Anyways...back to reality. Since January (which is when I made my last post) we have bought a new home, new vehicle and added a new member to our family! That's a lot of excitement right?! SO MUCH in fact I need to divide the posts up to fully explain each one and not bore you to tears in one post.
First things first. We purchased our VERY FIRST home in March of this year! We had been yearning to own our own home for three years (of those, we lived in a small single wide trailer). It was the best experience we could have asked for, and the opportunity fell into our laps when we least expected!
Early in 2011 we had found the 'perfect' home for us listed by a real estate company in the city we currently resided in (which is where we wanted to stay). We went to see it..fell in love but knew we weren't financially ready for it--so we watched as it sold not long after. Broken hearted we decided we'd try again in several months while we worked on our credit and debts.
Sure enough..we got back in contact with our real estate agent who had been working with us and showing us homes in our area for the past year in Spring of 2012, we viewed a few homes in the area..none of which suited us exactly in some way..then she mentioned that the same contractor who had built the home we fell in love with the year before built another right next door. He had acquired a foreclosed mobile home on 3 acres and removed the mobile home. The house we looked at before was set on 2 of the 3 acres and he built another on the one that was left. It wasn't up for sale but she made some calls to the contractors agent and she said he'd allow a showing.
So we went down to see and it was built in the exact same layout/style as the one we loved but had different exterior colors and interior finishes (which we preferred over the other) and we were sold! We KNEW it was the home for us! Quiet neighborhood, perfect location...perfect size and not to mention it was only three months old! So we were hooked up with a company in the state to our north who had a mortgage lady who was AWESOME for us and our needs. She helped us get our USDA loan on 3.7% with our property taxes, down payment and closing costs rolled in. It took two weeks from start to close and we were moving in the day of closing.
Its been seven months since we made our move. We've slowly been remodeling and painting as we go. The entire house was painted a flat neutral tan and so far we've completed both boy's rooms, their bathroom and are currently in progress on our master bath and garage! I have taken photos of the work we've done and will try to start sharing the transformation of our home regularly! The befores/afters..etc. I love DIY projects, I love making my visions a reality. I can't wait until we have everything we'd like done-done. Though that may take months or even years, it's something I enjoy and can't wait to tackle as a team with my husband and watch our kids grow up in it! Here are the photos taken when we moved in!
2 Lovely Reader(s) Said:
It truly is a big responsibility, Natalie! But owning a house is such a fulfilling accomplishment, right? Once you see your family creating memories in your new house, you’ll forget about the reality of paying bills, even for just a few seconds. It’s not only affording a house that matters, but starting a ‘home’ of your own.
Javier Bonnell
As long as your family is happy, then it’s all gonna be worth it! I agree with Javier about owning a house, paying in cash brings a different kind of sense of fulfillment. I hope you’ll have a lot of good memories with your new house. Cheers!
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