Therablog: Happy SPRING!

Whew! After a looooong/short-feeling last 2 months I decided it was about time to re-venture into the world of blogging! A LOT has been going on since I last blogged -- good stuff, just majorly time-consuming.

My favorite news? We're buying a house!

Julian and I had been talking about the long-term possibility of buying a house in this area.....but figured it would have to be awhile because housing prices in this area are SO expensive! As a comparison, my parents bought the house I grew up in (in Fairfax, Virginia) for $115K in 1985. When they sold it in 2003, they listed it for $399K and accepted a bid for it at $408K. MAJOR price change! The house was a good house, but nothing new, not as big as many of my friends' parents had......and it sold for over $400K!!!! Looking at home prices in this area (Annapolis, Arnold, Crofton, Edgewater -- all areas surrounding Annapolis) we were coming across old, run-down homes listed in the low $300K's.....and on up from that. Nothing that we were interested in.....especially since it would be our first home together (and my wonderful hubby has zero experience doing home maintenance, yard work, etc......not to mention that he's trying to finish his book by the early part of next year and doesn't have much spare time to tackle "home projects.").

We decided that a good first home for us would be less than 20 years old, minimal maintenance, minimal yard work.....a good opportunity for us (Julian, mostly....since I owned a home 4 years ago in Lubbock) to get our feet wet with as little fear as possible for the outcome! We were both sick of the rent we were paying -- I'll be transparent about this to give you an idea of apartment prices here.....we pay $1935/month for a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment with a garage. EEK!!!!! We wanted to be putting that money toward something useful. And even though the plan for kids is to NOT have them for another 3-4 years......I have made it very clear to Julian that I don't really want to have them while living in an apartment....especially since we're now both in our [early] 30s.

So.....we started looking at homes the first weekend in February (after I had been on the online hunt since last fall....just for fun!) and I started falling in love with some townhomes in Edgewater. It is a small community named River Oaks with townhomes built in the early 2000's. There was one in particular that I LOVED -- beautiful interior, entering on the ground floor, 3 floors total, hardwood floors on the middle level, 3 of the 4 rooms were pretty small, but very do-able, beautiful decor, etc. So we looked at it and put a bid in that night....only to find out that we did not get the house. Yes, there were a few negatives -- the 2 bathrooms were both on the 3rd floor (with the master bedroom and bedrooms 2-3). There was a room on the ground floor that had plumbing for a half bathroom.....but just the plumbing, nothing completed. But we LOVED the townhouse! But....apparently it wasn't God's plan for us!

So over the next few days I kept my eyes pealed for any other homes in the area to pop up on the market. Some of them were out of our price range, but some were close enough that we hoped a lower bid with no counter offers would keep us in our range. Low and behold....several days later another house popped up.....with even more to love! 3 full bathrooms, hardwood floors throughout, a sitting room with a fire

place on the middle floor -- BEAUTIFUL! Not really our colors and brass fixtures (we like stainless steal or brushed nickel).....but those can be changed! Well knowing how quickly that other townhouse was snatched off the market, Julian and I discussed the situation and agreed that if I liked it when I went to look at it (on a Wednesday morning.....he couldn't go until Saturday), I would put a bid in and he would see the house that weekend. A few counteroffers later....and a bunch of stress I might add (it was my extra stressful time of the month and I am not the most patient person already....and I really loved the house and wanted us to be able to get it).....and we got it! We close on it next Tuesday! We won't move in until June because the current owners are having a house built that won't be ready until then....and they're paying us rent for the next 2 months so we could lock in and close with our wonderul 5.0% mortgage intact!!

Many, many more details about this could be shared......but I better stop and get back to work......and post a few more photos of our beautiful soon-to-be new home!!