Ok, so let's back up a little bit. We decided to start our house hunt in late March, as we were having trouble finding a new place to rent once our lease expired May 31st. The main issue we were running into was this: for our current landlords we had to give 3 months notice. Most other places only require 30 days notice, so the places currently for rent wouldn't save us a place 3 months out, and likewise, things that WOULD be for rent weren't listed. We didn't think we could afford to buy a home, since we are paying for Micah's school out of pocket (we don't like debt.. so no student loans for us). We sat down and talked about it one night and decided that we would be here for atleast the next four years. Three more for Micah to finish school and one for him to complete his internships.
The first place we saw was a little two bedroom one bath home built at the turn of the century. I love old houses. I think they have so much charm and when kept up, are just amazing. The only issues with this home was that we wanted three bedrooms and when we went into the unfinished basement, there was a furnace straight out of 1956. I wish I had taken a picture.
We saw around 10 houses, and we quickly learned that the market in Edwardsville is in high demand. Out of the 10 properties we saw, I'm going to say 7 of them sold before we had time to think. Several sold before we could even go LOOK at them. We would set up appointments for the afternoon and the realtor would call at lunch and say "sorry..."
So when we saw this place, we knew we had to act fast. This house was built in 1946, and had the original hardwood floors and windows. (they are double paned now, but the originals are still there). The basement is unfinished, but is water tight and ready to be finished.
We left the property talking about where we would out things and how we would lay it out. This was the first home that we both liked, so after about an hour and a half of talking and weighing the pros and cons, we put in an offer. Turns out, the sellers got 3 offers that day, and I guess it was meant to be because THEY CHOSE OURS!
After the house inspection and more negotiations, we had an official acceptance and tentative closing date of May 30th.
The rest has been a stressful fog. We started our loan with a major, nationwide bank. (If you really need to know which one, message me and I'll gladly tell you) who ASSURED us that they could get us pushed through in the months time that we needed to close before our lease was up. After sending in most of the documentation they asked for, they sent us a loan application and...it was wrong. They had put the wrong information on the application. I called them to get it figured out, and our loan officer had went on vacation and wouldn't be back until the middle of May. SERIOUSLY?! Well, I'm not signing something like this with it being wrong.
We called our realtor (I'm near tears at this point from being so stressed out) and he directed us to a local lender. At this point it's already May and so far this process has been a nightmare.
I was exhausted.
I was worried.
I was tired of fighting with the bank.
I was cranky because of all three of these things...
But!
This new company has been nothing but wonderful, and we got the all clear to close May 20th and we closed on Friday, May 27th. (Today!)
Signing my life away and getting debt hasn't been fun, but in this case it was necessary and I will say:
I'm looking forward to being able to hang things on the wall and being able to paint and make a space that can be mine.
I am also looking forward to not hearing people stomp around above us at all hours of the night.
Or worry about if our music is too loud.
Or when the boys play video games into the late hours and scream at the TV- we don't have to worry about being complained about. (They just need to worry about waking ME up and serving the consequence of that :) )
I have had people re-assuring me and telling me that in the end it's all worth it. I am sure they will be right. I have definitely missed having my home. Renting was a good experience overall because now we know what that's like. ..and we know it's not for us.
We LOVED our realtor, Payton, and our lender, JR. They were both amazing and helped us through this process. I feel like they were honest and straightforward with us.
They even had a colored pencil sketch made of our home for us, so we will always remember our first home.
In fact, this drawing was the first thing we took inside an otherwise empty house :)
I'm sure there will be more pictures later, but for now, we have a very busy day of moving ahead of us. I don't know how Atti will adjust to another new place, but we will find our very soon!
We still don't know how long we are going to be here, it will depend on Micah's job once he gets done with school, but here's to atleast 4 years of memories in our new (to us) house!
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