Friday, February 29, 2008

The cows

JJ and I were at the house today, preparing the place for A. to have the run of it and checking out paint colors. We had all the windows open to try to air out the dog smell some more.

There was someone out mowing the field behind our house where the two or three cows live. This mower was really annoying the cows, and every time it went by they'd let out a big "MOOOOOO".

The moos drifted into our house, loud and clear. We'd be looking at paint samples, discussing our favorites, and suddenly... "MOOOOOOO!"

It was the most moo-ish moo you could imagine. The best way I can describe it is those little cans that you would turn upside down, then they would make an animal noise when you righted them again. It was a toy-perfect MOOOOO.

Home owners!

Well, we did it. We closed this morning at 9:30am. It was a quick closing, with the papers signed by 10am and us out the door by 10:30. After all the horror stories you hear about the piles of paperwork and arms falling off from so many signatures, JJ and I were pleasantly surprised. It really wasn't that bad.

The whole process was actually pretty easy, I think. We had a great agent who let me take the lead in finding properties, but who we really trusted to watch our backs and know the technicalities. We got our mortgage through a small bank, so although it's been sold already, we had easy access to two pleasant mortgage agents who put up with my silly questions and who we knew would be at closing with the money.

This house worked out perfectly. It came on the market far enough into our search that we recognized that this one was special and we were ready to make an offer. Everything fell into place - our offer was low but quick and solid, the house was in great shape, and we didnt hit any snags with financing or insurance.

Now I finally get to indulge my DIY tendencies. We're going to head over to the house today to vacuum the carpets and baby proof the house. That way, Atlee can have the run of the place while I/we do some fix-ups.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to say that I'm from Florida yet, but apparently this is where we're going to put down some roots.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Green house

Closing in 1.5 days!

JJ and I know that we'll have to do some fix-ups to the house -- paint and carpet at the least. We're trying to find products as ecologically friendly and non-toxic as possible. Our success varies a lot.

Paint-wise, it's pretty easy to find low-VOC paint. There are some true no-VOC paints, but they run $30-50 a gallon and don't get great reviews. If you're willing to settle for low-VOC paint, the basic Olympic sold at Lowes is cheap and decent. So that's the way we're going.

Carpet is harder. If you want recycled fibers, you have to go with polyester, which is inferior to nylon both in texture and in durability. We're looking at Flor carpet tiles for possible use in the living room, which would avoid using nasty chemical glues. Carpet tiles don't tend to be as soft and squishy as I like, though. We've got some samples coming on Friday, so that'll help us make a decision.

We tend to get quite a bewildered reaction when we start asking questions about these sorts of things in the home improvement centers. It's pretty amusing.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Closing scheduled!

We're getting to the end here. We've scheduled the final walk-through and closing on the house. The walk-through will be next Thursday at 4:30pm, and the closing will be Friday morning at 10am.

Since the sellers live in Washington and the title company is about 90 minutes north, the original idea was to do a by-mail closing. However, JJ and I really wanted people around to explain to us what we were signing, so with a little pushing we got things to an agreeable point.

The sellers will still close by-mail, but a title agent will come down to Clermont so that we can meet in person. The mortgage agent wanted to come, too, so it'll be a full house. JJ, me, our realtor, the title agent, and the mortgage agent. But it'll be like a real closing!

Got to arrange to move the utilities into our name. Wow. So official!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

The crazy day

Yesterday was an insane day. It seems like it was ages ago.

The frustrations were a generally grumpy baby because of bad naps and a higher than expected monthly payment because of tax mumbo-jumbo. We spent all of our extra cycles figuring out how to deal with the new finance situation and re-evaluating our loan and down payment.

The major stressor was our house inspection. Luckily, it went really well. Nothing major showed up, and the worst of the few minor things were some broken sprinkler heads.

The days after signing the contract had made the house smaller, darker, and smellier in my head. Getting to spend a few hours there really reassured me. It's a great house. I'm actually looking forward to being able to go back in a couple weeks to re-inspect the sprinklers. :)

Buying a house is a lot easier than I expected it to be. Sure, there's a lot of steps to take, but we've found some great people to help us along the way. It's all new to us, but not to them. They just tell us what to do next, and it all falls into place and moves along almost of its own accord.

I'm so, so happy with this house we found!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Calming down

Friday we bought a house. Saturday was spent in shock. And then Saturday night, JJ disappeared into the work black hole. He's just now emerging -- today is his zombie day, where he sleeps from 9am to 1pm or so and then spends the rest of the day in a daze. It's really the only way to adjust back to a daytime schedule.

Anyway, this has meant that I've had nothing but time to myself to second-guess the house. Is it the right house? Did we get a good deal? Is this even the right area for us?

Now that JJ's re-emerging, I've got someone else to talk to who can bring me back to reality. Yes, the house is fine. It's not perfect, but it meets all of our criteria. Yes, we got a good deal. Could it have been better? Maybe. But we were even prepared to offer more, so it's a good deal to us. Is this the right area? For now, yes. With a baby and me as a stay-at-home mom, this is a good place for us. Down the line, that might change. But moving (say, back to CA) would mean giving up some big things that I'm not prepared to lose right now.

So I'm calming down. Tomorrow's the inspection, and I think another chance to see the house will reassure me.

I spent an awesome morning today wandering around Lowes. I had A. in her hip carrier, and she was babbling and laughing and waving to all of the computers we passed. I was living my dream -- walking around a home store, looking for things for OUR house. I priced carpet, discovered that you can lay laminate over tile (awesome!), looked at bathroom light fixtures, scanned through the riding mowers, and did a once-over of the paint chips (ah, memories). I can't wait to get that house spruced up to what I see in my mind.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Details

So. The low-down. The house is located in the town of Montverde, to the north-east of Clermont. It's in a neighborhood which is maybe 40 homes tucked away on 3 cul-de-sac streets. There are lots of big old pine trees and everyone has 1/2 to 1 acre of land.

The house is just under 2000 square feet, with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a den. There's an open dining room, family room, and a breakfast nook off of the kitchen. At the back is a screened, roofed lanai and an open slab patio. The yard backs up to a drainage area, small stand of trees, and 2 cows.

The major fault with the house is that the living area smells strongly of dog. It's not a huge deal to us, since we planned to replace the carpet anyway. Other than that, the house appears to be in good shape.

The front of the house, from the street:
The entryway, dining room, and den:
The family room:
The kitchen and breakfast nook:
The kitchen from the other side:
Master bedroom:
Master bath:
Side yard, looking toward the back:
The backyard:

I'd seen this neighborhood before, and really liked it. But Montverde's prices are pretty high because of a very upscale community that bought up a bunch of land during the boom and is slowly building out. So all the houses were listed way out of our price range. I get daily reports from realtor.com, though, and when this house popped up out of our range -- but at least closer -- I immediately emailed our realtor for details.

We saw the house 6 days after it went on the market. The virtual tour photographer had only just been through the house. We liked it, but knew it was way above our price range. So we talked to our realtor about ways to make our offer more appealing other than the price.

JJ and I slept on it, and the next morning we decided that our only reservation about the house was the price. So we ran our finances, figured out how much we could comfortably afford, and shrugged our shoulders and decided it was worth a shot.

It took 2 hours this afternoon to write up the offer (Atlee was a great little trooper). We offered something we're pretty comfortable at and we thought was high enough to be interesting, but was still WAY LOW. Although we didn't have much leeway beyond that number, all of us expected quite a bit of back-and-forth negotiations. Other than the price, we did what we could to make the offer appealing -- quick closing, solid down payment, low repair threshold.

Our realtor faxed off the offer, requiring their reply by noon the next day. JJ, Atlee, and I headed off to do some shopping about 20 minutes away.

About 30 minutes later while I was sitting in the car in the parking lot, watching Atlee sleep, our realtor called. She asked if we could put more money into the escrow account. I replied that I imagined that we could, but what would that get us? Would they start negotiations?

"A house," she replied.

They had verbally accepted the offer, as long as we put more money into escrow to prove that we were serious and wouldn't walk away. We were all -- including our realtor -- stunned. We got a house for way under asking, way way under the second-cheapest house in the neighborhood's asking, and way way WAY under the only house to sell in the neighborhood in 2006 and 2007.

So, now what? Well, it's all still verbal until we see the signed papers, which should be tonight or tomorrow. On Monday, we call and schedule inspections for Wednesday and start getting paperwork to the lending company. After that, I think most of what happens doesn't involve us until closing on February 29th. Then we're homeowners!

ummm... We got it!

Details to follow!

We're making an offer!

The latest house that we saw is by far the best house we've seen. The yard is great -- over 1/2 an acre with big old trees and native grass. The neighborhood is in a very small town near Clermont (the center of town is a stop sign) with a lot of kids living next door and elsewhere in the neighborhood. JJ's commute is half as long as it is now, even though the location is a lot more isolated. The house is decent -- not the nicest we've seen, but the layout works well enough for us and the rest of the features more than make up.

However, it's very unlikely that we'll get the house. Even though it's by far the cheapest house in the neighborhood, our highest price-point is still about 10% below the asking price. But we'll never know unless we try. Maybe they need to get rid of the house ASAP and can take the hit. Maybe they'll reject it, but we get lucky and it hangs around for a few months and they come back to us. Maybe we never get the house, but at least we'll go through the offering process and learn how it works.

I find myself neither excited nor nervous. I think that's because I'm not expecting this to actually go through. Probably the best emotional state to approach your first offer with. :)