I know, I know...I still haven't written more about the house story. If you can believe it, I'm actually graduating with my masters in December and will no longer be in school. Sure, I will be busy with work and church and the rest of my life still, but I'm hoping this means I have a little bit more time for blogging. Because , lately? Not much time at all. I will get to it. I promise!
This past weekend:
+ We made a trip up to Atlanta to have our new car inspected for a certified pre-owned warranty. All is well there, and they detailed it and filled it up with gas! We've ordered a small bottle of touch-up paint so we can take care of that little scratch on the back. Oh, you don't know about ANY of this? Yeah... we bought an '09 silver Jetta that Scott's parents had been leasing. Within the first 5 minutes in our new house, we learned that the garage door clicker is VERY sensitive. And the door closed repeatedly on the trunk of our new car! Thankfully nothing was badly damaged. But it's a great way to start off life in a new house with a new car, right??
+ I went shopping with Scott's mom and bought lots of new tops which I'm excited about. I finally got my dress pants altered so they fit me again, and now I have new shirts to wear with them! :) I tried to buy shirts that would go with at least 2 pair of work pants AND jeans. I'm trying to get the most out of my money these days, and I'm tired of buying shirts that only work with one pair of pants or that I can only wear on the weekends.
+ My co-worker Linda bought me a watch so now I finally have one of those big-faced, rubber wrist band, fake diamond outlined watches that the whole world has. Only about a year late, right? Oh, well. I still love it!
+ I got an awful stomach bug or something. It hit me in the middle of the night Saturday and I was completely wiped out yesterday. I barely ate a thing and was in pain most of the day from stomach cramps and dehydration headaches. Some of that is still lingering today, but I seem to be able to eat regular meals again. It was absolutely terrible going through it, but let's be real. Every girl kind of likes the way she looks right after a stomach bug, am I right? I know it's awful and it's shallow and I would NEVER wish to have a stomach bug just for the flat tummy look the next day, but hey--if I've got to suffer for two days straight, I might as well make the most of it!
And now I'm ready for a VERY busy week full of work (2 jobs these days, people!), school, church, and continuing to get settled in the new house. Hoping for a house warming party really soon, which means we need to get serious about hanging things on the walls, weeding the gardens, and getting things just the way we want them. It is coming along quite nicely, but I think I've hit a wall and need to be re-motivated. I think a house warming deadline is just the ticket!
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready for a good week! Happy Monday!
~Christy
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Monday, September 17, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
House Hunters
We are officially looking to buy a house! We've got our pre-approval for the loan, we've signed with an agent, and we've already taken a look at a few houses.
It's hard and it's scary. Yes, it's fun, but there are a lot of tough decisions that we have to make. Unfortunately our budget is tiny and there just aren't many choices here that are within our range. Statesboro hasn't been hit too bad with the economical problems that many of the bigger cities have. Local home owners are mostly older, well-established people, who aren't having any trouble paying their mortgages. So homes are holding their value pretty well, and they aren't selling for dirt like they are in Atlanta. It was so discouraging to look online at homes for sale in Atlanta and find that there are homes within our budget with up to 6 bedrooms! We can hardly find a 3/2 in that range here. Most of the ones within our budget are either in a bad part of town and/or they haven't been well maintained and need a lot of work. Since neither of us are particularly handy, a lot of work is not something we want to get into.
So, we've been met with some challenges. There are a couple houses we are interested in, one in particular. But there are things we'll have to sacrifice or settle with. For instance, in our current home we have a HUGE master bathroom with double sinks, tons of counter space, and plenty of ROOM to walk around and get ready in the morning. (we do not have a tub, though, which I would love to have one day) Most of the houses we are considering are older, built in the 70's or maybe 80's. And the huge master bath is somewhat of a newer concept. Back then the master bathrooms were actually smaller than the main bathroom. So, we're struggling with giving up the bathroom luxuries.
There are also just weird decorating things in these older houses---wood panels on the walls, hideous wallpaper, outdated carpet, dark wood kitchen cabinets, ugly colored kitchen counters, hideous tiles in the bathroom or kitchen, etc... Most of this stuff can be fixed or updated, but that takes extra money.
The main house we are considering doesn't have too many ugly features. It does have wood paneling in the living room, which is unfortunate. But we can just paint over it. I've actually seen online and in person several examples of painted wood panels that actually look nice. And if we still hate it, we can always take them down later down the road. The kitchen cabinets and counters are ugly, but we can paint/replace that stuff. There are couple other downsides--no laundry room (it's in a closet in the hall), and no actual dining area...it's shared with the living room space.
BUT the bedrooms are a great size which is unusual for most of these houses. It's in a GREAT location. The house is actually in great condition...there is nothing that needs to be fixed or replaced b/c it's broken or dangerous. The landscaping is gorgeous. And it's right next to a cotton field which is right up our alley coming from the country area we live in now. And it's just minutes from everywhere we go in town. That will be much nicer than the 25 minute commute we have now.
But then you still have consider if it's really where you want to live for the next several years. What if something better comes along? But then--what if someone makes an offer while we're making decisions??
Tough call.
Anyway, that's what I'm up to other than school work, church stuff, and working both my assistantship job and my internship. This is a crazy busy time. I can't believe I'm even taking this 15 minutes to blog! Consider yourself lucky! ;)
Wish me luck with the house hunting! Please be praying that we use God's patience and wisdom in making these decisions. And if any of you home owners have any advice, I'd love to hear it!
~Christy~
It's hard and it's scary. Yes, it's fun, but there are a lot of tough decisions that we have to make. Unfortunately our budget is tiny and there just aren't many choices here that are within our range. Statesboro hasn't been hit too bad with the economical problems that many of the bigger cities have. Local home owners are mostly older, well-established people, who aren't having any trouble paying their mortgages. So homes are holding their value pretty well, and they aren't selling for dirt like they are in Atlanta. It was so discouraging to look online at homes for sale in Atlanta and find that there are homes within our budget with up to 6 bedrooms! We can hardly find a 3/2 in that range here. Most of the ones within our budget are either in a bad part of town and/or they haven't been well maintained and need a lot of work. Since neither of us are particularly handy, a lot of work is not something we want to get into.
So, we've been met with some challenges. There are a couple houses we are interested in, one in particular. But there are things we'll have to sacrifice or settle with. For instance, in our current home we have a HUGE master bathroom with double sinks, tons of counter space, and plenty of ROOM to walk around and get ready in the morning. (we do not have a tub, though, which I would love to have one day) Most of the houses we are considering are older, built in the 70's or maybe 80's. And the huge master bath is somewhat of a newer concept. Back then the master bathrooms were actually smaller than the main bathroom. So, we're struggling with giving up the bathroom luxuries.
There are also just weird decorating things in these older houses---wood panels on the walls, hideous wallpaper, outdated carpet, dark wood kitchen cabinets, ugly colored kitchen counters, hideous tiles in the bathroom or kitchen, etc... Most of this stuff can be fixed or updated, but that takes extra money.
The main house we are considering doesn't have too many ugly features. It does have wood paneling in the living room, which is unfortunate. But we can just paint over it. I've actually seen online and in person several examples of painted wood panels that actually look nice. And if we still hate it, we can always take them down later down the road. The kitchen cabinets and counters are ugly, but we can paint/replace that stuff. There are couple other downsides--no laundry room (it's in a closet in the hall), and no actual dining area...it's shared with the living room space.
BUT the bedrooms are a great size which is unusual for most of these houses. It's in a GREAT location. The house is actually in great condition...there is nothing that needs to be fixed or replaced b/c it's broken or dangerous. The landscaping is gorgeous. And it's right next to a cotton field which is right up our alley coming from the country area we live in now. And it's just minutes from everywhere we go in town. That will be much nicer than the 25 minute commute we have now.
But then you still have consider if it's really where you want to live for the next several years. What if something better comes along? But then--what if someone makes an offer while we're making decisions??
Tough call.
Anyway, that's what I'm up to other than school work, church stuff, and working both my assistantship job and my internship. This is a crazy busy time. I can't believe I'm even taking this 15 minutes to blog! Consider yourself lucky! ;)
Wish me luck with the house hunting! Please be praying that we use God's patience and wisdom in making these decisions. And if any of you home owners have any advice, I'd love to hear it!
~Christy~
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