House!
So, Daniel and I finally bought a house. It took over a year of searching, ~100 house tours, and ten or so offers, but we finally came out on top with a house we think we'll really enjoy. We closed on it last week, on Friday the 13th (our lucky day)! I'm sure Redfin (our realty company) is happy to finally be done with us. :-P We were fairly picky when it came to house-buying because it's a huge investment, and we don't plan on moving for several decades, so we wanted it to be something that we especially liked and would be happy with for years to come. It's easy enough to buy A house. But finding one that stands out and that you like a whole lot and yet is still in your price range is a whole different story.
After all of our searching along a 15-mile stretch of the 15, we ended up in Scripps Ranch. The location is really ideal (7 miles to work for each of us, in opposite directions; close to shopping; close to restaurants; closer to the freeway; walking distance to a shopping center and our vet), the neighborhood is quite nice, and I think we'll be happy there. We're a little leery of the "Scripps Ranch" reputation that goes along with the place (a bit more upscale, kind of snooty like "Snottsdale" in Arizona), but we're taking solace in the fact that we pretty much bought the cheapest non-foreclosure house in the whole area. Our house is crappier than everyone else's, hooray! That just means we could afford it, though. :-P No, what we like about this house is the potential that it has. I mean, it's nice enough now and would be live-able if we just wanted to move in right away, but there are a few things we can do to it to make it totally awesome and exactly what we want. And being able to see that potential is what led us to buy the house.
For example, we want to completely remodel the kitchen. We're going to start with that before we move in to save ourselves lots of hassle and inconvenience in the future (and our current apartment lease doesn't run out until October, so we can stay there until then). The current kitchen is pretty old, so we're going to redo the whole thing -- new cabinets, new countertops, new appliances, add an island, etc. So suddenly our lives are filled with questions of wood types and granite vs. quartz countertops, etc. I'm gonna get the kitchen of my dreams at age 28 -- I better make it good cuz god knows it won't be done again till I'm an old lady (if ever)! It'll be exciting to start out with something brand new and be able to use it from the very beginning.
We also want to take out the wall that currently separates the living room from the family room. This will open up the floor plan immensely and create one big "great room," just the way we like it. Two different contractors have told us that it shouldn't be a problem to take out this wall, so that's a good sign. Then we'll have an awesome floor plan, too. :)
And not even to mention my favorite part yet -- we're converting the current formal dining room into a library!!! It's just a smallish room, but I'm getting fancy built-in bookshelves for all of my books, and eventually I'll have a comfy reading chair in there where I can spend all of my free time. Oh man, I'm so excited about that part.
The bedrooms and bathrooms (3 br / 2 ba) are all fairly small and nothing fancy, but we figure we'll spend most of our time in the great room, library, and kitchen anyway, so having those be super nice will be all that we really need. Daniel does get a man-cave out of one of the spare bedrooms, though. He's excited about that part, too. :)
So yes, very exciting news all around, and the next couple of months will be extremely busy as we try to do all sorts of things to the house before we actually move in in October. We have a lot of work to do, but the final product will be fantastic. I think this is even better than just buying a more expensive, already-nice house. This way we get to design things how WE want them, and we can customize everything to our tastes rather than just living with someone else's. So much fun ahead!!!
After all of our searching along a 15-mile stretch of the 15, we ended up in Scripps Ranch. The location is really ideal (7 miles to work for each of us, in opposite directions; close to shopping; close to restaurants; closer to the freeway; walking distance to a shopping center and our vet), the neighborhood is quite nice, and I think we'll be happy there. We're a little leery of the "Scripps Ranch" reputation that goes along with the place (a bit more upscale, kind of snooty like "Snottsdale" in Arizona), but we're taking solace in the fact that we pretty much bought the cheapest non-foreclosure house in the whole area. Our house is crappier than everyone else's, hooray! That just means we could afford it, though. :-P No, what we like about this house is the potential that it has. I mean, it's nice enough now and would be live-able if we just wanted to move in right away, but there are a few things we can do to it to make it totally awesome and exactly what we want. And being able to see that potential is what led us to buy the house.
For example, we want to completely remodel the kitchen. We're going to start with that before we move in to save ourselves lots of hassle and inconvenience in the future (and our current apartment lease doesn't run out until October, so we can stay there until then). The current kitchen is pretty old, so we're going to redo the whole thing -- new cabinets, new countertops, new appliances, add an island, etc. So suddenly our lives are filled with questions of wood types and granite vs. quartz countertops, etc. I'm gonna get the kitchen of my dreams at age 28 -- I better make it good cuz god knows it won't be done again till I'm an old lady (if ever)! It'll be exciting to start out with something brand new and be able to use it from the very beginning.
We also want to take out the wall that currently separates the living room from the family room. This will open up the floor plan immensely and create one big "great room," just the way we like it. Two different contractors have told us that it shouldn't be a problem to take out this wall, so that's a good sign. Then we'll have an awesome floor plan, too. :)
And not even to mention my favorite part yet -- we're converting the current formal dining room into a library!!! It's just a smallish room, but I'm getting fancy built-in bookshelves for all of my books, and eventually I'll have a comfy reading chair in there where I can spend all of my free time. Oh man, I'm so excited about that part.
The bedrooms and bathrooms (3 br / 2 ba) are all fairly small and nothing fancy, but we figure we'll spend most of our time in the great room, library, and kitchen anyway, so having those be super nice will be all that we really need. Daniel does get a man-cave out of one of the spare bedrooms, though. He's excited about that part, too. :)
So yes, very exciting news all around, and the next couple of months will be extremely busy as we try to do all sorts of things to the house before we actually move in in October. We have a lot of work to do, but the final product will be fantastic. I think this is even better than just buying a more expensive, already-nice house. This way we get to design things how WE want them, and we can customize everything to our tastes rather than just living with someone else's. So much fun ahead!!!