My Kid* Grouper

* and by kid, I mean dog ... but really, I swear he is mostly human.

These pictures are proof.

Tucking Grouper into Bed

Tired Puppy ...

Ok, let me preface this.  Last night, we coaxed Grouper to come to bed (as we do every night) which means waking him up from sleeping on his bed in the Living Room, dragging his posterpedic (oh yest it is!!  for another story) into the Bedroom, at which time he plops back down and continued to dream about what-not.  Well last night, after his plop, he curled into the tightest little ball on his bed (it may have something to do with the fact that our thermostat is set to 66).  He looked cold!  So, I said to Hubs 'ohh puppy, why don't I just get you a little blankie' in my granniest voice ever.  Grabbed a towel and covered him up.  He then posed for a whole minute with the towel in his mouth until I got my camera (I swear!).  So, with that Kodak moment, I was like 'why not give this puppy a pillow  too?!'  And, would you believe it (it was as if he was a movie star) he yawned that large yawn and plopped his head right on that pillow. 

Now that is a domesticated animal (or as my dad would say, spoil't) if I have ever seen one :)

Homes, Loans, and YHL

This post is really just a hodge podge of things on my mind this week. 

1.)  Appraisal on our place is TODAY!  I spent a good chunck of after-work time last night and before-work time today sprucing the place up.  First impressions count and I wanted it to smell nice, be clean and tidy, and generally yell 'OoLaLa .. I am soooo nice' :)

2.)  Loan application/processing to do's keep piling up.  Goal is to work on all this stuff tonight

3.)  YHL Book Signing!!!  You all may know about these fantastic people (I haven't met them before .. yet .. but they just seem like the awesomest people) - they have the blog Young House Love, and now a book I am dying to get my hands on!  I signed up for the book signing at Flor in Georgetown (which was yesterday) but under the stress of getting the house ready for the appraisal today, work work, and all other week day to dos I couldn't make it.  So, I bought the Living Social deal for this Saturday!  Cannot wait.  Really, this whole DIY home blogging inspiration came from them.

{via}

John & Sherry from YHL - can't wait to meet them! {via}

A little history...

Hubs and I bought our current place 3 years ago ... it was in desperate need of some updating.  Some people would be turned off by the previous owner's choice of paint, outdated kitchen and appliances, etc, but not us! Memory Lane..

Original Dining Room

Original Dining Room

Living Room

Master Bedroom



2nd Bedroom

 We have been tackling DIY things such us painting, wood floors, kitchen update, and bathroom update over the past 3 years.  All DIY - one, because we love projects and two, we didn't want to put a ton of money into the place by hiring contractors since, in a condo, you don't get the full value out of updates. 

Current Dining Room

Current Living Room

Master Bedroom

2nd Bedroom

Two years into living in our current place, we got married.  Cue love song :) 

I spent that year before planning our fabulous wedding (all DIY and on-a-budget too).  I spent tons of hours on the wedding blog Style Me Pretty (great by the way) for inspiration.  After the wedding I was dying for another creative outlet and googled 'popular home DIY blogs'.  YHL popped up and I literally spent the next 2 weeks reading (slash scimming) every post they had posted to date.  That led to other blogs, my blog, etc and I have been hooked ever since on tackling more DIY projects and documenting them.  So, I guess you can say, YHL was the catalyst for my DIY Home obsession!

1 Month Countdown

We are at the 1 month mark!  1 month until we close on both places and we have a new home :)  It seems so far away, but I know it will be here fast. 

Our checklist of things TO DO:
1)  Appraisals - the appraisal at our new place was completed last week and was just sent to us.  It has to be sent to the underwriter of our loan for review.  The appraisal at our current place is on Thursday.  Crossing fingers that all goes well. 

Basically, both places 'need' to appraise for the selling price.  For a conventional loan, if a house appraises lower for the sale price then the 'buyer' has a chance to 1) accept the appraisal value as is and continue with the contract 2) renegotiate the sales price 3) get out of the contract.  So yes, it is kinda nerve wracking.  I don't have a sense of calm yet .. Our new place appraised for the sale price, but we need the appraisal to take place on our current place.  Once this is done I will feel like we can actually move. 

2)  Finish Loan/Closing Items - we have to fill out some more paperwork for closing .... oh the paperwork.

2)  Pack - oh geez, packing.  We packed a bunch of stuff and put it in storage when we staged our house for listing.  Plan is to pack one day each weekend of Dec 8 and Dec 15.

3)  Utilities - we need to schedule utilities at our new place and cancel our old utilities.

4)  Schedule a truck to move - So the plan right now is to load up everything Dec 23, drive the truck around with us through Christmas, go to closing, then move everything in on Dec 27. 

Home Inspections .. Oh the Stress

... Okay, maybe it isn't that stressful.  I think the majority of my stress is self-imposed, anyone agree?  Oh wait, did I just here Hubs yell from the mountaintops a big fat "I Agree!".  Likely because I keep asking him a thousand "What if?" questions.  Like "What if the seller disagrees to all our home inspection correction requests and totally backs out of the contract?" ... and because I am a huge math nerd...lots of what if math scenarios/equations, oh yeah

Anywho, back on to the topic of home inspections. 

Here is a general overview of the process:
1)  Agent/buyer orders home inspection.
2)  Home inspection takes place within 7 days (I think that is right?) of contract. 
3)  Inspection report is generated.  Buyer selects those items (s)he would like corrected.
4)  Seller agrees to correct all/some/none of home inspection items

The home inspection on our place went pretty well!  Was it scary?  Yes!  Especially since our condo building is acient - think plaster wall acient.  But all in all, we came out pretty unscathed.

So, it was nice to also be on the other end and attend the home inspection of the house we are purchasing - also ancient.  Since it is an actual house, there were a ton more things to consider - the grounds, the skin (roof, walls, etc), all the actual mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems, etc.  It is definitely worth having a fantastic and knowledgeable home inspector.  You may not include all the items on your 'home inspection correction list', but knowing they exist and what you may need to fix within the next couple of years is nice. 

Luckily, our seller agreed to most all of our items - items we felt should definitely be corrected before we moved in - the furnace, electrical grounding items, a roof (no leaks please!) and fireplace inspection (it would be nice to chime in the new year in our new place with our very first fire!). 

Some things that were included in the home inspection that we know we will need to take care of over the next couple of years (its a charming old rambler... we know it isn't going to be perfect):
1)  More insulation!
2)  A new furnace and AC unit (luckily it comes with a 1 year home warranty!!)
3)  Some grading corrections to keep the water out of our soon-to-be-hopefully finished basement... oh look at all that clean slate, bare bones, waiting to be made into our very own ... basement

 



Next up.. Appraisals!

A Smokin' Exterior

I have our new house on my brain constantly these days.  Hubs and I still can't believe how far away Dec 26 is (our closing date).  Arg. 

What I am thinking about lately ... how to spice up the exterior. There is lots of white going on, see.

Not that I don't love white, but it is just begging for pops of color.  I was thinking a red or yellow door, like YHL's first house and second house .... but Hubs most definitely vetoed the idea of a yellow door. 

So, that leaves me with the following color scheme...

Front door in either Behr's California Poppy or Daredevil

Behr California Poppy

A California Poppy Red Door

Behr Daredevil

And Shutters in Behr's Black Suede

Behr Black Suede

A Black Suede Door

Mind Painting

I have sworn off painting for the past couple of months, but the minute we put an offer on our new place, I was already thinking of what colors we could paint the place.  Maybe I have a slight painting problem.  Not that the beigey color isn't bad - I looked at it again during our home inspection visit - but really, I want to add my OWN colors - OCD, possibly.

So, I have been scanning the interwebs for some paint colors for the house.  Here is what I want to paint:
- Living, Dining, Office - color 1
- Master Bedroom, Guest Bedroom - color 2
- Bathroom & Kitchen - I am not sure (cabinet color for kitchen will dictate wall color I think)

And here are the colors I am loving (for now) from BM:
Color 1 - either Revere Pewter or Broxburn Greige


Revere Pewter

Broxburn Greige

 Color 2 - either Tranquility or Gentle Gray

Tranquility

Gentle Gray

Hmmmm.....

The Buying & Selling Process

Selling and Buying a home is a lengthy, stressful (maybe partly self imposed) process. Think home inspection, radon inspections, appraisals, loan approvals, and all the associated signatures.  Wheww.  Coupled with me being very impatient (I am working on that) I am not sure if I will make it.  Most people may think we are crazy for doing this over 2 major holidays (Turkey Day and Christmas), but honestly, I think that is the only way I will make it.  It will take my mind off everything and allow December 26th to get here as fast a possible (the day we are scheduled to close on both places). 

So far my thoughts on it all -
Selling -
- Stage your home!  Clear out all the clutter, re-arrange items, and de-personalize (aka pictures).  This makes your place look BIG (especially if you live in a small house like our 800 sf condo). 
- Clean it and make it smell lovely!  With a dog, this is hard, but a must (sorry Grouper).  Hair balls floating around is not the best look. 
- Keep it clean!  Clean up after yourself, it will make your life easier.

Our current living room

Buying -
- Start early!  If you think you just might sell your place and buy a new home in the next couple of months, start looking now.  Scan real estate website (like redfin.com if it is in your area) to see what is out there and what it will cost you.  That way, when you truly are ready to go house hungtin you know location, cost, must-haves and they type of inventory that is available that meets your criteria. 
- Go with a realtor!  We did some Sunday open house hunting, but going for a day with your realtor allows you to see so much so quickly.  We like our realtor because he is straight up honest with you/opinionated.  Lets us see all sides. 
- Got with your gut!  You know its right when it feels right.  Don't try and convince yourself you love a place.

Our future living room


And, now for the Grouper's opinion on all of it:

Grouper PLUS a Big Backyard

+

Equals = ... LOTS OF FUN! ;)

Happy house hunting!

Got a House?

So, since our condo sold so quickly, you may be wondering where we are moving!?  Luckily for us, we have been casually looking at houses for the past couple of months - trying to pinpoint location, size, and cost. 

Location - We pretty much knew we wanted to stay inside the beltway - for all of you who know what the traffic is like in NOVA, you know why we wanted to stay inside the beltway.  Hubs and I have been pretty spoiled on the commute front over the past couple of years - both of us only spend about 10 minutes commuting to work.  That's not easy to give up.  But, being inside the beltway comes at a cost!  I didn't want to sacrifice amenities (restaurants, shops), a cute town area, schools (for our future kids), and probably other things that I can't think of right now.  Which left us with Arlington, Falls Church, and Alexandria. 

Cost - Hubs and I had a pretty clear idea as to what we wanted to spend on a new house.  Basically meaning, we still wanted to enjoy our hobbies (hello boat!), traveling (ski trip + future Australia trip), and frequent restaurant dining (we love you Boulevard Wood Grill + Circa + Cavo).  Our max price + limited inventory left us with a sparce number of available homes.

Size / Features - The key/must-have items on our 'new home list' included - A yard (not only for Grouper but for us! .. think grill, lounging, garden, and room to play!),  3 bedrooms (ours, future kids, and guest room), a 'cute' living/dining/kitchen area, and room to expand / tinker (basement).

With those requirements, and after several hours on Redfin (in my opinion the best Real Estate website), we narrowed our list down.  We actually kind of thought we found 'our home' pretty quickly, but attended some open houses and spent time with our realtor.  After all that driving and searching, we landed back at the same house that we 'kind of knew was perfect' from the beginning. 

Okay, let me stop babbling, we made an offer on a house 2 days after we accepted the offer on our place ... Lets take a lookey:

Front of House

 

Living Room

 

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Porch

Porch

Bedroom 1 of 3

Bedroom 2 of 3

Bathroom

Bathroom

Unfinished Basement

Unfinished Basement

Backyard

Shed!

Backyard

Backyard

Backyard

Backyard



 



So, what do you think!  We have our home inspection today so hopefully all goes well.