Housing situation....

Well, as some of you may or may not know, we had decided to put our home in New Hope up for sale on the market in hopes of selling and purchasing a new home. We sold our home on September 18th, 2009! We had already found a home for sale by owner just down the street from my mother-in-law's home. It was in Owens' Crossroads. Even after being pre-approved at first for $180K, then bumped up to $200K, and after we invested over $2000 in the home we were purchasing, and MOVED into the home, the financing fell through! So, on October 6th, we packed our stuffed and moved it to a storage builidng and moved in with my mother-in-law. Our plans were to get some stuff paid off and try to sell my Armada to rid us of a high car payment. Strangely, within days of us moving in with my mother-in-law I began getting multiple calls on people wishing to purchase my Armada. One week later, I was on my way to Pensacola, FL to sell my vehicle! We freed roughly $650 every month in payments by doing so. I didn't think it would be too bad with us having only one vehicle. After all, I only work two days a week and Steve is on disability, and we are home-bodies.. so it wouldn't matter. I found it does matter! It seems like he would need to go somewhere and we would need to be somewhere else.. we made it work though most of the time with the help of my mother-in-law allowing me to use her car on the weekends.
We wound up staying longer than planned at my mom-in-laws. We tried every means possible to find a home in the New Hope school district. We thought about buying land and building a home.. have to have a big down payment which we didn't have. So that was out. Then we thought about buying the land and putting a manufactured home on it. We went to several manufactured home dealers and found many nice homes we liked, but decided to get one from the dealer in Alexandria, AL. So, we payed a "down payment" or whatever of $100.. they ran our credit and called us a day or two later telling us we were approved. So, then it was off to find the land. We searched the MLS listings.. and didn't find much. We got all the physical addresses and for one reason or another ruled out several of them based on location. We were down to only ONE listing in the MLS. I posted and add on Craigslist only to get spammed with stupid e-mails. I also posted an ad at work. We hunted down one guy I had talked to in the past that had some land nearby. It took a lot to track down who owned the land.. and even more work to find him. I basically pulled the phone book out and started calling people with his same last name asking if they knew him... finally someone told me they did. They gave me his name and phone number. It was one I had tried calling before, but the line stayed busy. We loaded up and drove to find his home since we had mapquested it. Found him and talked to him- he wanted WAY too much and we had to do WAY too much work to the land and had to haul off some old trailors on the land... so that was out. Then I got a call from someone at work. We checked out his land.. very nice. Liked the location, the only work we would have to do is move a shed and trailor. Which by the time we added that in with his price, it wasn't too bad high, but we decided we didn't want to invest that in a manufactured home. The MLS listing was too high, and had to have a ton of work. So, manufactured home route was out! It took us forever to get that place to pay us our money back!!! But we did finally get it after many phone calls!
Then we moved onto the house thing- there was only one house that fit our needs. It was also in the subdivision as my MIL. It was too expensive and the owner wouldn't budge on the price.
The only other option was a hunter-home type house and you get what you pay for in those.. so I wouldn't consider it.
So, off we were house hunting in other places. I searched the MLS.. and came across a listing in Hazel Green. I told my hubby I wanted to look at it before we put an offer in on another house we had looked at in Hazel green. We pulled up.. and I was in love. It isn't the newest home.. and by far the nicest.. but it felt "homely".
It had a nice BIG porch which is hard to come by these days. It had a green roof- which at first I wasn't fond of- but hey- you can pray for hail storms..lol. Then as we visited more often I realized there were green in the bricks. The green shutters and roof matched perfectly and it made it look kinda cute. May still change that in the future. It needs a fence. The back yard look onto a field which is filled with deer alot. So, as tacky as it might sound, I figure a privacy fence down the sides and across the back put a chain length fence so we can still see the field/deer.
Then we walked into the front door into the foyer. It was nice. Real hard wood floors.. looking into the livingroom which had a huge bricked ventless gas fireplace! And a GREAT brick mason I might add! The livingroom had a triple trey ceiling and nice ceiling fan which was beautiful! The floor had the hardwood around the edges of the room with carpet in the middle. We found this different.. and we liked it! The foyer was a greyish color while the livingroom was a mint green color! YUCK! The trey parts got darker (green) as they went up! Then to the right we found the hallway.. again the greyish color with carpet. First to the right would be Kade's room. It was very big! Had an out-dated ceiling fan. Big closet with the bi-fold doors which I hate! And carpet! The room was a blue color- but a funky pastel kinda blue. Then the second door to the right off the haul would be Madi's room. It too was very big! It was a darker green color (I think from the color of one of the trey parts in the livingroom.) Had a nice big closet with bi-fold doors, out-dated ceiling fan, and carpet. Then at the end of the hall was a full bath. Ugly beige colored tub, sink, and toilet, outdated- vanity, counter-tops, light fixtures and flooring. It was an ugly peach color. It had a closet which was really nice!!! The only door to the left of the hall was Becky's teen suite. It had a large room which was a bright yellowed color. The fan was white- but obviously something was wrong with it and would need to be replaced. It had a large walk-in closet with and out-dated light, and a on-suite full bathroom with again same outdated beige tub, toilet, sink, vanity, counter-tops, and light fixtures. Ugly outdated wall-paper and flooring. It had no closet but the toilet was recessed so that you could put one of those over-the-comode shelves for towels and such.
Just off the livingroom (closest to the foyer) to the right is the dining room. It too was roomy. I loved the color of it. Very deep rich brown color. Had chair railing around the room and bead-board which was not installed correctly. Again- outdated lighting. It however, was the only room which had the faux wood white blinds like I like! All the other rooms have blinds- just all out-dated!!! The dining room has carpet. Then from the diningroom (and there is an entrance from the livingroom also) is the kitchen. NEEDS TON OF UPDATING. The sink is little and stainless steele with outdated faucet. Dishwasher is black, but out-dated. The fridge is a smaller fridge and beige or whatever color you call it. The microwave is black and out-dated. The stove was updated. It was stainless steel and didn't look very old at all. The cabinets were an oak color- needs to be updated, but maybe just a change of hardware will make it work. That or paint/stain them.. which will be tons of work. The couter tops are outdated and need to be replaced or painted.. The floor was hidious and the lighting is outdated! Has a nice eat-in area with bay windows. It is that hidious yellow color! There is no pantry which is bad- but there are plenty of cabinets. Then off the kitchen is another small hall way with outdated lighting and that same hidious flooring. To the right there is a door which leads into a garage. Pretty big, but can't fit two vehicles in it. There is a drop down ladder for storage into the attic which is nice. From the hallway straight ahead kinda to the left was the laundry room. It was pretty big and roomy with a cabinet for storage. The light didn't work very well and was outdated. It too had that hidous flooring. Then to the right of the hallway was the master suite. A HUGE room! SOOOOO big! It was a navy blue color. Very dark. Trey ceiling with outdated ceiling fan. There was a door to the right that lead to the deck. There was a door in the livingroom that lead to it too. The master suite had a huge walk-in closet! Then there is the bathroom. It is kinda long. Outdated lighting, double vanity, counter-tops, sinks, toilet, shower, and seperate tub. To the right is a bi-fold closet which had several shelve and is rather big. Same hidious flooring as the kitchen. Wallpaper and boarder are sooo old. Green and red mix stripe with white in it.. and flowered matching boarder.
Even with all the updating that needed to be done.. we saw so much potential. The house was already listed at a great price of $169,900. Most are listed in the $180Ks up here. It was 2500 sq ft. We loved it. Put an offer in and after countering- got the house for $165K with them paying all our closings. It passed inspection with flying colors! They fixed the few minor repairs that we asked for. And the home appraised for $174K as it is now!!! We closed on Dec 17th. But couldn't move in b/c we had to paint and get rid of those hidious colors before we moved in.
I cleaned the carpets well and cleaned the house., We kilzed and painted.. and moved in on Dec 29th, but didn't start staying there until the next night.
We love it here. Still have tons of work to do.. but it will be well worth it in the end. I will post another blog with what all we have done to the house when it is complete.. and include pics before and after.