(Part Two)

Lovely front porch... looking forward to lots of sitting on it. :) I envision black shutters and a red front door in our future.

Back deck and screened in patio - I think I want to paint the brick eventually.

Back of the house.

The yard and parking pad and our own private woods.

The End... for now...

Inspection - check! (Part One)

We had our inspection Saturday, and it went pretty well. We already knew two of the major things, one of which is getting replaced, but we did find some interesting inhabitants of the attic... BATS! That's right... a lovely colony of around 15 bats decided to make their home between the attic vent and the screen that keeps pests like that out! Needless to say, they must go.

I am still freaked out about they money. I just realize I like it a lot better where I can see it (i.e., online savings account) than over my head! Haha. I know once everything is said and done, I'll be happy and stop stressing (I hope!).

So, anyway, I took several pictures during the inspection, so here they are along with commentary of what we're going to change, slowly but surely.

View of the living room from the entry way - going to paint all of the common areas more of a khaki tan

View from living room into kitchen - first project will be to take down the shelf above the left doorway and paint inside of built-ins same color as walls (or maybe even a shade darker)... eventually, we want to knock out this wall and the pantry on the other side (there's another pantry type closet in the kitchen) to open up the space... we're also putting hardwoods in where you see carpet

kitchen - wall to the left will be knocked out, pantry will go to that back right closet, hardwoods will eventually extend into kitchen, island will be made wider (deeper?? maybe the right word would be deeper), counter and cabinets will extend further down the wall to the right and we'll have new granite or similar counters and new cabinets

We already got a lovely french door stainless GE fridge, thanks to Best Buy and 3 years no interest financing (also picked up a sweet front loading washer and dryer)... also in the kitchen renovation will include oven (double ovens if I can get my way, but I don't think I will) :) and microwave roughly where the current microwave is by window and gas cooktop with a sweet hood on the island. Since we're going to extend the counters and cabinets under that window, I don't mind losing that high up cabinet space. Also, we're going to do a lot of big drawers, because they're more efficient anyway. And, by the way, this won't be happening for a good year or so!

My least favorite room in the house and biggest compromise is this very small dining room. No way we can seat more than 6 in here, which limits formal dinner (because I throw so many of them), but I can live. I'm still devising ways to make it bigger and I think I want to at least open up the doorways wider at some point.

Sitting room off the master - new carpet and same paint as master. This may be an office at first, but I think it will eventually be a nursery. :) The master is downstairs and the bedrooms are upstairs, so I'm sure all the moms out there can relate with not wanting to go upstairs to feed a baby in the middle of the night.

Master bedroom - this will get new carpet, a greyish blue paint color, and a new ceiling fan. There's also a fireplace on the opposite wall of the bed I didn't take a picture of. It looks like the one in the living room.

View to the "hers" side of the master bath. There's a walk-in closet behind that. The his side is the same, except hers has a vanity and his has a small linen closet.

Shower, jetted tub and toilet connect the his and hers side. Not so keen on the green counter tops and tile... that will go eventually. Matt says he can tile, so we'll see! :)

Half bath - only needs paint... thinking a chocolate brown.

Upstairs landing looking down to front door - again, common area paint color and going to paint the spindles white and maybe rails black??? Might leave them wood, but then they won't match the new wood color (which will be a darker wood than is currently there)... hmmm...

Future guest bedroom #1 - new carpet and will eventually be painted. Didn't get a picture of the other bedroom, but it's pretty much the same.

Upstairs Jack and Jill bath... also on the eventually to do list... like tile instead of linoleum, paint, probably okay with the fixtures for a while...

Our first pets - the bats! haha, j/k, they're going bye bye!

Holy Crapoly!

Well, we are officially under contract on a house as of 6:05 pm yesterday! Ahhhhhh! I think I'm supposed to be excited, but every time I think about it, my stomach turns... or that could be because it's lunch time.

We have our inspection Saturday, and assuming all goes well, we will be homeowners (well, our bank will be... we'll just be in major debt) come July 20!

I'm trying to stimulate the economy here!

Throw me a bone. So, after doing more research (we're still buying a house... or planning to), I've realized some things aren't as good as they seem. Matt and I qualify for more home than we want to purchase, so no problems there. Since we're first time home buyers, we also qualify for as low as 5% down on a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage. However, if you put less than 20% down, you're required to have mortgage insurance (PMI). No big deal... it's now tax deductible, so it's not a big deal to me. Alternatively, you can do an FHA loan, but the max loan amount is $346,000 and it's more expensive money (read: higher interest rate and up front cost), but you don't have to pay PMI. Here's the kicker and the thing you don't hear about... although any lender is willing to give us a 95% LTV (loan to value) mortgage, mortgage insurance companies will not insure anything over 90% LTV and some won't insure over 85% LTV (this is specific to Atlanta and any other markets that are considered declining or oversupplied, so basically anywhere in the sunbelt). The MI companies are just flat out of capital due to all of the foreclosures. I had no idea, and I work in real estate (albeit, commercial, but still). Also, we may not qualify for the $8,000 tax credit afterall. I never thought I'd complain about making too much money. We'd qualify if they go by your 2008 tax return, but I'm assuming they'll use the 2009 return, and of course Matt gets his project bonus for the last 2.5 years this year (most likely), and I'm earning more than I did last year. Again, I'm very happy we are both doing well in our careers, but I didn't realize there was a cutoff earnings amount for the tax credit. Doesn't the government know we're trying to buy a house in intown Atlanta and it's freaking expensive?!? We need that $8K! :)

So, anyway, that's my rant for the day. Maybe I educated someone on what's going on in the market. Thankfully, we're still okay having to put 10% down, and we may still do FHA depending on the difference between a low rate plus PMI and a higher rate with no PMI. If we have to put 15% down, we're going to have to start looking at a lower price point or liquidate an investment or two (hey, do realized losses factor into AGI... hmmmmm...). :)

P.S. I just want to add that Matt and I are very smart with our money... we have no debt except my student loan at an extremely low interest rate, which is why we don't just pay it off. We're not trying to get into more house than we can afford, and I don't advise anyone buying something with monthly payments more than 25-30% of your net earnings. We just wanted to conserve as much of our savings as possible, which is why we were looking at 5% down since money is so cheap right now. Our payments would have hit our target range. Just wanted to clarify that! :)

Big news...

No, I am not pregnant. :) But, we are buying a house! I guess that's a bit premature, but we are looking into buying a house. I am filling out paperwork to get prequalified for a mortgage, and I met with a super cute, super sweet realtor this morning (quite different from GRITS crazy realtor). If any of you are intown Atlanta readers and looking to buy/sell a home, check out Mary Stuart Iverson with Harry Norman. I hope we become friends after the buying part is over!

Matt and I have talked about buying a home for a while, but with him getting sent down to the booming metropolis of Tifton, GA for work, we decided to take a step back. And, then we (I?) decided that this market was too good to pass up. Interest rates are so low, prices are down, and we get an $8,000 tax credit. Plus, I'm ready to grow up a little more and have a house and a dog and then maybe some kids, too. ;) Sometimes I can't tell how he feels about it (he expresses emotion at strange times and sometimes in strange ways), but I left the decision up to him, and he said let's do it.

I have been internet searching for a while, but I can't wait to actually start looking at some of these houses. There were a couple I've had my eye on, and Mary Stuart instantly told me I didn't want a few of them. I love her honesty. She's not going to let us get into something that won't be a good investment. Our lease expires July 31, so depending how it goes at first, we may be in a house by then. If it looks like it might take us longer than we want, we'll try to extend our lease a month or two and keep looking, but I anticipate we will own our first home by the end of the summer. Who wants to come be our first house guests!?