Our New House! (Pics!)

[Whitewater]

Yea!!!!! We're officially in escrow, and the last hurdle before we close is getting the FHA to approve our loan. Hopefully they'll send out a guy to do the appraisal sometime this week.

More importantly, now that we're FINALLY in escrow with a property . . . (escrow, for those of you who don't know, means that the seller and the buyer have come to an agreement and the seller is legally obligated to sell, and the buyer is legally obligated to buy the property in question. Nobody can back out now unless we exercise our Funding Falling Through contingency, which the seller insisted on. If the FHA appraiser declines our loan, we won't get the house, but right now that's not likely. It's more likely that the loan will go through.)

. . . I can share pics of the house with everybody! I don't have much because all I have right now are the agent's pictures, but what I have I can share. Forgive the fuzziness, the agent wasn't really great at taking pictures.

This is the house, from the front:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2429657220058348753mCcoqG

This is the garage:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2816870290058348753vYwVHp

This is the upstairs loft area. It's a 1.5 story, and the upper story is ALL loft. We're planning on using this as our master bedroom:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2812116710058348753ZMeevc

Somebody please let me know if these URL's work!

I'm so excited that it's finally all working out!


Whitewater

[Nikita706]

How exciting! Congratulations!

Oh, and the links worked great!

:cloppy:

[Nekochanpurr]

Its really cute! i like it.

[WebLady]

Congrats on the house!

[KMS]

I love the bungalow feel. Many of the homes in our neighborhood are bungalows. I love the upstairs loft area too.

Yayyy!

[SouthernQueenBride]

So exciting!!! Congrats to the new home owners!!!

[ChibiAiChan]

Wowie! It's cute! I got a bungalow too~ I *love* the upstairs and the built in bookshelf is AWESOME! Wanna see more pics when u get in!!

[Whitewater]

Oh, yes, there will be more pictures!! Never fear! I'll be documenting all of our DIY stuff, from cleaning to stripping the wallpaper to putting in the crown molding, etc. Also, we're planning on doing a LOT of gardening, and one of my friends offered me some of her raspberry plants!!! Yea!

So you all will get lots of pics :) I am seriously considering starting a journal here about our DIY home improvements, if I can figure out where to put it. Hah, I guess I know where my priorities are! No wedding journal, but a house project journal? Absolutely! *smile*


Things should start about a month from now.


Whitewater

[grapefruit]

A house renovation project is a great idea!

[WBandMe]

Congrats--it looks great!

[Jacklynn]

Congrats! Very exciting!

[soontobemrs]

Congratulations! I'm really glad things are falling into place for you. I look forward to seeing more pics.:D

[kiddienurse601]

Congratulations!!! I hope you guys have a great time DIY-ing your new nest.

[shopmysongs]

Congrats! We lived in 2 apts, ranch, split level & 18 yrs ago we build a home. Just what I wanted. I like the location, neighbors & our lot. But now it's time to update so we just had a new roof, windows & siding in the fall. Everything inside has been updated. It's funny, you build a new home & if you stay long enough you have to update. I would like to build again but we can't agree where to go. I like the city, he likes the country. I don't want to move away from my granddaughter since I watch her. It's all about the grandbabies now! LOL!

[Nikita706]

I don't want to move away from my granddaughter since I watch her. It's all about the grandbabies now! LOL!

Seriously, I feel bad for my son. He'd better not move away because I will TOTALLY follow him. I'd be heartbroken if he wasn't always around, ESPECIALLY if he had kids of him own. My goal in life is to become a Grandma.

:cloppy:

[shopmysongs]

Too funny! I couldn't wait to be a grandma either. It's the best! My love for her is so strong & I believe it's cuz she's also a part of me because she's a part of my son. She looks & acts just like him. He was always very active & funny. I pulled pictures out of him when he was her age (15 mos) & it was like looking at the same baby but she's a girl. My DIL said she just delivered her & everything else is from her dad. It's a lot different watching a 15 mos old at 52 than it was at 21. Yikes, it's exhausting but worth every second I spend with her.

[Whitewater]

Short Update:

Ok, so, I thought that getting a successful FHA appraisal was the last hurdle. Oh boy, was I wrong. Turns out that there's a bunch of paperwork that our lender needs (at what is getting close to the last minute!) and so we're scrambling around trying to accomplish all of that. It's further complicated because my parents gave me money to help with downpayment and closing costs, but they figured that since they gave it to me, that their part was done. They are now in Prague, about to board a cruise ship with no email or direct telephone access, and they won't be able to get the paperwork our lender needs until they come back -- two days before closing.

The ray of light in all of this is that our home-owners insurance is going along nicely and we should have that all ready for when we need it.

There is SO MUCH PAPERWORK involved in getting the loan to buy a house!!!!! Believe it or not, making the offer and getting it accepted by the seller was the most simple and easy part of this whole process.

I'm starting to feel like I ought to be Indiana Jones, wielding a machete, beating back the 10 foot high stacks of paperwork, that loom over us and threaten to choke us to death and interfere with us actually getting the house and move in! BACK, you foul pieces of paper, BACK! *swipe* *cut* *swish* Down, paperwork! Down!

I have a feeling that we will emerge triumphant from underneath all the paperwork, but right now it feels like we're being smothered by it and our goal is getting obscured by jumping through all these paper hoops!

We'll get there -- our lender and our agent assures us of this. I need to remember to believe them.


Whitewater