A Tour of our First House

Hi everyone!

We had our house inspection on Monday. There were no major problems with the house, which is great news! There are a few little things that needed to be addressed, like a couple feet of missing base boards in the master, a loose tile shingle on the roof, the front face of the furnace was taken off, etc... They were all just little things that are more cosmetic than anything. Oh and the termite report came back clean, which is always great to hear!

We got more good news yesterday too! The condo we're currently renting out is getting foreclosed on, as you all have heard already. The owners of the condo live in North Carolina and said that we could buy their appliances for SUPER cheap! All their appliances were brand new when we moved in, stainless steel, top-of-the-line stuff! We were able to buy their high efficiency washer and dryer for $200 and the fridge for another $200! I'm not going to lie, we're going to take the microwave too because it's the best microwave in the entire world. (You know how if you press the popcorn button on the microwave and either half the bag is left unpopped or its burnt? Well this microwave has sensor cooking and cooks it to perfection every single darn time!!! hahaha) And all the kitchen appliances match what's already in our house. And the best part about it all is that it's not like an extra $400 we have to come up with out of our pocket, they're just taking it out of our original deposit we put down on the place, so it's like we were never missing the money in the first place. Another bonus to the condo being foreclosed on is that the property manager doesn't care if we clean it or not before we move out since the bank is taking it over. Wahoo!!!

And even more good news! We were able to lock down our interest rate for the house yesterday and you guys would never believe the rate we got!!! Take a guess..... only 3.75% !!! Yes I typed that correctly. And the beauty of it was that we didn't have to buy it down with "points" or any of that nonsense. Mortgage rates truly are at their lowest. We told our realtor our rate and he said that was the lowest he's ever heard of anyone ever getting!! Jake and I were so extremely happy with that. When we went to the first bank we were going to finance through, they were thinking we'd get 4.5% which we thought was good then! So just that .75% difference is going to save us over $800 a year!!

And the last bit of good news we heard yesterday was that our closing date is October 11th!! We will probably drive up to the house a couple times that week and take what will fit in the car to slowly start moving. Then that weekend we will do the big move. Thank goodness Jake has some great friends out here that are willing to help us out since I can't do too much. I'll be 30 weeks pregnant by then! Wow that sounds crazy! So I have a feeling I'll be the director of the boxes, the Nazi lady who tells everyone to wipe their feet, and the cook for the boys.

I'm going to admit, I wasn't as crazy about the house at first like Jake was. It took a little convincing on his part that we could really make this house our home. But now that everything is falling into place and the more we go see the house, the more I like it. One of the best parts of the house is that, yes it's move in ready with some upgrades already made, but there is so much more potential in the house for us to add equity to it. Some people buy the homes that already have the whole house tiled/wood floors, upgraded kitchen, bathrooms, etc... well I realized that they can't add any extra equity into their home because they already bought it completely remodeled (actually I should say Jake made me realize that). Jake and I on the other hand, since we plan on staying in this house for a long time, can add upgrades of our own and get more out of our house than other people, or compared to other houses we looked at. We can add the wood floors that we want later, add the fire pit outside, and upgrade the kitchen to exactly how we want and we get to pick out every single detail of it. That makes me feel much better about our home. From the start, another person's house or the other houses we looked at may look better than ours because that home is already upgraded, but in the end Jake and I will have added a ton of value into our home that we simply couldn't if we bought an already upgraded one. Therefore, I believe this house is the absolute perfect home for us and our family.

I told you all last time that I'd take a video of the house, so I did just that during the inspection. I wasn't thinking straight when I was recording because every once in a while I'd turn the camera on it's side and not realize that when you watched it later you would also have to turn your head to see it right-side up. I apologize in advance for that. Just click on the links and they'll take you to Youtube where I uploaded the videos.

Video Tour of Downstairs

Video Tour of Upstairs

Video Tour of Backyard

We love you all and hope you like our house! You're all more than welcome to come stay with us. We have a spare bedroom and will have plenty of other places to sleep!! P.S.- Jake and I would love to cook dinner for more than just us. haha

Love,

Mommy, Daddy and Jaxon