who the heck cares?! My mother. She gasped audibly when I told her my plan and explained that silk flowers were soo….. tacky! I was unaware.

I still hope that I can buy flowers for cheap and DIY my own bouquet but my mom is being skeptical and wants me to just go to a florist. And I almost hate to admit it but in doing some research on how to DIY my own bouquet… I actually found some flowers I kind of love.

The ever-popular but wayyyyyyy too expensive peonies:

The less expensive and just as pretty (maybe prettier?) garden roses:

And the ones that I can’t pronounce, ranunculus:

Sigh… another expensive thing I now love due to the wedding. Stay tuned… I have a feeling this post will be ongoing for the next 15(ish) months!

How to talk to boys: budget ed.

So ummmm the budget negotiations are ongoing. See, the problem is that I’m conflicted. I’m torn both externally and internally. Let me explain.

On one hand we have dear B… the accountant. He is practical and stereotypical in that he just doesn’t “get” spending money on things that are not an investment (so he says). A house, he gets. My ring, he gets. These are things that do not diminish in value over time. A wedding, meanwhile, is a single day event that will be here and then gone and in the end… regardless of the amount spent… we will be married. So why spend more than necessary?

Then we have my mother… the romantic. But its my WEDDING she says… it is my one wedding! I should have everything I ever wanted (within reason). Sure it’s only one day but its the greatest party I’ll ever throw and if you go into a little debt to make it happen? Well… it’s only money. You can’t take it with you.

External conflict. But I am also internally conflicted because I can’t decide who I agree with! I am a practical girl and the idea of spending more than $10,000 on the wedding even if we had it is just ridiculous to me. It is so much money! We could put it towards our downpayment on a house… or a new car… or a rainy day fund! (sex-ay I am with the spending). But it IS my one wedding and I don’t want to regret skimping years down the line. More money always comes along and we are in a pretty good position financially… why not… stretch?

Yep… I am one conflicted bride-to-be (squee(!) at being a bride-to-be… still really exciting to me!). I believe that the best policy is honesty so I’ve explained all of this to B. At first he was a bit frustrated at my semi-waffling at our previously hard-set $10,000 budget.

And that is when I figured out how to bring it to his (testosterone-y) level. CARS. Follow along:

B: But either way, we end up married!
me: Hmmm… I agree. But lets go at it this way. You bought a car last year… right?
B: yes… (looking at me skeptically)
me: And you could have bought a nice newer used toyota for $15,000 that would have gotten you to work every day, right?
B: right…. (not liking where this is going)
me: But you didn’t want a toyota. You wanted an audi. Which will get you to work. Won’t do any more than a toyota will do really…. but you just WANTED it. It wasn’t rational or practical, but you work hard and you wanted an audi and you bought one. A wedding is the same kind of thing for a girl. We could have a toyota wedding and it would be fine and it would get the job done… but what if I want an audi wedding? Not for any reason other than i DO?
B: I don’t get it… but I’m going to defer to you on this one. We can do whatever you want.

Analogies for the win.

Now, this is not to say that we ARE going to do an audi wedding because really.. I’m not sure that is what I want or that it is worth it to me. But, I do appreciate that I have a bit of flexibility in our budget if I decide I want it. <3 him.

B-U-D-G-E-T is a four-letter word.

So in the interest of full disclosure… this whole “wedding planning” thing isn’t going exactly how I thought it would. Here is what I thought would happen:

I’d get engaged, somehow I would magically know what to do and where to go and what to buy, I’d have a ton of fun doing crafty DIY stuff and in the end I’d pull off an awesomely chic wedding and come in way under budget.

Aren’t dreams nice?

I had noooooo clue how much stuff costs. Specifically food for the reception. Pretty immediately, B and I set a budget of $10,000 for the wedding. We figured that was the amount that we could save in a year if we worked at it, and honestly who needs to spend more than $10,000 on one day anyways right? That seemed like PLENTY of money to throw a kick-ass party for 100 of our closest friends and family.

I was so stupid!

We started looking at the venues we had in mind and found that our top choice would cost us about $8,000-9,000 just for the venue, food, and alcohol. Woah. I went to theknot.com and used their budgeting tool because I didn’t even know what items I should include in the budget… and discovered that the most we can spend is really $5,000 on the venue, food, alcohol, rentals, service charges, and taxes. For 100 people. And that is if we skimp on everything else!

When we realized that we hadn’t even thought about a rehearsal dinner, wedding bands, or a honeymoon… well… I started to panic a little. We decided we could do pizza for a rehearsal and a honeymoon would just have to wait. As for rings.. I didn’t want to think about it.

Luckily a week or so later my mom very graciously offered us some money. She wasn’t sure exactly what her and my dad could get together but she thought about $5,000-7,000. Talk about generous! I was totally blown away because I didn’t expect any help… and in all honesty I feel badly accepting it. She convinced me that they want to do this and I graciously accepted. What this really means is that a rehearsal dinner and rings are back on the table… and maybe a honeymoon.

I wish this meant that everything was easy now, but it isn’t. Throwing a wedding for 100 on $10,000 is still no easy feat… but I’m up to the challenge. I have lots more to say on this subject and I’m sure that some days I’ll feel differently, but for today I am confident. I will pull it off. I will negotiate, beg, borrow, and ste… okay I won’t steal. Even brides-to-be have a line.

My most exciting update is that I have a MOH!! (Hi MOH!) She and I went to law school together for one year before she moved away (then moved further away). Regardless, we talk basically every day and she has helped me out so much in the 4+ years that we’ve been friends. She even helped B pick out my beautiful ring! I’m so excited to have her as my MOH/keep-me-sane-when-everyone-else-is-driving-me-nuts-person (the latter of which, of course, is a title she already held).

Glamour shots…

No, not of me. Of the Ring! There is absolutely no reason to take these… except that I love photography and I love my ring and I had an hour free this morning. They are totally self-indulgent, so what better place to post them than on the blog! I still haven’t taken one that makes the ring look as good as it does in person, but I think that might be the norm with diamonds. It is hard to capture the sparkle!

I took about a zillion photos… but here are the best of the best:

Calm…

So far the best thing about being engaged? The Calm. There was so much anxiety in the time leading up to the proposal… as you can see from my posts below. When will he do it, how will he do it, how will our families react, how will we set a budget, etc etc.

But now I know the answers! He did it, it’s done, we’re engaged! And now I know for sure we’re getting married, I know when (approximately January 2011), we’ve set an approximate budget. I feel like everything is as it should be. And really… the transition from girlfriend to fiance has not been as weird as I thought. It was a LITTLE weird the first time I called him my fiance (and I still hate the word, doesn’t it sound… fru-fru?), but other than that it has been a natural transition.

We’re two weeks in and I’ve only had one minor freakout (budget… that was expected… and to be blogged about later). I think wedding planning will be fun, but honestly I’m looking forward to the BEING married more than the GETTING married. Hopefully I can just take my time and enjoy every step of the process.