Here’s an update for those of you who might be interested in how the house-buying process is going:
After shuffling through a ton of house listings online, considering neighborhoods and locations, and looking at ten houses in person, we settled on one a couple of weeks ago. Yay! It looks like we will be moving out to the Fitchburg area next month.
We’ve learned a lot about the house-buying process in the last month. We decided to sign a Buyer’s Agent agreement with the real estate agent we’re working with. As first-time buyers it has been useful to have someone with experience guiding us through our shopping adventures and the negotiations with the current owners of our house.
We had some memorable moments while looking at houses. Perhaps the most memorable moment was walking into the basement of one house and discovering a fully-functional toilet perched on a platform, completely out in the open. We also had several encounters with tacky, aging linoleum, pink girlie bedrooms, rainbow wallpaper, and colors that should be permanently banned from interior design.
We also saw quite a few features we liked, but ended up not choosing the particular house they were found in: a house with four bathrooms, houses with brick patios and interesting landscaping (whether it be grass or rocks), a six bedroom house that just didn’t have quite enough communal space … but we did briefly consider that those extra guest rooms would be nice.
We settled on a four bedroom, tri-level house with plenty of kitchen and living room space, an extra family room on the lower level that will be the ”computer room”, a good-size basement (lots of room for storage and laundry), and a nice, green yard with trees and a deck on the back. We had it inspected this week and have signed the paperwork for the loan. Homeowner’s insurance is the next step and I have an appointment set up for that on Friday.
Now we’re starting to consider appliances since we will need to purchase a washer, dryer, and refrigerator. I think we’re all starting to feel pretty excited and we should be– we’re expecting to close and move in next month.
I haven’t taken my camera out to the house yet, but I will try to take and post some pics of the house soon. I have added a link to my online photo album on the left-hand side of my journal, so check back there for updates this summer.
I will also sit down and update the blog again once the moving is complete and we’re starting to settle in. At some point later in the summer, we should have people over for a housewarming party.
