12:39 p.m. - 11 June 2001
A house?
I think we're going to buy a house.
Lee found a "For Sale by owner" flyer last week and we both thought the house looked pretty good on paper. We drove past it one evening and figured we'd take a look at the inside, since we liked the neighborhood. Yes, an actual neighborhood, with other houses around. It's the one thing Lee's not terribly excited about.
Anyway, we called the agent that we've been working with and asked her to set up a showing. Lee and I both thought that having her advice would be invaluable considering that neither of us has ever bought a house before. So on Saturday, we met with her and picked out a couple of other houses to see at the same time. We ended up driving past one, and then heading to look at the FSBO one.
I really liked it from the get-go. It's got three bedrooms, two full baths, a lovely double-view fireplace between the family room and den, an office area, and a nice big kitchen with lots of cupboards – that I can reach the top shelf of. This is very important to me as a short person (okay, I'm 5'5". But I have short arms and so cabinets are often difficult for me to reach. I'll holler for "someone tall" once a week or so). There's 1.3 acres of property, two garages, and a beautiful wooden fence around part of the back yard.
We sat down with the realtor and discussed things like down payment, closing costs, and all those fun things. After long conversations with our respective parental units, we met with the agent again yesterday and asked a few more questions. She was going to find out some more information for us today, and we have an appointment with her after work. Assuming she's got all the info, we're prepared to make on offer this evening. She seems to think that if we can get them on the phone, we may be able to have a contract signed tonight.
Lee and I are both a little nervous about this. It's a lot of money that we're going to owe. On the other hand, we will finally have a deduction, so we should do a little better on our taxes. Plus, one of the rooms is already decorated as a nursery due to the sellers having 3 year old triplets, so we'll probably start thinking about kids sooner rather than later. But this is a big decision, and I'm hoping that we're really ready for it. The monthly payments work out to be just a little bit more than our current rent payments, so we shouldn't have too much trouble there. But we'll definitely be eating a little more frugally. Nor will we be purchasing laptops just because it's a good deal (ahem).
Us, homeowners. I can hardly wrap my brain around the concept. But I'm already planning what to plant in the garden next year.
