Movin' on Up, to the East Side

But really, we did move to the east side.  Buck Lake, to be specific.  So, after a long saga of house buying horribleness, Jesse and I finally have our house!

Let me back up.  First of all, we had a crappy experience with our first realtor.  I won't go into details, but if you want to hear all about it, ask Jesse.  He loves to tell that story.  I've heard it many times.  haha

So anyway, we switched realtors on a whim, and they were awesome.  I would highly recommend them to anyone.  We looked at 6 houses with one of them on a Saturday, and then looked at 2 on Monday with the other.  We immediately made an offer on one of the houses we saw Monday, which was April 1st.  It was a short sale, so we had to wait 2 months for the bank that owned the house to give us their answer.  They countered with about $2,000 more than our offer.  We decided $2,000 was a small amount and we needed to keep things moving, since our lease was up July 31st at noon. 

Then came our bank.  The house needs a lot of work.  We are aware and fully intend on getting it into shape.  We did a conventional loan so that we could just buy a house as-is.  Unfortunately after a lot of back-and-forth with the lady at our bank (who was basically an idiot), they decided that the appraisal would be done subject to a new roof and a handful of other repairs (ranging from replacing dry wall to replacing like 3 feet of trim missing in one of the bedrooms...)  Also, the house had some wood rot that had to be removed and re-inspected.  Our awesome realtors went over to the house without us asking and took a hack saw to that rot.  So great.  We were upset and worried about all the repairs, but we were able to find a solution to cover the funds for the new roof.  The bank allowed us to escrow the funds for all of the repairs so we could just close already!  Oh, and the repairs and roof all have to be done within 10 days of closing and the appraiser has to come back. 

July 30th.  We closed at 2:00 p.m.  We had to be out of our apartment and have everything cleaned and keys turned in by noon THE NEXT DAY.  So, Jesse and a small crew began moving while I took Nathaniel to his check-up.  I joined up around 5:30, and my friend Kelly came to help.  We did the more girly things, like packing a few things and cleaning...  By 9 we lost Jesse's dad, and by midnight, Jesse sent the rest of the guys home.  We couldn't ask any more of them.  So, Jesse and I moved forward, finishing everything (except unloading all of the last load) around 6:30 in the morning.  We showered, went to pick Nathaniel up from my mom's house (his first, unintentional sleepover), and then went to work.  Yep.  My first real all-nighter.  I've pulled all-nighters before, but then I would just go to sleep during the day. 

At this point, I think that move was up there right below child birth on my scale of awful.

The house is 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom, and 2 acres.  Now before you get all excited, we got a REALLY good deal on it, due to the amount of work it needs.  Jesse's awesome parents and Lindy went over during the day that we closed and cleaned and painted lots of  things so that it would be liveable.  They stayed a few more days and cleaned and painted and put up new lights in the kitchen.  They were awesome.  My mom and Andrew also came over and cleaned and helped with repairs, and Andrew mowed the lawn with a push mower.  Poor guy.  Seriously, without all the help we got, we would be in a really crappy situation!  Shout out to Marcus, Andrew 2, Andrew, and Jesse's dad for moving all of our crap.  We had really hoped to close July 1st so we could have the whole month to clean and move, but everything worked out in the end.

So anyway, I will now post some pictures.  Keep in mind these are all "before" pictures, and it will be a gradual process to get the "after" pictures.  We still have lots of cleaning, painting, repairs, and upgrades to do, but we are so excited for our first house together, and my first house EVER!

New lights.  There was just a big hole in the ceiling before.

We will be painting all that wood paneling... and I just ordered a rug!

The fireplace makes me nervous.  I need to find something to cover the front of it.

Nathaniel's room!

Nathaniel's/Guest bathroom

Now for the master suite:

The laundry room, viewed through the walk-through closet.

As you can see, the add-on was done in the 90's.

Jetted tub!

The other closet.

View from bathroom into bedroom.  The laundry room is in between the two.

Upstairs, complete with nasty green carpet!

Bedroom 3

Bathroom 3

Bedroom 4 (the one with the rot)

Bedroom 5

Creepy unfinished attic room.

Sun room, complete with bar and wine rack.

It also has a 2-car garage and a shed, but I didn't take any pictures.  As you can see, the house needs a lot of work, but it has tons of potential.  And, I happen to be married to a guy who loves to do yard work and house projects.  So, it should be fun.

Oh, and the roof is now finished!