Updates to Our House

Living Room painted blue - check
Locks Changed - check
Light fixtures changed - check
Getting a nice lawn mower - check
Organizing our master closet - check!

We still need to -

paint the trim work in the living room
paint the dining room
paint the trim work in the dining room
paint the trim in the downstairs hallway
paint all the doors white
change the house #s on our mail box
change out the outdated ceiling fans
find window treatments for the every room
change out a bathroom fixture
find a rug for the dining room
put blinds up in the kitchen and dining room
and then I can really begin to decorate!

I really hope for Nick's sake that we're able to get all this done fairly quickly because I hate painting and I don't enjoy doing things on the weekends so I can be a bit cranky to deal with at times when I have to spend my Saturday painting or even worse, sweating while I do all this house work! I hate sweat! I don't like seeing other people sweat and I especially don't like it when I sweat. I am extremely grossed out by sweat. Every time I touch Nick when he's sweaty I immediately make some comment like, "you're sweaty! gross!!!" and then I race to the bathroom to wash my hands. This weekend being a 4 day weekend we should be able to get a lot of work done on the house. - M

The Adventures of Moving

Moving day came & went! We decided not to get a moving truck on the day of our move because one place we went to didn't have anything bigger than a passenger van & the other place we went to was going to charge us over $123 to rent a 16' truck for the day & that didn't include the .89 per mile we'd have to pay, which would have been another $28. So we drove away feeling defeated and frustrated, but we were hopeful that our parents would be willing to make multiple trips to make up for our need to save money by not getting an over-priced moving truck. We were not surprised when we shared the news with our parents that they were more than nice & were willing to make as many trips as we needed to move everything. On a side note, in the moving truck store, at the over-priced company, (which I won't name) as soon as the lady told us the price & that there were no AAA discounts, I blurted out, "THAT'S RIDICULOUS! THAT'S WAY OVER-PRICED!" Nick and I walked out & as soon as we got in the truck he said, "that was rude!" I was rather happy with myself for letting that lady know how I felt about their prices and I said to Nick, "I'm sorry, I felt like it was important for her to know that they are charging too much!" The move went great, despite not having a moving truck & the unbearable hot temperatures & humidity. We had two pick up trucks, one van, and one sedan that took 2 trips to and from our apartment to our house. By the way, it's kinda crazy to think that we currently have 2 residents. Our lease at the apartment is up on June 30th so technically we could sleep at the apartment or house. We feel so blessed & thankful to have such supportive parents and friends that were able & willing to help us move! It was such a big day for us to move into our first house! Thankfully, no one was hurt & everyone was in good spirits during our move. It was funny moving our couch into the house. There's stairs right when you walk into our house so to get the couch in we had to have 4 people helping & they ended up having to turn the couch on its side & then over the banister. It reminded me of the Friends episode where Ross & Chandler are trying to move a couch in a stairway & Ross keeps yelling, "PIVOT." I thought of that episode because it felt like it took forever for us to figure out to get the couch inside.

Saturday was our first night in the house. We woke up on Sunday & it was our three month wedding anniversary! I said, "Happy 3 months!" Then Nick said, "so on our first month I took you to Nags Head, on our two month, we signed our loan application papers, and now on our three months we're waking up in our first house, don't expect to get anything on our four months!" We love our house! We have been busy cleaning - the bathrooms & the floors. We are hopefully going to start painting on Friday. Once all the painting is completed then I will post before & after pictures. For now we are just happy to have a house, one that is definitely big enough for us & will soon be turned into a home! - M

Excitement

Great news - We received an email from our realtor today saying that the sellers have ordered the carpets to be shampooed before we move in!!! This was a total surprise to us! We had not asked for the carpets to be cleaned nor did we even think they were dirty because if there were, believe me we would have asked them to be cleaned or asked for a carpet allowance. I am super excited about this! We have had the best sellers this go around. Oh & we finally read the appraisal report for the house and we are starting out with equity! I won't go into the financial details, but I will say, we made a great investment! Anything we do to upgrade the house will add even more value to the house. I am so pleased with how smooth the home buying process has been for us. We are 3 days away from closing and we are super excited! We feel so blessed to be buying such a big house! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would one day be able to say that I own a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house! I am starting to get overwhelmed by the idea of having that much space to decorate! We are going to leave 2 of the bedrooms empty because we figure that one day we'll have at least 2 kids to fill those bedrooms so why get use to having that extra space when one day you're going to have to give it up?! That's our way of thinking anyways. Oh & our realtor also told us today that the entire upstairs has been emptied so when we do our final walk through tomorrow we'll really get to see the living space for what it is. I am starting to get really excited about getting to have a destinated space for my scrapbooking stuff. I never realized how much scrapbooking stuff I have until I had to pack it all up for our move. Speaking of packing and stuff, we had a yard sale this past Saturday. We got rid of some stuff, about 2 containers worth of stuff. We made more money than we thought we would make, but it would have been nice to get rid of everything! I have been actively posting stuff on Craiglist hoping to recoup some of our money rather than donating it all. Oh & I am really looking forward to not having to share a sink with my husband! As much as I love my husband, it's hard to share a sink with someone when you both are trying to use it! We are constantly bumping into one another in our tiny bathroom at our apartment. I am also really looking forward to being able to host events at our house. We are hoping to be able to host Christmas at our house this year which will be nice because it will be our first married Christmas together and we'll be able to have my family over on Christmas morning which will be very special. My dad has already joked about staying the night in our guest bedroom. I told him that was fine as long as he is willing to be in charge of cooking the turkey! It will be so nice to have the space to have overnight guests when we have babies! Ok I should probably stop myself right there! - M

Reality Setting In

Great news, our mortgage loan has been approved and the appraisal came back fine!!! Huge relief! As if we weren't excited before, now we are super, uber excited about our house! Hearing the official word that our loan has been approved makes everything more real. We are going to see the house again tonight to see how the repairs are coming along. Nick was not there for the inspection so I thought it was important for us to go back to the house so I can point out what was on the inspection report and what the sellers are fixing. Oh & we need to take some measurements so we can decorate! I am most excited about decorating the living room and dining room. The layout of the house is you walk in, the living room is on your immediate right, it's very open and the living room opens to the dining room with a serve through window with a bar. I had the hardest time falling asleep last night because I was fantasizing about eating breakfast every morning at that bar while I watch the news. In our apartment we eat our breakfast during the work week on the couch so we can eat quickly and watch the traffic and weather report on the news. I also started thinking about how much of an adjustment it's going to be to have a two-story house! Our master bedroom will be upstairs so we'll have to allow time for eating breakfast downstairs and then shower and get ready upstairs. It takes me an hour and 15 minutes to get ready during the work week so I'm going to have to allow extra time for going up and down those stairs! Hey maybe we'll get in shape! ha! And speaking of adjusting, our house will be 24 miles away from my work so I will have a slightly longer commute time. Right now we live about 18 miles from my work and it takes me 30 minutes to get there. Nick and I have decided that posting before and after pictures of the interior spaces of our house is a must! Right now the whole downstairs has medium brown trim - chair railing, baseboard, and crown molding and it makes the rooms feel dark so our first task when we move in is to paint all the trim work white! Just that small change will make all the rooms feel brighter, modern, and more open. We also plan on changing out some the out dated light fixtures. While we aren't remodeling the house, we are optimistic that these small changes will completely change the look and feel of the rooms. I can't wait to move in and start painting! We are so excited about our first house and making it our home! How many times can I use the word, "excited" in this blog??!

Just In Time

Nick wrote the last blog and although he did a great job, the post was very short and it didn't included any details about our adventure together so far!

So here goes. The honeymoon was amazing! It was absolutely unforgettable and very relaxing! We left our apartment on Monday morning at around 5:45 to get to the airport with plenty of time to make our 8:10 AM flight from RDU to Atlanta. Going through security at the airport I was a little pissed off at myself when I was told I had to throw away my curly hair gel. I was so mad at myself for not packing it in our check luggage, I knew better! After waiting at our gate for about an hour, we learned that the flight was delayed by 2 hours, we would not leave RDU until 10 AM. We were a little upset upon hearing that news, but we weren't going to let it bother us, we were on our honeymoon! My husband asked the attendant at the counter if we would make our connecting flight in Atlanta to Montego Bay, he was told, "yes. you should have about 40 minutes to make your connecting flight, but there are no more flights on any airline to Montego Bay for the day." Nick came by and told me what he was able to find out from the attendant. We were both immediately panicking, what if we didn't make our connecting flight??! We would have to stay overnight in Atlanta! our flight from RDU to Atlanta took off at 10:30. We landed in Atlanta at 11:45. Our flight to Montego Bay was scheduled to take off at 12:10. We had 25 minutes to catch our flight! Once our feet landed in the Atlanta airport, we checked the computer flight board to see if our flight was on time. We spotted the words "ON TIME" at the same time and we both yelled, "IT'S ON TIME." We started running! Nick had our 2 carry on bags, we were both running! I was about 10 feet in front of Nick the whole time, poor guy was struggling with our carry on bags weighing him down! We literally ran from terminal A to terminal E. The whole time we're running I was saying, "please God let us make this flight!" We arrived at the gate completely out of breath! The lady at the ticket counter said, "I'm sorry. We just closed the doors, we paged you, we waited as long as we could." Feeling completely exhausted from the long distance running we just did, I collapsed on the floor. When then went to the Delta flight/ticket change counter to see if we could change our tickets for a flight that would leave that next morning. I went to buy us bottles of water while Nick handled the ticket change. I turn around from buying the water bottles and I see my husband about 400 feet away, looking frantic, frantically searching for me. I raised my hand and flagged him down. Full of excitement, Nick says, "they're holding the plane for us, if we go now we can get on the plane." My reaction, "WHAT??!" So we run, again! We were able to get on the plane because there was a malfunction with the check luggage latch. We were relieved that we made the flight and that we made it to Jamaica! Our check bag did not make it to Jamaica until the next day around lunch time. We were happy and relieved once our bag made it to Jamaica! I had done all the packing for our honeymoon and I did not pack pants, toiletree items, or sunscreen on our carry on bags. Had our checked luggage not arrived, my husband would have not had any pants!

Since the honeymoon we have been adjusting to married life. We are buying our first house!!! The house that will soon be ours' is 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms on .73 acres! We are super excited about our first house! I am most excited about the extra space the house will offer us, the wonderfully large and relaxing master bath we'll have, and the reality that we will raise our unborn children in this house! Gosh I cannot wait to make this house our home! I have been busy looking at and buying furniture off Craiglist. We have bought 2 couches, a dining room table and chairs, matching hutch, and a matching coffee table and end table all from Craiglist. I am the newest biggest fan of Craiglist! Not only have I been buying, I have been selling items on there as well. I have sold some of our furniture and some left over wedding items. With all of my recent purchases, our apartment is getting smaller and smaller. The lack of space is really bothering Nick and stressing him out. For that reason I have agreed to stop buying large, bulky items, like furniture until after we move. After all, marriage is all about compromises!

So now it's time for me to give some encouragement to our readers and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Literally right after we got back from our honeymoon we started our house hunt. We made our lists of must haves and likes, but negotiable items to have in our house. We saw about 5-10 houses a week for about 4 weeks. We saw one house we liked, but we decided not to pursue it because the upstairs was not permitted and the house had changed owners rather frequently. We keep looking and we found a house that gave us that "feels like home" feeling. We really liked the house, it was warm and inviting, plenty of space, nice backyard, seems like a great neighborhood, etc. We were excited and put in our offer. Up against two other offers we decided to make our offer really good, we wanted the house and we didn't want to risk losing it to someone else. Our offer was accepted, we were under contract. About 2 days after we're under contract we find out that DOT has plans to put in a major interstate within 1/4 mile from the back of our property. We decided not to worry about it because we liked the house. We had the inspection, nothing major was wrong with the house. Put our repair requests into the seller. The seller took more than 3 days to respond to our requests which made us concerned. Beginning of May we both started to feel stressed out about the house, reality set in and we started wondering how we're going to be able to afford this house. The stress builds when we realize that we would always have to be a 2 income family. Then we find out that there was a possible lien on the house, meaning the contractor had not been paid and if he continued to not be paid then he could go in and rip out all the work he had done on the house. We spoke with our realtor and decided it was best for us to back out of the contract and not purchase this house. Our main reason for deciding not to purchase this house was the finances, the numbers were not appealing and as much as we liked the house we did not want to lose sleep at night wondering how we were going to be able to afford the mortgage, groceries, etc. Realizing we were back to the drawing board, back to house hunting, we were not excited. We were trusting that we had made the right decision, but it was hard to convince ourselves of that because backing out meant that we would NOT receive the $8,000 tax credit. I decided we should go back to a house we had liked before but were worried about the un-permitted space. We saw the house for the second time. We loved it. The space was still un-permitted so we decided to keep looking in hopes that we would find a house that we loved more and had no major concerns going into buying. We never found a house we loved more. We went back to visit the house a third time, we still loved it. We put in our offer. Our offer was countered. We countered their counter, they countered our counter and we accepted! Since we've been under contract, the square footage has been updated for tax purposes so no worries. The inspection went well, no major issues. We were nervous about starting the loan process over again, but to our surprise, we got a lower interest rate than before with the previous house and we received money back from our lender from the previous house! I tell you this loooong story to put out that God was looking out for us all along! God knew that there was a better house out there for us and he made sure we were financially taking care of. The house we are buying is 347 square feet bigger and the lot size is .11 of an acre smaller than the other house, so more space inside but slightly smaller lot. We will be saving roughly $38,000 during the lifetime of the loan by picking a house with a lower asking price and smaller loan amount. We have absolutely no hesitations about this house and it feels so good!

We have learned so much within the last 2 months of marriage! Throughout our house hunting and home buying we have had to make major decisions together and because of that we have grown closer together.

Long Time No Updates!

Holy cow! It's been too long since an update was posted here.

We've changed this blog to reflect the two of us, not just one of us. We got married back in March and it's been great so far! The honeymoon in Jamaica was wonderful! We had an adventure getting there but still enjoyed the trip.

We're buying our first house, which is exciting. The apartment has just gotten a tab too small. Can't wait to move in and have more space.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully we'll keep this more up to date.

-N

73 Days to Go!

Whew! Man are we busy! We have a lot to get done this month! Nick and his groomsmen are getting fitted for their tuxedos this Friday! I can't believe we're already at that point in our wedding planning! These past three months have gone by really fast, I guess the holidays will do that to you! Speaking of the holidays, we had a wonderful Christmas! On Christmas Eve we went to his parents' house. His mom and sister made us a delicious lunch and then we opened presents. His mom made me a stocking with my name on it and put all kinds of goodies in there! I was really impressed and touched by their generosity. Then on Christmas Day we opened gifts together in the morning. It was really nice getting to spend Christmas morning together! This was the first year that we were able to spend the whole day together! We went to my aunt's house to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my mom's side of the family. I tried to prepare Nick for the large amount of gifts I knew he would receive, but I think he was still overwhelmed! My family is really good about getting almost all, if not everything on your list. We got so many useful things to start our life together, it was really exciting! Now that Christmas and New Year's Eve have come and gone, we're back on top of wedding planning! There's still a lot left to get done, but we're really organized, maybe too organized for some people. I've made a list of things to get done each week and monthly deadlines since I know things come up and we can't always meet our weekly deadlines. Self-imposed deadlines are wonderful for me, it makes me feel more confident and in control. At the end of the week, when Sunday night rolls around, I know there's four things we can cross off our list! It's so exciting when I get to cross things off! It means we're one step closer to being done with wedding planning!

I could write a book on all the things not to do and things people don't tell you to be prepared for when planning a wedding! I will say, although we haven't had the greatest support, financially or emotionally, it has made us depend on each other and has made us stronger as a couple. Now we're able to have better discussions and make decisions together. All the lessons we've learned about each other through the process of planning our wedding make me happy because I know they'll make our marriage stronger. Had we had a wedding planning or moms helping us each step of the way, I know we would not have learned as much as we did about each other. It also makes me happy knowing that Nick and I have made every single wedding decision together. The only thing I've bought on my own without his input was my wedding dress. Not many brides can say that. Since I didn't have my wedding planned out before he proposed, it's been very important to me to have his opinion and to know that we both love every aspect of our wedding. I feel sorry for the grooms that never get asked their opinion on things because though they may not admit it, they care and want their bride to ask for their opinion. I'll get off my soap box! I know everything will come together, even if it's last minute. I can't wait to marry my best friend!