WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!

Can you believe it!

It was the biggest hassle and frustrating experience we have ever gone through. We have been in progress since October for this house and it had dragged on. Our realtor Grady, had to keep everyone going to get stuff done so we could close by the second extention or we would have lost about $1,5o0 dollars we had put into it. The seller (the bank) made us pay for majority of the closing costs and so the underwriter was not going to approve of the loan because the closing costs was way over 10 percent of what we were paying for the house. It all worked out, because my relator negotiated fees down to a reasonable amount.

My brother told me everyone was overcharging us for the house closing fees, so I am glad they were looking out for us, because it forced everyone to lower the amounts and we still had to bring $2,000 extra to closing than they orginally had told us. So, we might not have money, but we have a home for when we are married and we are not wasting money on rent so that is a blessing. What we are paying in mortgage payments is less than what I was paying for my apartment in CA!

The house has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. There is a study, family room, living room, Kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. The gargage is more of a workshop that is 400 square feet so we are going to convert it into a studio apartment and rent it out so we can have extra income each month. Once that renovation is complete it will change into a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home. The house is about 2,5oo square feet with the gargage and was built in 1966. So as you can imagine we have quite the projects ahead of us with renovations and updating!

It took so much courage to buy a home we could afford, even though I was offered up to $150,000 loan based on my credit and I almost caved on this one house. But, with the house we bought the payments are very reasonable and we will have it paid off in 15 years. Its large enough we can stay in it forever if we want too and we have an awesome backyard and front yard. We can have a garden!

The Lord really blessed us and I have to thank EVERYONE that prayed for us to get this home. It is very appreciated. I would have blogged sooner about the possibility so more could have prayed, but knowing my luck with announcing things before its final, I decided to wait it out until we for sure had the keys in our hands.

I also have to give my brother John, special thanks for finding the house for us and guiding us through the progress. I must have asked him a zillion questions about remodeling, and everything else you can think of that relates to buying a house. So that is the story! I am so happy the process of purchasing it is over and we can move on to working on the house. I do feel bad for Jeff that he has to stay in it for the next month by himself, with really no furniture but an air mattress!

And he surprised me and shaved his head today, it made my day, I think he is so incredibly handsome when it is shaved and I love to look at him and touch his head. We went to the best place to eat, called Woody's BBQ to celebrate and for our weekly date night. I think I can say that I like Jacksonville a little better now after experiencing the best food at this plave. I also am all about the weekly date nights. They are awesome. I love the undivided attention I get from Jeff and doing something fun together is also great. I look forward to it all week, because we are so busy its hard to really get to spend time together.