I have not posted to my travel and dine site for a bit. We are buying a new home, and it has been very stressful. First, we had to be pre-approved before we could even begin to look for homes. This is the way things are done these days. It’s been many years since we bought a house, so we went to a couple ‘different lenders to find the best deal for us.
Once we found the lender, we wanted we were able to start looking at properties. We had a price limit to stay within, so I searched and searched online for homes in our price range and found some we wanted to check out. We found a realtor when my husband called about one house, but it had sold before we got a chance to look at it. She started looking for homes for us and i continue my online search. I would call her, and she would call me whenever we found one we liked.
It’s much harder to be house hunting now than in the past. We found one house we really liked, and we made an appointment to see it. Then our realtor called us the night before and said the owner had accepted an offer. One house down. We went to see another house but barely made it in the front door. The smell was terrible, and the floor seemed to be coming apart from the wall. We looked at a couple other homes that looked great on the outside but WOW! The interiors were back in the 50’s or in dire need of an updating and cleaning. Then we did see one with a great kitchen and a bedroom on the main floor with a bathroom attached. Just what we wanted. The garage was only one car, but my husband wanted 2 or 3 car garage but as they say on house hunters, we kept it on the list.
We also looked at another one we liked in another nearby town that was nicely redecorated and had his two-car garage. We also kept it on the list. So, we decided to go ahead and make an offer, but the one had accepted an offer the day before. So, we made an offer on the one with the great kitchen
The owner declined our first offer, but they did counter. We were able to accept t their counteroffer. Hurray!!! We had a house.
Now for the next part.
Our lender also required an inspection I picked an inspector that was on the list that our realtor. When we got the report, he had picked out many issues. While some of these were a safety issue others were not an issue at all. He noted knob and tube wiring in the attic. This wiring had been disconnected years before. It just was not all removed. Another is a small step on the side of the house that we planned to take away already. Some things were actually safety issues such as a railing on the front porch. But the sellers were wonderful, and they agreed to take care of everything on the list.
We next had to get an appraisal done. We got good news there. The house appraised out above what we were paying. Now we just need to get to the closing.
In the meantime, until we have closing and get the keys i have been packing our entire life it seems. I have been getting boxes from the dollar store, boxes from my work, boxes from friends, boxes from family who had just moved and i am filling them all. I try to keep it to smaller boxes for most things. Boxes I can lift myself. I like to move some of our collectibles and other items myself in the back of my SUV.
The other issue is the holidays. We won’t be in before Christmas now and we already missed Thanksgiving. I always host Thanksgiving for my children, and we usually host Christmas for both my children and my husband’s children. I miss not this year. Next year–LOOK OUT– I will go overboard with decorating. But I need to get back to my travel and dining posts
