Monday, January 09, 2012

New House

So, I'm finally putting up the "New House" post.  Well, new to us.  We've been renting from family for many years now and we came across an awesome deal on a local golf course.  My hubby is an avid golfer (he's the club champion at our golf course.)  We've been looking around for awhile and finally found a deal on a house that we liked.  I  noticed that when we were looking for houses just two years ago foreclosure homes were nearly nonexistant around here.  However, if you look now they nearly equal the amount of regular homes for sale.  It's a sign of just how much our economy is strained.  We did end up buying a foreclosure home.  And luckily it was in great condition.  It was in an area that we liked, my son didn't have to change schools and it was in our price range. 

We looked at this house first and I instantly fell in love with the kitchen and butler pantry.  The jacuzzi tub and two person walk in shower were also quite awesome.  For a couple of months we looked at other houses, but none of them could quite compare.  We kept coming back to this one.  So, after many late nights of us debating we made an offer.  And with me being the cheapskate that I am I seriously low balled them.  Like so much so it would have been insulting if we were making an offer to anyone other than a bank.  After a couple of counter offers we got this house for about half of what it's worth.  Sweet!  I never pay full price for anything including a house!

With the house being a foreclosure the bank wouldn't pay for any repairs - plus we were getting it for such a good deal.  With the loan that we got we had to have an inspector come in and check for problems.  For under $700 we got it all fixed.  Doing most of the work ourselves saved us a ton of money.  Plus, we had family members that helped out giving us discounts.  We had to trim the trees around the house which we did ourselves.  The doorknobs were having issues and we fixed them ourselves.  A screwdriver and WD 40 did the trick.  One window had to be replaced and that cost about $300.  We had to buy a dryer vent cover that cost about $5 at Home Depot and we had to have an ornamental piece replaced on an eave that we paid about $175 for.  We also had to get new garage door openers that cost $135.

kitchen before

kitchen now - where I spend most of my time


 butler pantry - oh, how I love it

 sunroom

master bathroom - the walk-in two person shower is behind the door.

 side patio (before we cleaned it)

bonus room upstairs

The attic will eventually be turned into another room and another bathroom.  The guy who built the house had intended to do that, but just never got around to it.

There's a pond in the neighborhood that the kids can go fishing in and feed the turtles and ducks.

We've been here for nearly 3 months now and I'm still getting used to the new sounds and smells that come with the house.  And I still haven't unpacked about 30 boxes that are up in the attic.  I'm a slacker.

The ONLY thing I don't like about moving is now I can't plant my vegetable garden because there's no room for it in our yard. :o(  However, I do think that a herb garden would do nicely.

TIP:  Did you know that if you pay one extra mortgage payment a year that you'll pay off a 30 year mortgage in just 18 years?

3 comments:

  1. What!?!? No garden, that is blasphemy! Very nice house, looks like you will enjoy it for many years.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A new home – a new place for all your dreams to grow! Congratulations

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kris: I know! I'm going to be lost without a garden.
    Linda: Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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