Last week I showed off near-sparkling photos of my house a year after we’ve lived in it. Well, I have a confession.

It doesn’t look that way normally.

For about a week, Brian and I went back and forth on getting the house picked up enough to do that blog post, and in the end, I shoved all our crap around and strategically photographed the rooms. (while Brian laughed at me in the background)

Here’s a sneak peak into what it really looks like:

Those are what I like to call “standing” messes for the most part. That means, they’re pretty much always there, with a little variation. Except the kitchen counter with the fruit on it. Normally there is not that amount of fruit on our counters, haha.

Those photos might even be picked up a little from the usual. I couldn’t even bear to share my bedroom.

There, I feel better now, getting that off my chest.

We are a week into our new house! I love love love it. Moving was stressful and no fun, but totally worth it in the end. And the last thing you want to do after moving into a new house is clean the old, but we did and left it fairly pleasant I think.

We did decide to get the furniture from my parents the day before our official move, so that was good and meant we didn’t have to move old furniture we were getting rid of anyway. Tony took it off our hands. My parents furniture, while probably just as old, is in slightly better condition and reclines, which is excellent!

The house is practically like new, and they even steam cleaned the carpets before we moved in which is super! The puppy had a hard time for the first couple days, but is pretty good now. Staying off furniture and off the bed, and learning the electric fence. Not too bad thus far! Brian already is investing in a couple home improvement things, I’m not surprised. We got a new thermostat and a water thing for upstairs which I don’t fully understand but means that the water will warm much quicker and we won’t waste as much water waiting for the heat.

It’s weird having so many bathrooms! And a pantry and cabinets that actually hold everything we own! We have rediscovered some wedding gifts. Kitchen is pretty much unpacked, closet is pretty much unpacked. There’s decorating stuff in the dining room and the office still needs a lot of work (computer is not yet up and running). But the house is almost guest ready. I took some more days off (Friday & Monday this weekend) to do some extra unpacking, though I haven’t really gotten much done in reality so far.

I recently got a promotion at work and will be switching to the IT department on June 1. The position is a Business Analyst position and  I will continue working with the .com team in a different capacity, though continuing to manage our testing process for code releases.

I think next weekend Brian and I are going to look at bedroom furniture, and a little table for the entryway. Oh I just have to say also that the laundry room on the second floor is amazing. I LOVE it. And our neighbors seem really nice (at least one set; we haven’t really met the others). The ones we’ve met are named Curtis and Kelly. They are both pharmacists and are expecting their first baby in August (a surprise). They seem very nice and young, I think we will hang out.

It actually already feels like old news to me, I can’t believe how fast things are moving!

So very shortly after my last post, we got a phone call from our realtor; apparently the guy who low balled us weeks ago came back looking for some further  negotiation. After some short back and forth and pre-approval on his end (he’s retired so had a fixed income), we negotiated to both our satisfactions. It’s still lower than what Brian paid for it 8 or so years ago, but it’s understandable considering the market. In fact shortly after we signed the contract, I started getting emails (Washington Post, I skim headlines) about the housing market being at record lows again, so all things considered I feel very lucky and the man should feel like he’s getting a deal. Our realtor said it was the cleanest offer he’d seen in a long time (no contingencies, etc.)

I was a little concerned about inspection; after all the house is really old and there are a lot of things that will need replaced at some point. The man only wanted a replaced electrical box! This was also excellent considering we already dipped very low from our original asking price.

Conveniently, this all started happening just before we sat down with the for-sale-by-owner couple; our “contingent” offer was much less contingent. We were able to say it would be just contingent on the current pending offer of our house, which sounds much better than contingent on some unknown pending sale in the distant future.

We sat down with them a number of times, for several hours each time, negotiating the price down and trying to get some amenities to make up for the higher price. We didn’t involve our realtor. It was a little weird, negotiating for the most expensive thing we’ve ever owned, sitting down at a table without an intermediary.

All in all, it’s a fair price for what we are getting (3 car garage, bigger yard, all appliances including washer & dryer, etc.., not to mention we negotiated for the dining room table, a small bedroom set and twin bed upstairs so at least we don’t have to buy guest room furniture any time soon, and a lower bathroom cabinet). I am particularly exciting about the dining room table because that is a luxury we probably wouldn’t have purchased any time soon and we would have had an empty room for a while!

The house is about 5 minutes or less from Brian’s parents; it’s just 2 years old and needs no work done; what we will work on will be for fun, for us, not because we have to. I am excited to plant flowers and make my own house beautiful!

So we are sale pending, not technically sold, but all inspections and appraisals are done so I expect no issues. We are supposed to close end of April, though I am wondering if we will be able to make things move a little quicker. Everyone has been very quick so far! Now, I am just waiting…

Okay, I last updated in October, which seems like a ridiculously long time to go without posting. I guess you could say it’s been a whirlwind, consisting mainly of holidays and getting the house ready to sell.

So our contract with the realtor we have ends March 31. Hopefully he is super motivated to get this thing sold. We had an offer, but it was way too low. He was looking for a deal, but Brian and I aren’t desperate (yet). We have friends who took nearly a year to sell their house. If Brian and I get to that point, ask us again.

The first set of houses that we went and looked at were difficult for me. I had a hard time looking at things that I couldn’t have yet (probably would sell before we sold) and a hard time looking at houses that I hated as soon as I walked in them (waste of time). It ended on the worst note because we stopped at Brian’s co-worker’s house. Him and his wife had recently purchased a house at a great price for what they got; plus it was a new construction and just phenomenal. Brian and I, to get the tax credit, are not going to be able to build a house nor are there any new houses by that builder in progress to snatch up either so… I had fallen in love with a house that was an impossibility.

I got over it. This past weekend we looked at some more houses. We saw one with potential that was reasonably priced and then saw one that we both loved though it was huge and looked like it would get snatched up really quick. So I quickly put that from my mind (though it had an amazing craft room and bar…. sigh…)

Well, we found a house that we love above all others…. question is, will they take a contingent offer? (that is, go under contract with us that we will buy their house after ours sells). Things look fairly promising, but we don’t have a firm yes or no yet, after which of course we have to negotiate a price, time limit… etc… The house is closer to Brian’s parents and it also is higher priced than any others, but taxes are lower there and if we lock in that super low interest rate this week, the house is still well within our reach. The house is also for sale by owner and we haven’t gotten our realtor involved yet because obviously there is more flexibility that way. We’ll see.

This week I feel pretty optimistic. Ask me again tomorrow, it might be a different story but right now I feel really good about things. We had a good showing this past weekend and that realtor plans on bringing another potential buyer over. Snow is finally starting to melt so people will be able to see the yard hopefully by the weekend. The yard is the selling point.

So back to the new love of my life, this house. It has a three car garage, second floor laundry, 4 bed, 2.5 bath, unfinished 12 course basement (the basement is smaller due to the extra garage but still lots of good finishable space and ready for another bath down there too). It has an extra poured concrete spot next to the garage, and patio in the back. 1/2 acre lot which is considerable for the houses we’ve been looking at. Hard to move down from .9 acres to .25! But this .5 is do-able. Invisible fence already installed. Real fence along the back of the yard, all the same fence along the back of the neighbor’s on either side also. Beautiful kitchen, lots of closet space. New neighborhood, the house was built in 2007. Young people next door too. What more could you possibly want? Not a thing. This is nearly my dream house and everything we’ve been looking for.

Hope hope hope