House Hunters

O.k., o.k., so I'm finally getting around to the next blog. We've been so busy and exhausted just trying to get settled, that I just didn't have the mental energy to get it done before now. Sorry, but here it goes.

We got into Anchorage early evening on a Friday, and on Monday I contacted a relocation associate to find a real estate agent for us. We have been really blessed by Ben and Heather letting us stay here, but I am more than ready to have my own house and get my kids settled again. I'm afraid that they've been allowed to get away with sooooo much stuff that they're normally not allowed to, that I may never get them under control again! Late Monday morning a realtor contacted me and she emailed over some properties that I might be interested in and we set up a time first thing the next morning to start looking at the houses that I was interested in. There was one in particular that we had already seen online that just happened to be on the same street as Ben and Heather, but we found out that it had a sale pending, so we were kind of bummed about that. Prices here are WAY more than in Texas, but I keep telling myself that Texas has got to be the cheapest market in the entire U.S. and that these prices are probably more reflective of the rest of the country. I've been following the market here for about 2 years getting ready for us to make this move, and I haven't really noticed any change, so I feel pretty good that they're not in a bubble, and that we should be safe buying. On top of that, I really don't think that we'll be looking to move for a long, long time, if ever.

First thing Tuesday morning, I meet the realtor with 2 children in tow, to start looking at about 9 houses that I was interested in and that were in the towns that we wanted to be in. John is having to work on this day, so I thought that I would scout the houses out, and if there were any that we were interested in, then I could make appointments for second showings on Wednesday or Friday. This is Thanksgiving week that all of this is going on. Keep in mind that the ground is covered in snow here, and that everytime we enter a house, we all must take our shoes off before looking around to keep from tracking filth into all of these homes. So much fun with an almost 4 year old who now loves the snow and marches through the deepest areas that he can find, and an 18 month old. Good times! The first house that I look at is one that is higher than what we are wanting to spend, but it's been on the market for a few months and is a relocation home, so if it turns out that we're interested, more than likely, the company that owns it will be willing to accept lower offers. Not that it mattered, the house needed soooooo much work, that even if we were able to get it at a lower price, we still wouldn't have enough money to get the house up to standards. It had been horribly taken care of and was a massive mess. John's weekends would be spent doing projects instead of enjoying the outdoors here. The next couple of houses were just as big of a mess, though more in our price range, but incredibly disappointing. There wasn't even potential in these homes. Also, they had the steepest driveways that I've ever seen, and all I can think of is how on earth am I ever going to be able to teach Jensen to ride a bike.

Finally, we end up at a house that had only been on the market for 2 or 3 days. In fact, it didn't even have the For Sale sign up in front of the house yet. It was definetly worth looking at from outside appearances, but it was at the top of our price range. Also, it had a nice big driveway that was flat (total bonus). The minute we enter the front door, I instantly feel as if I'm in MY home. I instantly fall in love with the feel of this house. As we continue to walk through, I get more and more excited about this place. Most of the homes here are a split level design, which means that for the most part 2 bedrooms are on one floor, and the other bedroom is normally on the lower level. I had major problems with trying to decide which child I would have on a completely other level of the home than where the rest of the family was at night. This house though is a tri-level which means that the main level is the living room and kitchen, the upper level is where all of the bedrooms are located plus the main bathroom, and the bottom level is the entrance to the garage, has another room and a bathroom and laundry room off of this room. This is also a big bonus as a lot of the homes had the washer and dryers in the garage which means lots of being cold while doing laundry. Finally, a house where the entire family can go to sleep on the same level. Also, this home is painted to match all of our stuff. The only repainting that I will have to do is in Molly's room (I can't wait to do a girly room) and our room. I've never had a house that I didn't have to repaint everything as soon as I moved in. It's had all kinds of updates done and there is very little that we would have to do, leaving our weekends free to do fun things. The backyard is a great size and also has a HUGE shed with an attatched lean-to that will be perfect for John to keep his 4 wheeler and all the other toys that he plans on owning, plus give him a private place to tinker on the cars like he enjoys doing. The shed also comes equipped with a heater. I have found my home! As we leave this house to continue looking at the last 3, I tell the realtor that I for sure need to set up a second showing and that I want John to see it that night. It was just too good of a house to sit on. As we drive to next showings, I call John to tell him what a fabulous house I have found for us and that he needs to let me know when he plans on getting off work, because he has to see this house tonight. He agrees to meet me there as soon as he gets off. When the realtor and I arrive at the next house, she tells me that she has good and bad news. Good news is that she has set up the second showing on "my house" but the bad news is that they had just gotten an offer in on it. Talk about feeling my blood pressure rise and my stomach sink! She said that the other realtor had agreed to hold off until we had shown the home to John because my realtor had convinced him that she was pretty sure that we too would have an offer for him that night.

When John gets off, he heads straight to "my house" and I meet him there with the kids. When I arrive, John and Ben have beaten me there and are already stomping around the back of the house and the huge shed that they have already named the "man cave." Just from the outside and the shed, John is in love. When the realtor arrives and lets us in and he gets to look around the inside, he too loves the house just as much as I had (thank goodness). The other thing about this house is that it is just down the street from Ben and Heather, which we are really happy about. Ben says that he can't believe that this house is for sale and for the price that it is (even though it is at the top of our price range). He says that he wouldn't have even thought twice about putting an offer in on this property if it had been for sale last year when he was looking. This makes John feel a bit better about the price, and now we have to decide what kind of offer we are going to make since we know that they already have one offer in. Now the irony in all of this is that we were blown away when our home in Weatherford ended up in a bidding war and we actually got over the asking price. Like how often does that happen in this current economy. We were so pleased for ourselves, and now, here we are in a similar position. John and I are so in love with this house, and I have literally looked at everything in our price range in the areas that we want to be in and there is NOTHING else. We decide to offer full price and will go $500 over any higher offer up until a certain amount. All we can do is hope that this will be enough. Talk about a sleepless night! Hallelujah, we find out the next afternoon, that we beat out the other bid, and we got the house. On top of that, we got it for the asking price and not over. The seller's just felt that we were more reliable as we had owned other homes and had money to put down on the house, and the other offer was from first time home buyers. Woo hoo for us!

We had the inspection done last Monday and it went really well. The inspector found lots and lots of things (as he's supposed to do) but many of them are minor things that I couldn't care less about. For instance, I guess they passed some sort of ordinace here that EVERY room in the house must have a smoke detector. I guarantee that I am not putting one in all of our bedrooms. As long as there's one on every level, I feel pretty secure. There were some questions with some plumbing and electrical, but John went around with the inspector the entire time, and knew that many of the things were things that he's capable of fixing without having to pay an electrician or plumber, and the things that he's not, he'd rather we get someone to fix it ourselves so that it could be done to our standards, instead of the sellers just bringing someone in to get it fixed and over with. We decided to be a little cheeky and we presented to the sellers that if they dropped the sales price by $9000, then they could just walk and we would take care of everything ourselves. Unbelievably, they were trying to get out of town for the next couple of days, and when they get back it will be right before Christmas and they have family coming in for the holidays, so they said that it was totally worth it for them to not have to bother with any of it. Once again, woo hoo for us!!!!

We will be closing on Jan. 6 and will have our househould goods delivered on the 7th. It will be a great way to start the new year. We are soooo excited about the home that we have found, the location, and the price that we ended up getting it for. Plus, it does have that spare room downstairs and we are very hopeful that our family and friends are going to take advantage and come visit us (hint hint)! There probably will not be anymore updates until after we move in. Thankfully, life is starting to slow down and my days are getting to be boring and routine again. I've never been so thrilled to be bored! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas..........