No Title-- The Blog Of Everything.

Yes, I know. I'm way behind. This has been the most hectic quarter, ever. We moved, been on a week long vacation back home, been to Corpus and stayed at the beach, watched my sister get engaged, paint and update a bathroom, lead an XBRL project at work, file a 10-Q and see a Tim McGraw & Kenny Chesney concert. Am I missing anything? Probably. But I'm here now. I took a day off work to run errands and get caught up on my personal life. So my mission. Update my blog. (FINALLY, I know).

Sorry for being so lazy when it comes to keeping you update. I can promise you I have some amazing stories.

For one... WE MOVED! We bought our first house. But, let me take you the day before closing day. Rob and I are doing our final walkthrough of the house. We knew we needed to buy a fridge and a washer/dryer, of which we had. But, Rob was the only one present at the home inspection where he wrote down what the brand names were of their kitchen appliances (Whirlpool) and we went from there when choosing our refrigerator. So, on the final walkthrough.. I'm looking at the kitchen and I notice suddenly... the appliances are GE Profile.. NOT Whirlpool. So yeah, we don't have matching appliances. Luckily, they are all stainless steel, so you can't really tell. But... that was moment number 1. Lesson learned: Do not trust a man with the sole job of remembering appliance names.

Moving Day. Our apartment was on the 5th floor about as far away from the freight elevator as you could get. To be exact (my dad measured) it was a quarter mile trip ONE WAY to the moving truck. Lots of walking. I will say this... my movers were AWESOME!! It was amazing how hard they worked... who cares if they wanted cash only? I tipped them mega. It only took from 9:30 to 2:30 and they wouldn't break for lunch. So they walked the miles (for the record it took them 3 hours to load us all up and then only 2 hours unload all of it) and lifted stuff up at least one flight of stairs and then some things all the way up 2 flights of stairs. Boys, you earned it.

No major bumps or bruises came moving day. My family was down and everyone helped unpack boxes and set up the kitchen, mount the tv and install a ceiling fan on the balcony. Robert's family was even able to stop by and we got to have dinner with them. So, it was a great weekend. Now, everyone just needs to come back to see it put mostly together!! Okay, well... we still need a kitchen table, living room accent chair, and loads of patio furniture. Our rooftop terrace feels lonely because we don't have anything up there! And our balcony needs furniture too (our camping chairs don't count).

We've even updated the powder room that is on the 2nd floor. We have painted it blue and installed a chandelier. It only took me 9 paint samples to find the paint color. Don't judge. This powder room is about 6x6x10. So, it was a tight squeeze with a ladder because the ceiling had to be painted. The previous owner had previously painted it "Barely Peach" which translates to "Light Pink" and it just had to go. So, it was me & Rob and a ladder in this small space. Somehow we managed to keep all of the paint on the walls and none anywhere else in the house. It took us a full three days. Friday night we primed, Saturday we painted one coat, and Sunday we painted the second coat. And to really jazz up the bathroom, decided to test Rob's electrical engineering skills and convert a can light into a light for a chandelier. It took us two days to actually get the chandelier hanging. (You never want to be the person who's job it is to hold the chandelier up.. that was mine. It was hard) And then two weeks to get it hanging at the right height and location. It hung in the sink for two weeks because we were super busy and gone over the weekend. But, no worries. It's up! I still want to replace the sink and frame the mirror... but it's getting close! PS. No electrical fires were started and Rob did not electrocute himself. And the chandelier is still hanging to date. I consider this all success.

What else? Oh yeah... the 4th of July week was my family vacation. We went out on the lake where my dad broke a rib attempting to wakeboard, of which he had never done in his life. He forgets he's on the lower side of 55. (He is okay and now recovered). Kate stunned us all because she was the wakeboarding pro.. and she's never the pro at anything athletic. I was kind like, "who are you?" But, it's no joke. She was the pro and taught the rest of us. Well, Rob already knew how but it took him a bit to get it going. We also rented a pontoon boat for one day on the lake where we the boys went cliff jumping (me too!) and just drove around the lake while the ladies sunbathed. ;-) That is what a pontoon boat is for, right??

Mom's still got it.

Kate being the wakeboard pro.

Kirstie not being the wakeboard pro.

I'll not post my wakeboard pics. It's best if you think of me as a skier. ;-)

 

We also got to visit with Robert's family and see Stacy & Ryan. Rob also got to go to Boingo Bounce with Lori and her kids! :-) It was a great week filled with tons of fun and sun.

What else? Oh, we have been to Corpus Christi and stayed with my Aunt & Uncle and their family at a house on the bay that had spot for a boat. My mom and dad happened to be there, too for a high school reunion so we all got to hang out with good cooking and fresh fish. The boys all got to do fishing out on the ocean and us ladies just picked our own things to do. (Mom and I visited with the grandparents).

So another major highlight was getting to watch my sister get engaged in Dallas at the Denton Country Club. It was a total surprise for her and her ring is GORGEOUS! She is one lucky lady and Kyle is one lucky man. They are going to be very happy together. They will get marred in about a year and then head out to Chicago where Kyle is going to work once he graduates Harvard Law. I've got a video and some pictures.

Priceless.

Young love.

 

There's so much that has happened this summer that I can't even put it all on paper. It went incredibly fast. I can't believe Labor Day is around the corner. I've officially been at my "new" job a year. How time flies when you're having fun. Just a reminder to leave every day to its fullest because when looking back, you wonder where it has all gone.

Coming up, Rob and I are going on a cruise that will be just the two of us (first ever vacation since we got married where it is just us two!). We have more major home improvement projects, too. Once the cruise is over, I think we'll pretty much be around here every weekend, so hopefully we can get some stuff accomplished.

 

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We Found a Home!

Ahh yes. We did it. We found a place, successfully navigated and multiple bid offer and came out on top. Can you believe it? Sometimes I can't either. I will say, the whole process was not quite what I thought it would be. It's pretty crazy. Let me tell ya how it went down...

First off, we went to Dave Ramsey's website to use his ELP's that he has listed on his site. He recommended three of them that were in our general area and then they all contacted us. Literally, almost as soon as I clicked "submit" I had 5 different phone calls. It was a tad bit overwhelming and I didn't answer any of them. Then, when I got home I listened to my 5 voicemails and read my e-mails and figured out who was who.

Then, Rob and I downloaded a Real Estate Agent Interview Questionnaire form from this book that I bought called "Buying Your First Home." We conducted our phone interviews with this questionnaire... I did two and Robert did one. Then, we compared notes. Can I just say that Robert was a WAY better note taker than me?? I kind of just write like "keywords" and write all over the page.... not necessarily by the question I'm asking. The one thing about these "keywords" are... I can't actually remember what they are supposed to mean. They all sounded very friendly though and we kind of went with our "gut feeling" based on their answers and our conversations.

We slept on it for three nights before ultimately deciding, but we decided on Creston from IndyQuest. We set up a personal meeting with him at a coffee shop we really discussed our needs and wants. He gave us tips on some of the developments and areas we were looking at and what a "reasonable" price range was for what we were looking for. Basically, he verified everything we already knew based on just driving around every weekend. Additionally, the Houston Heights has been the number one selling area in Houston since like 2007. With the market crash. So, we knew buying there would be a relatively smart choice.

He set up a list for us to choose our houses from and then we selected 14 for our first round through. But let me stop here for a sec... here's is my one and only beef about this realtor thing. And I think its like this when working with realtors in our budget.. but I could be wrong. But, my realtor didn't really suggest any particular houses for me. I guess from watching HGTV, I expected him to call me up and say, "hey... this house just came on the market" or "I think this house fits your needs, let's schedule a meeting." But, I did all of the real searching for a house. Ironically, the house we ended up putting an offer on wasn't even on his list for me even thought it was in the criteria. So, that's my only beef. But, from talking to other people this seems to be rather normal. What do you think?

So.. our very first house we went to see was 783 Waverly. I pretty much fell in love right away with the area and the fact that it was close to the bike trail. Really, from all the driving Rob and I had done, I felt like this area was AMAZING. No industrial in the direct vicinity and the surrounding area had, for the most part, been completely developed. The house we were looking at was still under construction.

I knew after seeing it that this would likely be "the house," but we made it through all of the others with our agent and then went to see my grandparents and such for Easter. On the following Tuesday we met up with our realtor to look at a few more and then ultimately decide to go with Waverly. Well, on Tuesday... Waverly went off the market. It had been on the market for 7 days. Also, on Tuesday.. we went to see another one (been on the market for three days) and decided we really liked it and wanted to sleep on it. That night it went off the market. So, we missed out on two that we really liked.

Then came 708 8th Street. It was like a sign. It was in the same neighborhood as 783 Waverly, just on the other side. Pretty much the same floor plan, too. Oh yeah.. I forgot to mention... these have rooftop decks!!! AMAZING!! We knew getting one with a rooftop deck would be lucky b/c those are usually outside of our price range. We kept waiting on it though until my parents could come down on that Friday to take a peek.

So, we peeked at 708 8th Street with parents and also took them to another house with the agent. Before we met up with the agent, I took my parents to the areas we were looking in to get them "accustomed" to what a house costs in the city and where we can afford to buy. They were a little taken aback at first. You really got to see it to believe it. It's just not the same as back home, and that's not an over exaggeration either.

That very Friday my parents came down Rob and I decided to put in an offer. By Friday night around 5 our offer had been submitted... and so had one other offer. Rob and I didn't have high hopes. In fact, on Saturday we spent the entire day with parents in the car driving around and looking at houses. We drove all over the place and went into an open houses. Late Saturday afternoon we found out they hadn't accepted anyone's offer and countered back to both of us asking for a full-price offer. We gave it to them but left in our condition that they contribute $5,500 to closing costs..... but there was still doubt in my mind. We were competing against an all-cash offer. Nothing I could do that. Our realtor had also told us that the seller wanted a late closing date and they liked that about us. Well, that we can help with it! We don't have to be out of our apartment until July and we made sure our sellers knew that.

Amazingly, come Monday morning.. the seller had accepted our offer!! Pretty amazing. There were definitely a lot of people out there praying for us, because I just really didn't think it was going to happen. So, yeah!!! That was quite the feeling!!!!

And then, we scheduled our home inspection. I didn't get to go to the inspection because the inspection was on a filing day for me, so no way out of that one. But, Rob took care of things. No major issues other than there had been some leaking on the rooftop deck that had been repaired but the roof still had some sloping issues, but the seller had just replaced the roof and it was under warranty... so that isn't going to cost anyone any money. The rest of things were rather minor... but we asked for the seller to either fix these things or contribute an additional $2,000. They are going to give us an additional $2,000.

And so now... we're mostly set. Our closing date is set for Wednesday, June 13. And my family is coming down that weekend to help us move. Plus, the Meier's are going to be driving in to town to go on a cruise so they will get to see our new digs, too. Including Rob's grandma!! I wouldn't allow a closing date any later than that because I figure it's pretty priceless that Rob's grandma gets a chance to see where we live.

I do want to say one thing though. My husband has been AMAZING. I have been working until 9-10 o'clock at night for the past two weeks. He has stood strong and done all of the phone calls to the realtor and to the mortgage lenders. While we were pre-approved, we wanted to still shop around for the best rate and lowest fees once we had an address. Rob took care of all of that for me. It well paid off. We ended up with the best interest rate we knew were capable of getting and fees that would keep us around our $5,500 that we want the sellers to pay. He took care of everything. I love him. He didn't complain either. He just got things done and kept me well-informed. Everyone needs a Rob. I'm just sayin'.

So, now we're just out finalizing some of the things we need to still get (homeowners insurance) and working with the bank for anything they need. We also have to get a washer/dryer for the house and a fridge. The seller doesn't want to part for those and I'm not willing to pay very much for their used appliances. I also want to get new carpet...but after talking to some carpet people this weekend, I don't think I can afford to pay cash for all my appliances and carpet (and you know me and debt... that's a no-no!) so the carpet is likely going to have to wait until later. Such is life. We have been to three different scratch & dent appliance places as well as all of your major big box stores. Haven't decided where to buy our appliances yet.. but on the look out for a good deal.

There are a lot of things we want to do to the house too to make it our own. For example, it really needs a fireplace mantle. Badly. So, I'm pretty sure I've found a way to build one on our own on pinterest. That's likely going to be Rob and I's first project. Not to mention the house will need drapes, etc ... and I've found some cool things on pinterest for those, too. Ever heard of painted drapes? Me either... but now I have and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try it out. Never been much of a DIYer, but I'm determined to become one! There's also this painted rug thing I want to try, too.

So, anyways, we did it. We're on our way to buying our first home. I'm sure you'll keep hearing about. :-)

Update on the Home Front...

Ahh, yes. You may be wondering how the house hunt is going. Well, I guess I can say its... going...

Our car would say its going stupendously given the fact that it gets ridden in every weekend for lots of miles. Okay, probably not even lots of miles necessarily, but we literally spend hours in the car. We bring snacks, drinks and even stop for potty breaks. We are hard core. We just drive, drive around.

We have even stopped into a couple of open houses on the weekend. This tends to be a bad idea for me, because I get to excited to easily and need to take a step back. We can't afford to buy a house just this instant, so no need getting uber excited about what's out there right now because there's not a darn thing I can do about it at the current moment.

So, update on the downpayment. Things are mostly bright there. I'll go into more detail down below, but we will have 20% down in the bank by end of March. So that means, we'll get a realtor at the end of March! Yay! I'm very proud of this feat, because we've been tossing money at this thing hard core. I haven't been able to do my usual shopping in what feels like FOREVER. The budget has been pushed to the limit and we've had to be really mindful of we spend our money one, so I'm really proud of ourselves.

On the downside, we have to increase our budget if we want to live in the city. By in the city I'm referring to inside the loop (610) in the Heights area or even a couple of exits out of 610 on the west side. To live in a townhome type place, we're going to have to increase our budget. Meaning, I think the 15-year mortgage is going to be near impossible. This makes me sad. So, I'm kind of at a loss right now. It's either going to be increase your budget or move to the suburbs. And with gas prices outrageously high right now, that doesn't really seem to make sense. It's just hard to make yourself spend 2 hours in the car every day for no real reason... it's not like your benefiting kids to live in a great neighborhood because well, we don't have any of those. (Though, if you were to read my facebook, you will notice that almost, what fees like, every girl I know is having a baby or just had a baby.. so there's clearly something in the water).

So, that's pretty much where Robert and I stand. In general, I think Rob and I agree that it doesn't make sense to live far away from where we work and the places we like to hang out at, especially if we are going to be buying $4-$5 gallon of gas. Plus, they say houses inside the loop are more of a investment because people are always looking to live in the city so their value will increase.

The only thing that worries me living in the city, is that like I said before, Houston has no zoning laws. Most of the townhomes are in industrial parts of the city. Granted, thats definitely better than having the homeless rome around because we went down to "Midtown" to look at slightly more affordable places that is between downtown and the Medical Center and that really scared me. The industrial land is looking far more better. But, its definitely something to get used to. When you drive by's of these places its like a REALLY great townhouses, then pipe supply, welding shop, great townhouses, manufacturers, shack, great townhomes. There might even be a really nice house next to what I would consider a shack and then a really nice townhome neighborhood. It's exhausting. But, I'm not joking.

 

The first picture is of the townhome and the second picture is what's next to it.

 

I'm trying to convince my family to come down and visit and help me drive around because you just cannot believe it until you see it. For example, see this pictures. Nothing like this exists back in Arkansas. It makes it overwhelming. If we are going to live in the city, we'd also like to live close to the Heights Hike & Bike trail. That way we won't have to drive anywhere to go biking. That would be nice.

We've also discovered that some of these places have rooftop terraces. Those are really cool. Can you imagine living somewhere with a rooftop terrace that you can call your own?? I imagine that we probably won't get one with a rooftop terrace unless one just falls into our lap, but you never know. We'll put it on the "would love to have, but can definitely let go" list.

So anyways, that's where we are. We'll probably take some of March off and not look at houses as much because I think we've almost exhausted driving by the inventory that we can afford. So, we'll need some new listings to pop up. But I think people looking to move in the summer will probably start listing their houses for sale in March or so.

Oh, I should also say that I've got a slight addiction to HAR (Houston Area Real Estate) app on my iPad. I literally just look at the same houses over and over every night. It's quite sad. I sometimes even look at houses on my lunch break at work depending on how busy I am. It's crazy! I've got to lay off. We also calculate our potential mortgage payment over and over. Even while we are at dinner. The waiters probably think we are crazy because we have our phones out discussing possible scenarios and payment options. (No worries, in NO event will our house payment exceed our current rental payment... that would be insane and completely indicate we have fallen off the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. So, if you EVER hear me say that my mortgage payment will be greater than my rent, please shoot me because all is lost.)

Okay, that's about it! Until next time!