Thanksgiving

 We enjoyed our tradition of Thanksgiving dinner & board games at my Mom's house.

My brother was hilarious after a bottle of wine and was so excited to talk to Jackson about his Robotics club. He was like a little kid at Christmas as they compared robot stories. Then he got the idea to check his childhood bedroom for treasures left behind. There is a drop ceiling and he used to hide trinkets in the panels. He actually found a few things.

Dinner was delicious, as always. It was relaxing, after cooking all morning,  to visit by the crackling fire and play games together for a couple hours.

        

Every year, I have more and more things to be thankful for and grow to appreciate more of the things we generally take for granted.  My family's health, safety and freedom are number one on my mind. I am so very thankful for my home, job, and our vehicles. I am looking forward to spending the holiday season in our new house!

I am a Homeowner!

I closed on the house the day after my 33rd birthday. Happy birthday to me! A new house is always exiting but I have come so far in the last ten years that it was especially meaningful to me.

Ten years ago; I was 5 months pregnant, just got laid off from my job and was told by my husband he wanted a divorce. Without going into details, I will just say my house was almost a foreclosure (it was a short sale) and even though we agreed to split all the bills (including a lot of medical bills from the kids) I was the only one paying them. It was thousands and thousands of dollars. I had collection accounts on every medical bill. I had a few judgments against me. I worked my butt off and it took years but I paid off every single penny myself and have slowly rebuilt my credit.

To be in such a bad spot financially with a credit score of 532 to now qualifying for a home mortgage in my name only... is a pretty big deal. I am very proud to be a homeowner and feeling blessed.

Birthday

For my birthday this year, Russ and my Mom treated me to an Ikea shopping spree. I was so excited! My mom bought me a sink and vanity I really wanted for the downstairs powder room. Russ bought me an amazing picture (takes up the whole wall) and side table for my laptop. I also bought myself some storage for the laundry room.

I certainly wasn't expecting anything else but Russ surprised me with dinner at the Melting Pot! (a fondue restaurant I had wanted to try for years). It was delicious!!

First course was salad, followed by cheese fondue for bread, veggies & apple

 We customized the broth to cook our entree in. 

Which included different steaks, chicken, shrimp and lobster

 Loved the sauces for everything

Chocolate fondue for dessert

I only had room for a taste of a couple things by dessert. It was such a fun evening!

Inspection and Packing

There was a hiccup during the home inspection. We had all the utilities turned onto the house for the inspection but there was no power to the house! I certainly wasn't buying a house without power. I had no idea what worked and didn't work in the house with no power to test things. The main breaker to the house wouldn't turn on. I had 2 options. I could just hope that after I bought the house and paid to replace the breaker that everything worked or I could pay $200 to have the breaker fixed now (not owning the house yet) and risk being out that money if there were major problems or the purchase fell through for some reason.

I decided it was worth the risk and had the breaker replaced. The inspector came back the next day and luckily, didn't find any major problems. He told us that there was indication of some leaking in the crawl space around the main water valve, and the plugs in the house aren't grounded. (typical of this period house). Nothing to change my mind about moving forward with the purchase. Yes. One step closer. Time to get packing.

Packing station

I wanted to go though EVERYTHING so we could streamline what we were packing. I didn't want want to move a bunch of stuff we didn't need anymore. Our house was a crazy mess for a while but we donated so much stuff! I stopped keeping track after about 15 large boxes/bags.

 It was a little bit of a bitter sweet as I was clearing shelves and washing curtains. I had spent the last 7 years at this house and updated/upgraded a lot. Many, many, many hours of sweat equity. At the same time, I was excited to start the process again in my own house (had been renting the upstairs of my brother's house). I was really looking forward to having my own laundry room and never having to coordinate letting my dog out with my brother's.  That also meant that my brother and sister-in-law would get to move upstairs (at least doubling their living space) and I was super excited for them.

 We tried to have fun even though it was a lot of work. Treat/drink breaks helped

        

 Donation piles & stacking packed boxes in the game room

 

Riverton Art Festival

We have attended the Riveton Arts Festival for at least the last 3 or 4 years now. There are usually some really interesting booths to visit, and really delicious food. I always give the kids $5-10 to spend however they like. That way they get a little something to keep and help support the art community.

Jackson had a delicious sandwich from a grilled cheese food truck and Ashleigh got a funnel cake

 I was so excited to see this guy back again this year. Last year I had him engrave my kid's names on a ring for me. It was my all time favorite piece of jewelry. Unfortunately, because it's just make from coconut, it doesn't last forever. I was very sad when it broke.  This year I had him make 2 for me and hopefully they will last until next year!

 Ashleigh spent her money on a couple necklaces (one for her and a matching one for her best friend)

Jackson found a few bracelet he really liked (spider, lion, and Celtic design)

House Hunting

I started looking at houses around the first of the year. And continued to look for 6 months. I checked the online listings EVERY DAY. I was frustrated to find out offers had already been made on multiple houses I liked over the months. In hind sight though, I am so glad I did not end up at any of the other properties! Most of the houses were smaller and/or the kid's would have been in basement bedrooms.

There are some things on my "wish list" that are not in this house, but all our necessities are certainly here. I wanted to keep my commute to work short and I absolutely did not want the kids to have to change schools. (We had been watching the new Granger high school being constructed over the last two years and was scheduled to open just in time for Ashleigh to attend).

My must haves were; 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1200+ sq feet, and .15 acres. The hardest part was staying within my budget in the area I wanted. Our first walk through of the house, I knew I wanted it. It was a foreclosure and had been empty for almost a year. There were orange poppies growing in the back yard. I joked around that those flowers were a sign for me to get the house. (When I was growing up California there were always poppies around since it was the state flower)

Entry

Living room from the entry

Entry looking into downstairs family room

Laundry room - off downstairs family room
(plumbed for additional toilet/bath)

Extra/4th bedroom - off downstairs family room

Original kitchen (70's)

Dining room

Living room from the dining room

Powder room off kitchen

Apparently I didn't get pictures of the 3 bedrooms upstairs. Looking down the hall; the room at the end  would be Ashleigh's and had white wainscoting, crown molding, new bedroom and closet doors (nicest room in the house) but a crazy green on the walls. The door on the left would go to Jackson's room. The first door on the right is the bathroom. Second door on the right is the master bedroom with original hardwood floors and double closets. I loved that all the bedrooms had large windows.

Main bath - upstairs (LOVED the window in the shower)

 Backyard

      

It was a pretty ugly house the way it stood, but I knew the potential was amazing. The upstairs bath would need an immediate overhaul, but the rest of the house was in good condition, especially for a foreclosure!

It had a single carport rather than a garage, but it had room for Russ to park in the driveway rather than on the street, a storage closet at the back of the carport and storage shed in the backyard. No master bathroom but the main bath was larger than both of our old bathrooms put together. No garbage disposal or dishwasher but had a gas stove instead of electric. The square footage was almost double our old space at just over 1800 and the yard was HUGE (over a quarter acre). The backyard was fully fenced with 2 of the 3 sides with wonderful new fencing from the neighbors.  There wasn't much of a mountain view because off all the tall trees but the back yard is so secluded! Not a single window from a neighbor looks into the yard. No fireplace but it had A/C rather than a swamp cooler and tons & tons of natural light. I felt it had some good trade off's.

I felt the few things the house didn't have that I really wanted could be added down the road without too much trouble (dishwasher, disposal & fireplace) so it was worth putting in an offer. There were 3 other people looking at the house just while we were there and they were pretty interested also. Who know's how many other's looked at it when we weren't there. Because it was a foreclosure, there was a bidding process. There were no negotiating with the seller so I only had one shot to place the highest bid.

I was confident with my bid but nervous for the bid results. I offered more than the bank was asking but still low enough that it was a great opportunity and within the budget I was comfortable paying. I was trying not to get too excited about it but it was really hard not to. I had no idea how much other people were bidding. Tuesday morning at 10:36 I got a text message from my real estate agent, "Congrats winner!" I cried. It was really hard to focus at work after that!