Monday, March 15, 2010

Home, Sweet Home

Good news... I'm still alive! I swear, all I did was blink and the next thing I knew 2 weeks had gone by! Actually, FLOWN by is more like it! Alot has happened in those 2 weeks, so I'll do my best to get you caught up!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my boyfriend Brian and I have been house hunting for a little while now... since the beginning of our journey, we have seen dozens and dozens of houses! We've seen some that we liked alot and others... well, not so much! At first, seeing houses was fun and exciting but eventually we'd seen so many houses that they all started to run together. We began to wonder if we would EVER find the "perfect" house!!

On Saturday 3/6, our entire morning and afternoon was booked solid with appointments to see a long list of houses we had chosen from the listings. We wanted to get started early so we met our realtor, Sandi, at the first house at 9am. Within minutes of walking in the door, we knew this wasn't the right house for us so we headed to the next house on the list. The second house was much nicer than the first, but it was missing some features that were important to us. So we headed to the third house on the list...

When we pulled up in front of the house, we couldn't help but notice how nicely landscaped the outside of the house was... but we were in for a real treat when we walked inside! Right away, we started finding more and more things we liked about this house. For starters, the house is an end-of-group townhouse in a quiet neighborhood (only about 10 minutes away from my house!) and it was the original model home for the community. Among other things, it has 3 bedrooms (including a master bedroom with it's own master bath, huge walk-in closet, and vaulted ceilings!) and 3 1/2 bathrooms. On the main level, just off the kitchen and dining room, there is a sunroom with vaulted ceilings and skylights (which I LOVE!) and it has sliders to a large deck that overlooks the privacy fenced in yard that backs to trees and even a little creek! Downstairs is a fully finished basement with a laundry room, an office, another full bath and best of all a HUGE family room. The family room has a gas fireplace, sliders that walk out into the yard (which also has a huge garden with lots of fruits, veggies & herbs planted in it AND a little fish pond with a waterfall!) and the feature that I think Brian likes most of all, a custom bar! The bar has a wet bar with a sink, a built-in refrigerator, and under the counter there are built-in shelves for cans of soda!

Sandi really liked it too and cautioned us that it would go fast... the sellers even had 2 more appointments right after ours! We walked through the house a few times and liked everything we saw. This house had almost everything we were looking for in a house. Brian thought for a few minutes and decided it was go time! Sandi went back to her office to cancel the rest of our appointments for the day, and to write up a contract. A few hours later, we met her at the office and Brian signed all the paperwork. Sandi recommended giving the buyers a deadline of 10am on Sunday to either accept or reject the contract. Brian & I went home and waited anxiously for a call. That call finally came at about 8am the next morning... they accepted!! They did counter on a few minor details (closing costs, move out date, appliances, etc) so Brian had to sign the paperwork again. Sunday afternoon, we met back at Sandi's office to sign everything and to meet the sellers, Jennifer & Keith. They were SO nice! I'm so excited that not only did we find such a great house, but such great people to work with along the way!

I'm going to post a few pictures of the house, but I really don't feel like the pictures do it justice at all... it's just so much better in person!


the front of the house


backyard w/privacy fence (& garden!)


formal living room


view of stairs & into the kitchen from formal living room


country kitchen w/walk-in pantry


kitchen/dining area looking into sunroom


HUGE bay window in the dining area


sunroom w/sliders to the deck


sunroom


sunroom looking into dining area


master bedroom


bedroom #2


bedroom #3


office


family room


another view of the family room w/fireplace


custom bar


another view of the custom bar


3rd bathroom w/rain shower

We had the home inspection on Friday 3/12 and the house passed with flying colors! The home inspector said he's been doing this for over 20 years and normally inspects about 600 houses per year, and he has NEVER had a house that showed as perfectly as this one did. While we were there for the home inspection, I took about 200 more pics of the house. Here's a link to see just about anything and everything!

http://picasaweb.google.com/hawksfan61/House?authkey=Gv1sRgCOa3m5fM243-jwE#

Settlement is scheduled for Tuesday 3/30 at 10am. The sellers have asked to stay for a few extra days, so the house will be ready for us on Friday 4/1. We are so excited!!!

2 comments:

Brian said...

Man what a good looking house :-)

April E. :) said...

AHHHH!!! Congrats guys!! What a GREAT find!! Yeah! Yeah!