We bought a house!!! (In the nick of time too!!!)

Boy, oh, boy, oh boy.

That's all I can say.

Well, not really, I mean, it is ME, a woman of too many words, I'm sure. :)

I need to post Christmas and vacation and all that, but I have to skip and do this post first so the family can see our new house!

Last year when we sold the big dream house, we moved back into our old house and I always knew it would be temporary.  We just had to wait and see what was happening with Lane and his health.  Well, this fall we found ourselves with the miracle of Lane's remission.  Prayers really are answered!!

So, armed with the knowledge that he is healthy now, and we are sick of being in limbo, I put my foot down and said it is time to buy the house we will finish raising the kids in.  But first we had the huge obstacle of selling our house in this down market!  Fortunately we have a lot of equity in the home as we bought it 9 years ago.

So, we had our friend stick the sign in the yard, and we waited.  Do you know what a pain in the butt it is to show a house at any time of day or night with 4 kids?  If you don't, be thankful, if you do, feel my pain!!!  It was a pain, but miraculously, we got an offer, and agreed on a final price only $6,000 less than what we listed it for.  Huge blessing!

Here comes the hard part.  Trying to find/buy a house at Christmas.  Really, not very many people decide "I think I'll put my house on the market during the holidays!"  I sure wouldn't if I was in my right mind!  So, I started scouring the MLS listings, and the only things I liked were houses that already had an offer on them.

Then of course, we had Christmas and went to Utah, so I lost a week of looking there, but there were no new houses to see anyway.

We decided we would also look at the foreclosure auction lists.  Every night, this guy would e-mail us the list of all the houses going to auction the next day.  You look at them and let him know if you want one and what your maximum bid is.  Unfortunately, we have been very particular about what we want, so usually no homes fit what we are looking for.

You can get homes for a good deal, but you also don't know what you are getting.  Usually you can drive by the outside, but can't get in, so you hope there aren't major problems with it.  Most of the homes we looked at had been on the MLS at one time, so you can look up old listings to see bedrooms/baths and maybe what the inside looks like.

Here's where the story of buying our house starts.  It's long, but kinda funny.  I got the list last Tuesday night and found only one house that was big enough for us and in the right area.  Lane and I decided to go drive by it at 9 p.m.  It is a gated community, so we were ringing random people, and someone was nice enough to let us in.  I knew once we drove in I would love to live in the neighborhood.  When we pulled up to the house, Lane said, "Hey!  I bought my bike from the people who lived here a couple of years ago!  I've been to this house!"  Course he had only been in the front entry way.  Also, this home had never been listed for sale, so there was no MLS listing.

We snooped around the house the best we could, but were scared by all the "No trespassing" signs on the doors.  We snuck in the back and said, WOW!  This is cool!  No pool :( but .9 acres has plenty of room (and tons of orange trees!!)  We saw the best we could in the dark, then Lane went and knocked on the neighbor's door and got the scoop on the house/neighborhood, etc.  He is brave, because I would never have done that!

However, I was very thankful he did, because we found out that across the street lives a family with a 10 year old girl like Savannah, and an 8 year old boy like Conner! :) YES!!  Then, driving out, Lane saw the playground, tennis court and basketball court!  Double YES!!!

Well, the next morning, Lane calls our foreclosure bidder to ask him questions.  He says we really want to bid on this house, but are nervous to pay so much money if we have never seen it inside!  The guy then convinces him to use his locksmith to come over and drill through the deadbolt so they can break in and see the house.  It is going on auction in 2 hours anyway and the new owner would have to re-key it as well.

I can't believe that my super straight arrow, never done a thing wrong in his life husband broke down and did this.  The locksmith shows up, assures Lane they do this all the time, and they go around to the back to drill through the back door lock.  All he needed was to be dressed in black with his ski mask and I'd have a full fledge criminal on my hands! ;)  Suddenly they hear, "I wouldn't do that if I were you!"  Coming from inside the house!!  They both jumped back and went back around to the front.  Lane knocked on the door and the owner of the house came out!  Lane apologized profusely and explained the situation, they talked about how they know each other, and became sudden friends.  The man then invited him in the house and gave him the whole tour of the house!! Ok weird!!

So Lane decides to bid on the house.  He does it over the phone with the guy who is at the auction bidding for him.  They get to our max bid, and Lane decides to drop out.  There were 2 guys left bidding, and the house went for $7K over what we decided was our max.  Oh well, thought Lane, it wasn't meant to be.

Later that afternoon, Lane gets a call from the man who lived in the house and showed it to him that morning.  He said the investor who bought the house was having second thoughts, and having some trouble getting his financing in order.  He said the investor would let us buy the house for what he got it for if we wanted it.  Wow. Now what do we do?  Lane said he needed to let me see the house first.  So, we went over that night and walked through the house.  Again, I loved the neighborhood, but the house was not my style.  It is very French country inside, and if you love pink/mauve and seafoam green, you would be set!  But, paint can be painted over, right?

It is about 5,000 square feet, has a basement, 6 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, and a huge yard.  Plus an office for Lane, tons of storage, 2 laundry rooms, etc.  There is tons of room, it just isn't my Annecy dream house we sold last year. :(  But for some reason, I just felt we really should go for it, and this would be a fantastic place to raise our kids.  The Junior High is across the street outside the gates, and the elementary school is just past that, and the church there in the middle!  What more could you ask?

So, we withdrew a massive check for half, got a loan for the other half, paid for the house, and got the keys right there that day!!!

Here is our new house - before we make all the changes.  Let's just say we will put a beautiful iron entry door, the wood floors will be stained darker, the kitchen and family room will be travertine or marble, the granite cabinets will be changed, and the downstairs carpet will be changed, and the whole house will be painted inside.  And, we will be adding a pool.  That is a MUST in Arizona!  I'm sure one or two of our 30 orange trees won't be missed if we clear them for a pool.

Curbside view

Obviously the kitchen.  White cabinets - can I get used to that? Sure.
Seafoam green walls?  No.

Pink, grey, white and black granite. Yuck!

Closer kitchen picture.  Love the big built in fridge.

entrance to the gazebo

view to house out of gazebo

looking down to the walk out patio from the basement!  

Yet another kitchen shot

Breakfast nook.  I kinda like that part.

looking into the family room from the entry.

I took a bunch of pictures tonight with my real camera, not my phone, and the computer won't read them!  Ugh!  I'll put more pics later.  I love Conner's room.  His bed is literally in a cave/hole in the wall in his room.  Too cool.

I am sure this is the right place to be for our kids and am so excited for them!

One other funny thing - we pulled up yesterday afternoon and two of the neighbor ladies were out there talking.  They called over to us, "Are you the new neighbors here?"  They came and introduced themselves and talked about how great the neighborhood is, etc.  Later that night, I got a text from my friend saying, "You are in my ward!  You are going to love it!"  Man, that Mormon grapevine sure moves fast!!! :)

More to come later .....