Our first house... maybe?

Ok, so it's definitely more than "maybe," but it's still not 100%. Our loan is in the "final approval process" (whatever that means) and we're expected to close on May 26 (whatever that means... I still don't know what "being in escrow" really means). But of course, things aren't going super smoothly.

--our termite report says we should expect to do about $2k in repairs (it's a short sale, so the sellers aren't gonna do shit)
--there are leaks ALL OVER THE HOUSE. seriously. the hallway bathroom shower leaks, the laundry sink leaks, the sprinkler in front of the house leaks... leak leak leak.
--we have to borrow money from B's parents to get the house. it's a long story, but let's just say that the upfront costs are a lot more than we thought they would be
--the seller isn't moving out until memorial day weekend (saturday? sat & sun? all three days? not sure yet), so we might not be able to move in until the first weekend in june... which of course, is also when we're doing the 10k camp pendleton mud run and will be too exhausted afterwards to lift a finger, nevertheless move the entire contents of our 2-bedroom upstairs apartment into our new house
--there's no "for sale/sold" sign in front of the house (once again, short sale). although this isn't an "issue" per se, i'm just really bummed that we won't be able to pose in front of the thing with goofy smiles plastered onto our faces, while standing proudly in front of that sign. oh well. like my good friend E said, "there's always photoshop!"

There are GOOD things about this place, of course. #1 is WE CAN AFFORD IT. Not in a "Wow, we have buckets of money leftover after our mortgage is paid" afford-it, but in a "Yes, it's spaghetti special night at Haus of Pizza, time to splurge!" kind of afford-it. But I think we'll be looking forward to spending more nights in, eating out less (it can only help our pocketbooks and our waistlines), and just enjoying our homeownershipness. But we'll see how that all pans out after eating Top Ramen for the nth straight night.

Oh yeah, other good things about the house. There's copper plumbing (something B's dad has ALWAYS been singing praises for), a 2-car garage, a semi-decent neighborhood (in the lowest median price-range zip code for Fullerton, but who's counting?), nice hardwood floors, and 3 bedrooms for our family to grow into in the future. Near-future? Far-future? Who knows? Just... future, in general.

We were thinking about buying new locks this weekend so we'd be prepared when we move into the place, but then forgot if the front door locks had a deadbolt or not. I honestly can't remember. Oy. So I guess we'll do our lock-shopping after the final walkthrough.

And since all blog entries are boring without pictures, I'll include this one of our house:




Ahhh... it's our almost-first house.

What's the first thing we should do once we get the keys? Scrub the place clean? Change the locks? Christen every room?

Our first entry

Hello hello. So for our first "Our first ____" entry is titled "Our first entry." Yes, very original, I know. But a first is a first!

So we should be exactly one week out from our closing date. But from what I've read online and heard from other people, your closing date could change? So... we're not 100% sure when we're moving yet. Luckily, we're on a month-to-month with our apartment, and our apartment manager has already let us know he would just pro-rate the rent for June based on how many days we're still in the apartment. So if all goes according to plan, we hope to move on Memorial Day weekend. If not, then it'll be the first weekend in June, which is also the same weekend as my First Mud Run. So that's no good. I guess it's not really up to us; we're still waiting on the loan docs and to get a move out date for the seller (it's a short sale).

Now on to our first "first" of the blog: Our first home conflict. It's not really an argument or a battle, just one little thing (but yet, the first thing!) that we've disagreed on. B wants to put cabinet liners in our kitchen. I don't. As you can tell, this is a small conflict, but a conflict nonetheless. B "likes" liners and thinks it keeps things clean. I don't see the point of them and think that if there's going to be dirty stuff on the shelf, there will be dirty stuff on the liner-- hence, you'll have to wipe either surface down regularly. So why bother with buying, cutting, and applying the liner? Not to mention, liners look totally tacky.

Also, another minor conflict. B likes to put the drinking glasses mouth-side-down. I prefer to put them mouth-side-up. His argument? "To prevent the dust from getting in the glasses." What dust? We honestly go through all of our drinking glasses once a week. I don't think that enough dust (well, enough to "hurt" you) will accumulate in that short period of time. We don't put or plates and bowls open-end-down. Or our pots and pans. So I don't see the point in putting our glasses that way (especially since your mouth is directly touching these surfaces). So that will be another conflict we'll have to resolve in a couple of weeks.

We've already started to pack and feel "ahead of the game," but I'm pretty sure we'll still be frantic and feel rushed at the end of it. Our realtor suggested we do our final walkthrough this weekend, so we'll see what comes of that. The inspection and appraisal both came back with good news, and the termite report suggested we do about $2k in repairs. Not tooooooo bad, I guess. It could be a lot worse.