Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Life gets busy, but busy is good

So our life has been a little hectic lately and i'm really looking forward to the future.  *Hopefully* by the end of this month if everything goes well my husband and i will be purchasing our first home (ok, so we won't own it, the mortgage company who is giving us the loan will, but you know what i mean).  This decision came out of left field but we are very excited.  We have always felt that before we would/could buy a house we needed to pay off our student loans (about $9,000) and then save up as close to 20% of a down payment as we could.  Needless to say our loans are not paid off an we only have about a 4% down payment...

But we've put a lot of though into this decision.  To rent a 3 bedroom home where we live is around $1,000-$2,000 + utilities.  Our price range is about $800.  This would maybe get us a run down 2 bedroom which would be ok for now but not for the growing family we want.  One thing i HATE in life is moving.  I cannot stand it!  And so to get a place for only a year or two and then have to move again is NOT my idea of a good time.  So we looked into buying a house.

We decided on what would be a comfortable monthly payment after the mortgage, property taxes, PMI (private mortgage insurance since we do not have the 20% down) and all that other lovely stuff and then that decided our maximum price for a home.  Then we searched for houses online we though we'd like and drove to each house and looked and the neighborhood and the outside of the house.  If we didn't like what we saw we threw the listing out and never thought of it again.  Then we went with our relator and looked at the houses we did like and in the end we found the house we our buying :)

It's a lovely 3 bed 1 bath home around 1,150sqft.  It is listed for $120,000 so our monthly mortgage payment will be $850 and then we have utilities and maintenance on top of that.  Not bad at all for owning our own place since we couldn't come near a deal like that if we were renting :)  It is an adorable little house that has new vinyl windows, new vinyl siding, central air and heat, a new water heater, insulation in the attic and it has 7 raised garden beds and a clothes line in the yard along with a garden shed and covered carport and a fully fenced yard.  Just what we were looking for.

I am so excited to finally get settled into our own home.  Before we move in we are going to have to have the house rewired since nothing in the house is grounded (it's all 2-wiring).  And then i'm going to paint and i also want to pull up the carpets (which are a lovely *pink* color) and re-finish the wood floors underneath.  It will be a lot of work but i think in the end i'm gonna love it and it will be worth it.

Hopefully if everything goes well we'll be able to sign papers next week but for sure by the end of the month.

So needless to day i am very excited.  I've been pouring endlessly over blogs and book for decorating ideas and i have non stop thoughts of things i would like to do.  I cannot *wait* to have my own yard that i can tend to.  Our own garden to grown delicious healthy food.  And have our own chickens with fresh eggs!  oh that will be so much fun!! (we already have 2 hens that i got from a friend).

  I really cannot wait.  So here's to crossing our fingers!