We decided it was time for a change! We are moving (well we hope)
We have played with the idea for some time now. It was a given a couple years ago that we had outgrown our house. It has been a great house! We have been in it for five years now. It was an amazing first house to start out with when we were younger and I was pregnant. But five years later with lots of stuff, a very busy five year old, and a dog, it's just not big enough for us. There has been talk about maybe (no time right now) expanding our family, but we knew we needed more space in order for that to happen. Also another negative about this house is that we are in a very shitty loan. The agent we used was a friend that Kenny used to work with. I don't know what he was thinking at all, and with us both being young and expecting our first child, we took his advice and went with the flow. What we didn't realize was the amount of money we would just be throwing away towards interest. We got our house in February 2007 right before the interest rates dropped and the house market crashed. So we are literally stuck in a huge loan for a house that is worth $80,00 less then we owe. It's been a very hard situation to deal with, especially since it is all in my name, but we decided that it was deal with it now or wait and deal with it later. So here we were searching for a home!
We looked locally and found some nice houses. I don't know how we ever got on the topic of Fredericksburg, but one night when Meagan was here we started to think about the area and talk about how nice it was. We took a peak at the houses and were stunned to find HUGE houses that were going for so cheap! Many were foreclosures and shortsales, but we were still open to the idea or renivating. These houses were way less then what my house is worth and so much more space! So we decided maybe this was the area we wanted to move!
Meagan recommended her realtor who helped her find a house. We met with her two weekends ago and started looking at houses. She would send us daily emails of houses in our range. We had our own little webpage where we could pick the houses out and put them in favorites, possibilities, or discard them. Believe me! There were some funky houses!
The first weekend we went out we looked at 3 houses. The first one was very nice, but not for us. The second one was a dump and nothing like the picture showed. The third house was amazing, but it was very far out from the main road which would add a lot of time to our commutes. It also was in a not so nice neighborhood with a road that was full of potholes. It would add wear and tear to our vehicles just getting off the road. It was a shame though because we really liked that house. With in a couple days of looking at those houses the first one and last one both had contracts on them! So people were definitely liking them!
We decided that our next step before actually finding a house was to get approved for a loan. She recommend a guy she uses for me to contact. Pete was so nice and really worked with me to find out what was best for us. He answered all my questions and made things as clear as he could for me. We finally got our preapproval amount on Friday. We were going to Meagan's for the day anyways so we figured we would give Leigh (our realtor) a call and of course she was willing to meet with us for a little bit.
The first house we looked at is the one we really like! Kenny and I both go the feeling of this house being the "one". It was in a nice quiet neighborhood. There is a police officer that lives next door. The yards were all nice. It's a big change from what I am used too! The house didn't look so nice in the pictures but in person it was much better. It's rather plain, but I really like it. It just has a sunny welcoming feel to me! We looked around at this house for a while. We decided to check out some other ones even though we were pretty certain on this one.
The next house we went to was nice, but it was just creepy. It was apparently owned by an older person. It would be such a nice house to go see Grandma in, but not to live in. It really gave me the creeps. The next house was in a very nice ritzy neighborhood. The house was beautiful when we pulled up. We couldn't wait to look inside! Wrong! It was a disaster! It was filthy! Like sickening filthy. We actually left Hailey outside while we went upstairs. The place was completely trashed and apparently they had a big dog that peed everywhere. It was so gross that Leigh didn't even go in. It's a shame because it really was a nice house! The last house that we went too was very nice. It was a tri level house. It had been completely redone. We very much liked it but couldn't get the first one out of our head.
So we decided to sleep on it. It was getting late and we were all hungry. After we ate it was a long quiet ride home. We finally talked about what was on both of our minds and how we felt not only about the house, but moving. We both thought that the positives outweighed the negatives, but we wanted to sleep on it and talk a little bit more in the morning. It seems to me that you always seem to view things differently in the morning. I guess it's the whole fresh mind thing.
So today we decided we wanted to go look at it one more time and make an offer! We decided to give them their asking price, but ask them to pay all closing. They now have the choice to accept our offer or to counteroffer. We then will either agree with their terms or make another offer. So right now it's a waiting game, but the documents were signed and we made the first move. We also took some time to really look the house over one more time and get some pictures.
The house originally was probably a foreclosure. A investment agency bought it and did some remodeling. The kitchen was redone. Hardwood floors were redone in the house. New carpet and new windows were also installed. There were some things that were flawed that we saw and some things they did cheaply, but they are really only minor repairs. The house is three bedrooms and two baths. It has an attached one car garage and a two car garage outside. I think it will be a perfect house to fix up and really make it ours! Even Hailey is excited!
And now for some pictures!
This is dining room:
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