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?