House #1-- "THE" House?

So...after a lot of talking, stressing, and viewing more houses (meaning 1 more) we have decided...

To make an offer!

AHHHHH!

Well lets hope this post doesn't "jinx" our luck, but if it's meant to be it will happen.

How did we get from Gross, gross, GROSS- to - making an offer??

After pretty much writing this house off the list I scheduled another viewing for a different home in the subdivision across the street from this house. Dan had to work so I invited my mom to come with me. After the walk through I continued to think about that house and my mom wanted to see it too. So Michele, our realtor, checked if we could drive on over and check it out, we could, so we went. My mom and Michele really felt strongly that this was a great investment for us if we could get the right price. 

I for sure agree, BUT buying a house is so scary!! And this house was so big, I was intimidated.

BUT

I began to think about the fact that when all was said and done the house would be brand spanking new with all new appliances, with all new paint, carpet, bathrooms and kitchen for right within our budget. What more could you possibly want? Is it going to take hard work- yes. But I think we can do it. 

So in the next couple days the bank will receive our offer and will probably counter-offer. We have a long road ahead of us and it is very possible we may not end up with this house. But you will never know if you don't try. 

I'm excited, stressed, nervous, anxious, AHHH!

Are you our future home???

Front

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room

Family Room

Kitchen Nook

Master

Update on House #1

Pros

Bank Owned- get a lot of house for less

Walkout basement

Hardwood throughout

4-5 bedrooms!!

over 2500 sqft

backs up to a golf course

located in the beautiful Clarkston

Clarkston Schools

Cons

Needs a gut job- like $30,000 at least

some mold in basement- at least it was localized

wood on outside- more upkeep

multiple offers already on house

Needs all new windows

When its all said and done the pros outweigh the cons...I guess the problem was the worry of money. Even if we made a low-ball offer to have more for renovation costs we may still not have enough. Things go wrong and change during a huge gut job. It was a HUGE house, do we really need that much house right now? I wish I was more adventurous when it came to this house thing. But honestly after seeing one bank owned house I think I've seen enough of those. GROSS gross GROSSSSSSSS! 

I always thought I could be someone with "vision" and look past all the imperfections of a house like that, but I quickly learned I did NOT want a bank owned house no matter how much potential it may have.

What we really want is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house.

Hardwood throughout with carpet in the bedrooms

2 car attached garage

Updated kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances

A master bath with walk-in closets

Small yard

Deck

Practically the perfect house...

I am finding looking for a house can be discouraging. Many people must not be listing there houses right now because of the Holidays b/c there is NOTHING out there. I mean nothing I am even interested in looking at. There are a lot of cute houses in Waterford but honestly I am not looking to live in Waterford. We want to stay in the Clarkston, Shelby, Rochester Hills, Macomb Twp area.

So back to square one we go...

The house search has "OFFICIALLY" begun...

We are going to look at this beauty first thing in the a.m.

I am pretty excited. SO much potential!! EEeeekkkK!

:-)

Clarkston, MI

Christmas wish list

Just a few of the things we are asking for this Christmas 

a new comforter. We LOVE down comforters and sadly ours is on its last leg. It was mine from when I was in high school...I think it's time. 

A nice cutlery set. WE DON'T HAVE ANY! None- Nada- Zero. We bought (1) nice knife after we were married and that has been the knife we use to cut everything...besides our basic butter knifes. It would be so nice to finally have a full set. 

And what goes perfectly with a new down comforter but down pillows! I said we LOVE down! Someone can always use new pillows and the more the better.

a little bit of Christmas

I know we still live in a tiny- itty- bitty 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment while looking for our dream house BUT  I still try and decorate for Christmas as much as I can. It's somewhat of a challenge when you don't have very much room to work with. Each year I try and add a few new things to my holiday decorations so someday I will have enough to decorate my house. Our first year of marriage I decided we absolutely MUST HAVE a Christmas tree, but Christmas trees can be a couple hundred dollars so we skipped buying a brand new one and adopted my parent's "extra" tree. This tree was the first tree they had when they were married and now it's ours. We decided we will purchase our own this year after Christmas because that's when the big sales on them are. 

Our tree just needed a little "filler" as I call it, because we chose to go with a "fake" tree and this tree is from 20+ years ago you can see through the tree in a couple spots. So I added ribbon, now you can barely tell. 

I also decided a Christmas wreath on our front door was a must have! So again, my mom gave me some of her "extra" wreaths. I love them though! So easy to change up with a different ribbon.

I also found 2 cute bells at the dollar store to go on a door handle. I added a little ribbon for more sparkle. I think I may spray paint them red or silver, but for now they work and they were only a $1!

Last year we went tree topper-less. I am pretty picky and nothing really caught my eye. So this year I really wanted to find something. I was at Target and found this classic, simple, silver star for only $10. Thank goodness.

To top of the Christmas season I always buy holiday candles. There is just something about walking into a room and smelling cookies or apple cinnamon that really just puts you in the holiday spirit. Right now I have "mistletoe" burning and it smells wonderful!

And who doesn't love ABC Family or Hallmark's Christmas movies....come on...THE BEST!

A time to be grateful

I love the Holiday Season! Thanksgiving to me "kicks-off" my most favorite time of year! This Thanksgiving Dan and I spent it with his parents. Unfortunately since Dan works in the retail biz he had to be at work by 10pm that night and work until 3am!! Okay, who is seriously shopping in the middle of the night?? CRAZIES!! So I hung out at home that night watching Christmas movies on lifetime trying to stay up until he got off work. That was a epic fail. By 1am I was passed out on the couch.

BLACK FRIDAY- It sounds fun but it is awful. I have been out once and regretted it. The amount of people out, long lines, parking a billion feet away, just for a couple bucks off? I would much rather pay the extra amount and not deal with the craziness. So instead my mom and I went and saw BREAKING DAWN! I know the whole Twilight series is super cheesy, but I love it anyways. I feel like a little girl all over again watching Edward and Jacobs love for Bella. Breaking Dawn was the best movie of the series yet! I can't wait for the next one.

Warning: Mushiness below

Watching Breaking Dawn made me think of Dan and I. It made me think how blessed we are to have each other. Out of all the things I am grateful for I think this year he is the thing I am most thankful for. His unconditional love he has for me, his work ethic, how patient he is, he just truly is a amazing husband. I love him more and more everyday. I don't know what I would do without him!

Truth Tuesday:

I had a couple other friends do this and I enjoyed reading their blogs every week when they did, so I will give it a try, even though it's not Tuesday, this is for last Tuesday. ;o)

* I am addicted to house hunters. If nothing else is on it's always on house hunters. I love watching the different styles of homes, the decor throughout, the prices, everything! I hope in our search for houses we will find our dream home soon!

* I set up our Christmas tree 3 weeks ago...yes 3 weeks ago. I couldn't wait any longer! Christmas is my most favorite holiday and I think it's silly to do all that work setting up decorations and only have it up a couple weeks. So this year I am extending it. 

* I am beginning to enjoy cooking. This is HUGE progress for me. I really hated cooking when we first got married. I would do it but we ate a lot of basic bland meals. My poor husband just smiled and ate it all. Believe it or not Pinterest has really helped me develop my inner cook. I really enjoy trying new recipes and experimenting with different spices. So far so good and we are eating much better these days!

...

Saturday Mornings...

Good Morning!!!

I LOVE Saturday mornings! When I used to work the weekends it just never seemed right. Saturday mornings are for cartoons and homemade breakfast. Not working!!!

It's a morning for staying in your pj's until noon and catching up on chores. When I was younger my mom always had us do our "chores" on Saturday mornings. Which pretty much meant bringing our laundry down for her to start and cleaning our bedrooms and bathrooms. 

But this week I did all of my housework early just so I could enjoy this Saturday morning. I did the laundry Thursday night while watching my lineup of shows. *Vampire Diaries, Circle of Fire, and Jersey Shore* (yes I know, do not laugh)

&&& Friday I did the grocery shopping with Dan after work.

It's so relaxing being able to watch the morning news with breakfast just knowing you don't "NEED" to be anywhere at any specific time. 

Yay for Saturdays!