Our First Home

Our first experience in purchasing a home was definitely a learning one. We had fun viewing the homes, discussing our needs/priorities, picturing ourselves in a place of our own. But I think the day we made the offer on our home and negotiated changes was one of the most stressful of my life! Scott put it this way: we work hard to do a lot of saving, and then we trade all that saving in for a lot of debt. It was pretty rewarding to be debt free for a while and just sitting on that nice nest egg... Despite the large numbers, the negotiating, the hiccup with the bank that resulted in closing a week late, and the work of moving, we are very grateful we were in a position to buy and we ended up with a really good interest rate. Ironically, the mortgage actually seems a lot less scary now that we have it. And I am optimistic that I will be more prepared in the future for the emotional roller coaster that buying a home can entail.

We found this cute townhouse a couple miles down the road from where we were renting. May 17th the transaction was completed and we picked up the keys. We have been loving our new home so far. Our favorite things about the house: lots of windows and light, three car garage, it is updated (built in 2008), it is in a good walkable area, and there is a lot of storage space. My least favorite thing: the kitchen is on the small side. With the pantry and then our buffet in the dining room, we have enough storage; it is the counter space that I feel is lacking. Scott tells me that if I keep practicing on my cooking, I can graduate to a larger kitchen in the next house.

This is Marian Hsu, our agent. She was
wonderful. And she made us laugh often...

This is our attempt to get a shot of all three of us (Scott carrying
mom who was carrying Maddox) walking through the door
the day we picked up the keys. 

This was at the end of a VERY long moving day - yes, just one day, since there was a hiccup with the bank. We rewarded ourselves with the 12 taco pack from Taco Bell at midnight and slept on the landing of the stairs in sleeping bags. Huge shout out to all of our amazing friends who made the day a success!

The awesomeness behind me is our living room.

Maddox was a good helper with the unpacking...

And here are some candids of our place after all the unpacking (it took us about a month this time around).

Maddox has a really good sized closet,
which is nice since his shoe collection is
almost as large as Scott's. And he gets his
own bathroom... Lucky!

Master bedroom and bath.

We like the separation of the bathroom.
And there is just enough room in our closet...

On our list of home improvements, Scott added a bigger tv...

We are loving the spacious dining room without carpet,
ideal for meals with a child. Maddox is patient and watches
us as we put dinner together, most of the time with this same
blue steel look.

Again, we are LOVING the garage. Scott even changed the car battery in his underwear one morning. It is really nice to have the extra work space too. Here is a sneak peak I guess on his current project...