So in the craziness of being 4 months away for a wedding which now every family member I know and a few I don't is planning on attending, Ken and I decide it's time to buy a house. This is a big step, biggest purchase we'll ever make, and we somehow got through the hardest part in 3 days. Sunday our realtor Juan took us out to look at houses. We told him the key points: price range, minimum bed/bath, and most importantly: must be in Morgan Hill. It is pigeon holding us a bit not to search down in Gilroy or San Martin, but Morgan Hill is our home and there's no denying that. Juan showed 6 out of 16 houses that met our criteria. It would have been 7 but the first house on the list was right across from my parents house. Being that close to my brother would have driven me bonkers.
1st one was blah. It was a bank owned house that had the charm of an abandoned department store, complete with boarded up windows. Yeah, there was potential there, it had 4 beds 2 baths, was right down the street from Kenny's cousin/ future babysitter, nice backyard, but there was warmth missing. Might have had something to do with there being no carpets anywhere on site. Lets keep looking.
2nd house also had potential. 4 beds and three baths this time, dining room area, pretty foyer, nice backyard, lots of parking, cool garage. Needed some loving care, but nothing we couldn't handle. Great price...but also connected to the house next to it. As it was on a corner you could barely tell and really didn't seem much closer than my parents house is to their neighbors. I took some pictures and promised to keep an open mind about if this was meant to be our dream home.
3rd house was a glorified townhome. Not that there's anything wrong with townhouses, but if they're going to be a townhouse they should fess up to it. I don't think I could have fit on the side of the house. We didn't actually get to see the inside of the house as they were having plumbing problems and would rather us look another day, but I had seen enough. It was on the "bad side" of Morgan Hill, which means just a few more loitering teens than the good side, but was missing charm that the 2nd house's neighborhood had.
4th house also had people living there. Adorable neighborhood and a beautiful shady tree out front. I walked in and was instantly reminded of houses of the east coast. So many windows looked out to the most well maintained back yard I've ever seen. Bird feeders and wind chimes hung from beautiful trellises while trees shaded the cleanly cut grass. Inside was charming as well. A tiny kitchen next to an adorable breakfast nook which looked into a sunken in den with a fireplace. "I'd have a hard time painting over this" Ken told me from the bedroom. I enter to see a forest scene straight out of Sleeping Beauty painted on the wall. Curtains covered the closets. Candle sconces placed perfectly throughout the house. Ken reminded me most of the stuff would be going with them and I was sadden. "But I could get my own replacements. In fact my green curtains would look perfect in here..." I thought to myself before realizing I was already mentally moving in. I didn't want to leave. There were other houses to see but I was done wanting to look at them. Much like when I started dating Kenny I was done dating. When I tried on my wedding dress I was done dress shopping. I had found the one. With hesitation we left to look at other houses.
5th house was brand new inside. Huge backyard, giant master bedroom, breakfast nook, new kitchen, new bathroom, cute neighborhood. *Yawn* That house should have been the winner but it wasn't. It didn't have the sunken in living room, didn't have the pretty trellises in the backyard, the eucalyptus tree out front. This was not our house.
Neither was the 6th house despite it's view of Anderson Lake and walk in closet. It didn't matter, my mind was made up and I wanted my pretty little 3 bedroom house.
We set up an appointment the next night to look at the house again with Ken's dad. Once he went over, gave it his blessing, we were ready to make a bid. We asked for 10,000 under asking plus a 6000 credit for closing costs. They countered on Tuesday with an ok, but no more than 2,000 of that can be section 1. We agreed, and it went into pending. No one else can make offers on that house. Then came the waiting for the relocation company to give their blessing. It took nearly a week but we're now in escrow. The only ones who can back out of the sale now is us and I don't think we're going to do that. In as little as 2 months I can be sitting in my living room posting about how awesome life is. As for right now, I'm trying to stay positive that that could happen instead of going to worse case scenarios where the house burns down, or we get robbed, or I don't even know what. I don't think I'll get a full nights sleep though until it's inside our new house.
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