What Closing On Our First Home Was Like (and some updated pics!)

First of all, I apologize for not posting this sooner, but let's just say, "When it rains, it pours."  Not only did things start moving incredibly fast on the home buying front, but work really started picking up, too.  A project that I've been working on for the past couple of months got kicked into high gear with the due date pushed up to July 31st and the only day we have available on the calendar to move into our new home is Saturday, July 27th.  I've been trying to balance working overtime on the project and prepping the home for move-in day, so things have been a little nuts.

Our closing was on Monday at 10:00 am and our final walk through was just prior to that at 9:00 am.  By Noon, we were back at the home for the first time as homeowners and had our first visitors when my in-laws came to see it for the first time.  I was way too excited to hear our doorbell ring!

Final Walk-Through

At 9 AM, we got to the house before our Agent did.  This gave us a chance to take a few exterior pictures and do a walk around the outside of the home, which I think is pretty important since we hadn't seen it in a couple of months (since our inspection): 

Since our home is "north-facing," it typically accumulates some moss on the siding, which a yearly washing is supposed to keep away.  I can't wait to give our new home a nice, sudsy bath!

Next, we walked around the backyard and checked out the lower deck, which was now cleaned of all the previous owner's belongings:

The split-rail fencing around the perimeter of the deck will likely be removed.  It also needs to be washed really well and a couple of loose boards will have to be re-secured.  

Next, we checked out the upper level of the deck:

You can see our shed in the background here and the upper deck itself looks pretty good!  I think this will make a great outdoor hangout area and I can't wait to spruce it up!

Here's the opposite angle:

But here is where it really got interesting.  We were told that the seller had already moved to Arizona (his mother attended closing in his place) and when we checked out the rest of the yard, we noticed...

He left us some fishy friends!

The terrible thing is that he didn't leave us any fishy food and we can't even move in for a couple of weeks anyway.  I'm going to send my brother to the house to take care of them and he's sort of a fish-tank expert, so I'm hoping he'll be able to help us clean it up a little, too.  My next task would be convincing my Husband to keep the Koi Pond, since he's not a big fan.  He'd rather have plush, green lawn, which I understand.  BUT... FISH!

At this point, our Agent arrived and we were able to go inside.  I don't know why, but I was kind of nervous.  I guess I was worried I wouldn't love it anymore or something, which is silly.  

I definitely still loved it, but I will say that the change in seasons made a difference.  The trees/landscaping were more bare less overgrown when we last saw the home and let's not forget how a humid heat wave in NY can impact a vacant home in terms of the types of odors it brings out.  

When we first walked in, it smelled kind of musty to me.  I think the home just needs a good cleaning and to be aired out, but it was a little off-putting (I have a sensitive sniffer), but then I noticed these stains on the hardwood floors in the Living Room:

I'm 90% sure those are pet urine stains (if this were smell-o-vision, you'd probably agree) and while we saw a couple of them during our first tour of the home, there were far more that were visible once the furniture was removed.  You can see it worse in this photo (allow my Husband's hairy arm to point them out to you):

We'll likely need to have these re-finished down the line.  Until then, we'll just cover them up decorate with a nice area rug.  

Next, we checked out the Kitchen.  Something about this house is that it currently has really cheap finishes.  I don't mind it so much, because I know we can change them over time and make it better, but on our short list is replacing the Microwave, Oven, Dishwasher and Refrigerator.  We're planning on going with stainless steel and I think a really easy but impactful change would be the hardware on the cabinets!  I can't wait to replace them with some pretty brushed nickel knobs! *swoon*

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that someone laid linoleum tile over the hardwood floors in this Kitchen.  After we've had the chance to live in the house for a little while, we're planning to renovate it and I'll likely use that as an opportunity to reveal the original hardwood floors.  

Here is the extension that was added onto the Kitchen and was listed as a Formal Dining Room.  I'd like to replace the carpet with some hardwood flooring to try to match what exists in the Living Room and Kitchen (beneath the linoleum).  And let's not even talk about those window dressings:

If we make our way down the hallway off the Kitchen, it takes us to where the bedrooms and bathroom are on the lower level.  Take a peek at our pinky-paneled bathroom:

We have some big plans to completely renovate this bathroom, but I have to say, despite how old and outdated it is, it's in pretty good condition!

Across from the pinky-paneled bathroom is the bedroom that we're planning to use as our Master for the time-being.  We're doing this to save on cooling/heating costs until our family expands.  As you can see, the carpet has got to go and I'm hoping to get rid of it before we even move in.  It looks like it might be older than I am.

 A few other things worth mentioning about this room are that the wall covering that looks like wall paper in this picture are actually wall paper PANELS.  I have no idea what's under them, but I noticed they had been nailed into the wall.  I'm hoping there's dry wall beneath them, but I guess we'll have to wait to find out!  Here's the same room from the opposite angle:

Finally, on the lower level is the smallest bedroom of the four in the house.  We think it'll make a great Nursery down the line and for the time being, we'd like to use it as a temporary Guest Room.  That is, as soon as we remove the carpet and that little corner shelf that I think no one besides my cat would really love.  Eventually, we'd like to make it a designated office.

Closing on the House

Closing was... interesting.  Basically, there was a weird issue where the previous owners thought we wanted to keep these big, black glass and metal shelving units that were in one of the upstairs bedrooms.  We don't know where this came from, but it came down to the fact that we didn't want them there (nor did we have the time to move them out ourselves) and they didn't want to remove them (especially since they thought we wanted to keep them).  There was some crazy misunderstanding, but it was a point of contention for a good 45 minutes where the lawyers actually walked away from the table, they threatened not to close - it was crazy.  Finally, it all got worked out and the pieces were supposedly removed from the home (we'll find out tomorrow when we go back to check it out).

Other than that, we signed a ton of papers, did a celebratory dance when they handed us the keys, said thank you and goodbye to our Agent and Lawyer and went back to the house to take some measurements!

I hope you'll stay tuned for our upcoming progress!

We're (Almost) Homeowners!!!!

I haven't written a blog post in the past few days, NOT because nothing has been going on, but because LOTS has been going on and I've just been so busy!  If you've been here before, you might know that we were in the process of purchasing our first home and had been anxiously-awaiting final loan approval, so that we could finally say this is Our Home:

Well, we received the "Clear-to-close" from our Bank on Wednesday, 7/10 and it's just been nothing but a total whirlwind since then.  However, I can finally report our official Closing and Move-in dates for you, which means lots more content for the blog is coming sooner than you think!  I can hardly contain my excitement!!!!

Our official Closing Date is

Monday, 7/15 at 10:00 am!

That morning, we will be doing our final walk-through at 9:00 am, which is when we get the opportunity to make sure that the house is in the same condition we agreed to purchase it in and that the items they agreed to fix have been.  Our Realtor is taking the keys from the final walk-through and bringing them straight to the closing table.  After the closing, those will be OUR KEYS!!!  During the walk-through (or right after closing - whichever allows us more time), I will finally be taking our own pictures of the (empty) house, so that you can see all the things the seller's photos don't show.  I'm talking FUN STUFF, like the huge bar in the basement, the second upstairs bedroom, the backyard, etc.  

As far as moving, we would have loved to have been able to move-in the next weekend, but we'll be away for our best friends' Wedding in Disney World, which we are SO excited for.  Instead, we've set our Move-In date for Saturday, July 27th!  In the weeks leading up to that date after closing, we will be trying to move a couple of boxes by car and I'd really like to take a couple of evenings to clean the house top-to-bottom before moving our stuff in, so we will have to try to make time for that.  

I know I sound like a little kid with how excited I am and all, but it's hard to describe what achieving this dream of home-ownership means to me.  It's a long story (that I'll save for a separate blog post), but it's something I'm so proud of.  Plus, it was getting a little insane how many times I'd "drive-by-stalk" our new house.  The next time we drive by it, we can actually go inside!  And we'll only be a few hours away from OWNING IT!!

I just wanted to say thank you to those who have stopped by the blog so far, as well as anyone who is new.  I hope you'll stick around while we practically decorate our entire first home! :)

Home Buying Status Update!

Last month, I posted an extremely detailed timeline for how our home buying process has been moving along.  At the time of that post, we were awaiting our Final Loan Approval, so that we could go ahead and actually schedule our closing date.

Well, the bad news is that 12 days later, we're still waiting for Final Loan Approval, BUT the good news is that we're a lot closer to getting it, because our new Town finally produced the paperwork that our bank needed in order for us to be approved.

Today, at 4 pm, I received an email from our Attorney that the paperwork was received by the Title Search Company and that my Attorney had already sent it to the Bank's Attorney and our Loan Officer.  Our Bank told us that it typically only takes about 24 hours to receive Final Loan Approval once that paperwork is received, so I'll be calling the Loan Officer tomorrow morning to make sure she received the paperwork and to confirm when we can expect to receive final approval.

The reason I've been so under the gun is that our Interest Rate Lock expires on July 18th.  We have to close before then, or we'll have to pay a fee to extend our lock.  It's not the end of the world if we have to pay the fee, but with all the projects we have planned for the new house, we certainly don't want to spend any more money than we absolutely have to.

I'm hoping that the next time you hear from me, we'll be approved for our mortgage and we'll have a definite closing and move-in date to share with you! In the meantime, you can countdown with us!

Time remaining until our Interest Rate Lock expires:

WEBSITE COUNTDOWN CLOCK