community perks!

We're moving into the house just in time for those reeeeally hot summer months. But good news! We have a community pool! We will SO being using that.

And I'm excited about our park & walking trail! We may not need the playground quite yet, but it will still be nice to take strolls with Scoutie in the evenings...

I guess these perks make up for our HOA dues?? :) 

help the mccradys: volume 1

Okay, we need a little help. I'm listing out some questions and hopefully a few of y'all can give us your never-ending wisdom!

1.) We'll have a month of being in both the apartment and the house, paying only the apartment rent because our first month's house payment isn't until August 1st! So, how would y'all recommend moving?
Should we:
a) do it all at once in one day so it's over (we can clean the apt. later) or
b) just move the stuff we need first to the house and then slowly go through the stuff we dont' need later at the apartment and get rid of stuff

2.) Our main living room which goes into the dining room has carpet. We'd like to eventually get hardwood floors in that area, but we also need a dining room table, patio furniture, ceiling fan, light fixture, window treatments...the list goes on.
Should we:
a) get hardwood floors down before moving and get furniture later or
b) just move everything in and focus on the furniture for right now (worry about wood floors later)

3.) We close on Thursday June 25th. I'm taking the Thursday, Friday and Monday off to get our house all of our utilities set up. I'd really like to get in the house and clean before we move anything in. Just to give it one good clean (especially in the bathrooms, kitchen, etc.) before we start living there. I'd also really like to paint our living room/dining room walls before we move our furniture in, but Ryan thinks we could wait.
Should we:
a) clean, paint, and get everything settled before moving our furniture in or
b) just clean, move all of our stuff in and then worry about painting later

4.) This is just a personal taste thing, but Ryan and I are disagreeing on what our kitchen should look like. First of all, this kitchen is a dream. It's so large, there are tons of windows looking out to the backyard, and there's SO much counter space and cabinets. However, Ryan and I are not satisfied with the cabinets. Ryan wants to stain them much darker for a rich look, and I want to paint them white for a fresh and open look. Check out the picture below for a good look. This is the only picture of the house's interior we'll show until we can move in.

P.S. That's linoleum that we'll change to ceramic tile eventually. It's just not super high on the list of priorities at the moment. And we'll get new appliances someday, too. And granite. And a new light fixture. And paint. What color paint? That's another question entirely. :)

Should we:
a) stain them darker for a rich look or
b) paint them white for a fresh and open look

Okay, that's all for today. Help! Thanks!

hummingbirds & butterflies.

We're in the process of getting the seller to give us instructions on how to keep her gorgeous landscaping looking beautiful. Yesterday at the inspection, I got the chance to take more pictures of the front and back yards. The seller showed me her hummingbird feeder that she's leaving with the house, and there were actual hummingbirds buzzing around it! Gorgeous! Also, she had some plants that attract butterflies, so I literally felt like Snow White in the pretty meadow with butterflies and hummingbirds! :)
I can't wait to sit in our breakfast nook with the bay window and drink coffee while looking out at the gorgeous backyard... ahhhh can't WAIT!

P.S. I know y'all are wanting to see pictures of the inside, but we're waiting until we can get before & after pictures because the seller's decor and ours is WAY different! All in due time. Until then, I'll be posting about design inspiration and decor ideas. Yay!

HOORAY!!!

The seller agreed to pay for that one issue we had from the inspection, and it's now fixed!!!!

We had signed in our contract that if she'd fix what we requested, then we'd waive the rest of the 10-day option period so she wouldn't be worrying that we're going to back out and she can stop showing her house to other people...

So that means that we're officially getting this house! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Until we close on June 25th, we'll be getting everything in order to move! We'll get to do one final walk through on the day before just to make sure everything was taken care of, and then it's a done deal! I can't even believe it!!!!!!!

Thank you Lord for making this part easy!

good news for now!

The inspection went great. The guy said "our" house is in GREAT shape. Excellent, in fact. All of the big expensive issues like foundation, heating/AC, and roof were fabulous so that's great to hear.

There was one issue that we're asking the seller to fix, and hopefully she does so she can get this wrapped up! But even if she doesn't, the inspector said we shouldn't be out too much money to fix it.

Anyway, that's exciting! I'm thrilled that it's such a great house and in really great shape. :) :) :) I'm ready for this 10 day option period to be over with so we can start planning!

home inspection today!

Please pray for our home inspection this morning! Ryan can't be there because he has to work but my sweet Dad will be joining me!

Please pray that the stupid Texas foundation doesn't rear it's ugly head in our home!
Please pray that there's nothing super seriously wrong because I really don't want to walk away from this lovely home.
Please pray that if there's anything to be fixed that our seller would graciously pay for the expense (and not think about all those other offers waiting behind us)!

After this last hurdle is over, we can finally start getting REALLY excited and REALLY know that this is our home. And then the greatness of packing, utility set-up, etc. can start! :)

things i'm really excited about:

Just a few things I'm looking SO forward to with our new house:

1. a yard so that Scout can run and play...and we won't have to walk him every few hours!
2. a fireplace for cold nights and to hang our Christmas stockings on!
3. a huge master bedroom so we'll have more than 2 feet on each side of our bed!
4. 2 extra bedrooms to have an office and guests over!
5. a garage so we won't have to scrape ice off our cars during the winter!
6. an attic to store all of our junk!
7. walk-in closets in every room!
8. a patio so we can finally grill out!
9. double our square footage!
10. a place to finally call our OWN!
    

our soon-to-be house!

Long story short, we put down an offer on this house last night, and the seller accepted it today! There were SIX other offers RIGHT after ours, but we were the first so we made the deal! It is PERFECT for us, and we're thrilled!

I'll tell y'all the whole story as soon as I can stop shaking from excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(P.S. Y'all were so right. House #1 was totally the one for us!)

kid's rooms

Something we've been forced to think about as we're looking at houses is bedrooms for our future children. Crazy! But aren't these adorable?!

dilemna.

We went to go see 2 houses today, and we are TORN between them! They both have something the other doesn't have... which means if we combined them we'd have the perfect house! But no... things don't work that way.

So I've made a pro/con list for each house. Of course. Check it out. :)
(Click to make larger)
Thoughts? Which should we pick?

man i wish my husband liked white.

we may be looking at this one too:

It's only 1650 square feet which is pretty small for us & a kiddo someday. BUT did you see those hardwood floors? And the crown molding? And the arbor/deck in the backyard????

overwhelmed!

Okay, here's the deal. Apparently we're in the "hot zone" for home buyers right now. Aka everyone and their MOM is out looking and more importantly BUYING houses at this very minute. Not only because of the 8K tax credit and low interest rate but because this is the time of year that people always buy. Didn't know that. Would have liked to know that before now.

All that to say is, I don't know if I'm cut out for the competition! Literally on Sunday when we were driving through neighborhoods and picking up the flyers from people's houses for sale, there were people right behind us doing the EXACT same thing. Ummm sorry, that's OUR house that WE'RE looking at, thank you very much.

Houses are entering and leaving the market as quickly as a day! Today a really cute house became available, and our realtor wanted us to go look at it because "it might go fast. As in, tomorrow". Ummm I'm working late tonight? So does that mean we'll miss out on the perfect house because I had to work? ARGH!

If you can tell by even the landscaping of this house, you'd see that it's definitely a must-see. We're seeing it on Thursday, but who knows... it may be gone by then.

I just don't want to rush into this whole deal. I mean technically we've only been seriously looking for 5 days now. Ummm not quite ready to sign some papers quite yet. But then I don't want to be sitting on October/November with the Dec. 1st date (for 8k tax credit) looming and feeling rushed to buy a house THEN either.

Dilemna.

bummer.

I told our realtor about that house (below), and she said it's already under contract with another buyer. It was on the market for FIVE DAYS! Jeez! Talk about making a quick decision. I don't know if I'm up for that kind of speed!

I must confess that I got a little too excited about that house, though. Probably more than I should have. I mean, one minute I was just looking at how far away it is from our current location (6.5 miles), and the next minute I was researching the closest elementary school!

It was probably good to experience a little heartache this early in the game so we can get used to it :) I'm sure it's one of many houses we'll like that doesn't work out. Let the rollercoaster begin!

today's find.

We may go look at this house with our realtor in a few days! What do you think? It's a corner lot that's only 11 minutes from our apartment right now.
3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 study, 1750 square feet.

dining room & study:

breakfast nook & kitchen:living room:master bedroom:

guest bath. no pics of master bath :(

bedroom 2:

bedroom 3:

backyard:

P.S. Our lender says we could easily be in a new house by the end of August if we wanted.
Ummmmmmm HOLY CRAP.

What do y'all think of the house? Any red flags, things to think about?