Hurry Up and Wait

It's another week and we still don't know anything for sure. This is such a test of patience for me. Anyway, the seller agreed to all the fixes on our list and has already started on them. The appraisal was done on Friday but we won't know the results until later this week. Again, we're just waiting. The seller is confident we'll still be closing August 12, so we'll just see about that. In the meantime we're sort of stalking the house, doing drive-bys at all hours just to check on it and make sure it's still there I guess. It is, by the way.

One last little note, the house has a built-in mail slot. I just love that.

Awwwwww

He looks so cute I totally forget he spilled Apple Jacks all over the carpet in the living room.

:)

Inspection

We got through the 4 hour inspection on Wednesday and sent the seller our list of items we want fixed on Friday. They have until Tuesday to reply, which is also the day the appraisal is scheduled for. Since this is a buyer's market we're taking an all or nothing approach and expecting the seller to agree to fix all the items or give the money based on our estimates. Should that not happen we'd cancel the appraisal and move along and find another property. We're staying positive and hoping it doesn't go that way but since the seller is a lender/bank they may not be interested in coordinating contractors for the fixes or losing even more money on their foreclosure. So with Tuesday as their deadline, you can expect an update mid-week.

Under Contract

We're under contract on a house. Now, I don't want to get too excited about it seeing as how this whole process has taught me nothing is final until the keys are in your hand, but we REALLY like this place.


We have inspection on Wednesday afternoon and then still have to get an appraisal done. This means there are several more hoops to jump through before claiming this is the one, but we're closer than ever before, so we're making progress. Should everything pan out we'd close August 12.

Loving and Losing

For all those wondering how the house shopping is going, let me give you a brief little update.  I found the perfect house and then it slipped away.  Then I found a great house and that one slipped away too.  The first house was literally the very first house we walked into the very first time we went out looking.  It was so cute and had lots of character.

It was a wonderful, little red brick house, totally remodeled and very close to where we live now.  Of course, with it being the very first house we walked in, I wasn't ready to put in any offer and we continued looking at the other 5 houses on our list for that day.  Well, before our lender approval was even finalized a week later, this beauty was off the market.  I was pretty devastated but did take comfort in the fact that we couldn't have put in an offer anyway since we didn't have our approval papers ready yet.

Recently we found another totally remodeled house very close to our ideal area.  It was a foreclosure and had been on the market forever.  Well, I thought about it for 2 days and when I went to review it online to consider submitting an offer, I learned it too was off the market.

Then there was the remodeled foreclosure in an even better location priced 40k over our budget that we went to look at thinking we could low ball.  Once we got there we were told there were already 6 offers on the table and a bidding war was underway - it was so discouraging I could barely get through the walk-through.

Yesterday we went back to one we had mixed feelings about.  We loved the yard but it was a bit of a drive into work and the inside needed some upgrading to suit our tastes.  Since we had first looked at it, it had gone into short sale and the price had dropped, so we thought it was worth a second look.

We left to look at 2 more after this one, still with some mixed feelings, when suddenly we found a great one that we really got excited about.

We both agreed we loved it and wanted to put in an offer immediately (if you know anything about me, I never make decisions this quickly, so you know it had to be reeeeeaaaaallllyyy speacial).  The thing is that it's a short sale, meaning it's selling for less than the owner owes on it.  So any offers must be approved by the seller's bank.  This can take anywhere from 3 days to 3 months.  Sometimes the bank will want to sit around and see what offers they get before they decide and then turn around and up the price.  Other times the bank is desperate to recoup at least some of the money before they foreclose on the seller, so they accept any offer.  We put the offer in today and will continue to hunt after we return from vacation the week after next.  For the time being, we'll try to put this place on the back burner, since we don't want to get too attached to the house when we have no idea if or when we would get it.  We'll keep everyone posted as we get status updates and continue the search.

Hair Day

For a long time I resisted coloring my hair. I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of maintaining it and I was worried about straying from my natural color. Well as the gray started creeping in without any regard to my hesitations I decided I wanted to take the plunge. I started with just a metaphorical dip of my toes in the pool to test the temperature – I got highlights. As I sat under the dryer I worried they would be too light and obvious but once it was all over I actually liked it. The next time I stuck with the highlights and went a bit lighter and most recently I colored it all a base color close to my natural color and really went for it with the highlights. It’s gotten mixed reviews. Some think it’s too light others like it as is and still others feel I could push it even more. The best thing about it all, however, is how fun it’s been to change my look even if it has been somewhat subtle. I’ve been gathering confidence along the way and now I’m ready for something more dramatic.  At least as I type this I'm ready, once I'm in the salon it may be a different story...

I’ve narrowed it down to a few different looks.  I just don't know if I'll go lighter, darker or try a whole new shade.  I guess it'll be a surprise - maybe even to me.

Maybe a different darker or lighter shade all together?

How about a darker crown with ligher ends instead?

Drastic and daring or safe and subtle?

We'll see how it all goes I suppose...

Realtor Shopping

When the plan was to move back to Austin and get a house there, I knew just what would happen. I would go to my very good friend Genesis and she would find us the perfect house and get us the best deal and explain everything 47,000 times if I needed to hear it 47,000 times because she's my good friend first and my realtor second. I knew there would be no second guessing her, she's completely knowledgeable and would have our best interests at heart. However, with the change in plans and our sticking around here for a while instead, I lost that and I'm really mourning the loss now.

To be quite frank, I tend to group realtors in the same category as car salesmen. As I see it, both want to make a sale at the highest personal profit, maybe even to the detriment of the customer. So in losing my Genesis, I lost a lot. However, based on a recommendation, we've found another lady who will be showing us our very first set of houses this week. I'm excited and nervous but at least the process will now be in motion. I'll also get to pretend we're on "House Hunters" or "My First Place" in my head as we walk through the houses, so I'm really looking forward to that.