House Update: Inspection

Yesterday was our inspection day!

I was so anxious all day waiting to hear how it went, since we are still in Arizona right now. I really wish we could have been there for it in person, but it just wasn't gonna happen.

After trying to wait patiently all day long, I finally broke down and called the inspector in the afternoon to see what he had to say. Apparently he had finished the inspection hours ago but didn't think to call me. Really?! I was waiting around all day and little did I know he had finished a long time ago!

His response was that the house was "in great shape" and that it's the kind of house he loves to inspect because it's so well-maintained. Sweet! He did mention a few minor items but said it wasn't anything major. I was really worried about the maintenance of the home since it was built in 1999 (which is older for the area), but it looks like all my worries were for naught.

Later that night he sent us the full inspection report, which was very thorough and complete. It included photos of any "problem areas" with arrows pointing to the objects in question. That was very helpful considering how we were on the other side of the country!

The only items of concern were:
1. Some fungi spores in the crawl space. He recommended having them checked out and treated.

2. Weather stripping was worn on two of the exterior doors. Super easy to fix!

3. Fireplace needed cleaning because it had a lot of "creosote" in it.

4. Some sort of missing clamp on the garbage disposal. We had no idea what this really meant, but it seems like an easy fix.

5. One of the kitchen windows had a broken sash so it wouldn't stay up.

We have asked the sellers to fix all of these items before closing, which hopefully won't be a huge deal since they're all easy fixes.

Yesterday we also found out that the sellers had their termite inspection, which they were required to do as part of our VA loan contract. Apparently the inspector found evidence of termites in the crawl space, but the sellers are going to treat the house before closing. I've heard that Tennessee is a thriving area for termites so I'm not too concerned since it seems pretty normal to have some evidence of them. We plan on treating for them every year so hopefully we can keep them at bay.

It was a huge relief to put all the inspection stuff behind us! It looks like this house is really as great as we thought it was and all signs are pointing to closing in about a month. Woohoo!

The only major step left before closing is the VA appraisal. If the house appraises for less than what we agreed to pay, the sellers will either have to lower the purchase price to that amount or we will have to walk away. This is a contingency of a VA loan, since they won't approve a loan for a house that appraises for less than the purchase price. In contrast, if the house appraises for more than what we agreed to pay, we still get it for the lower agreed upon purchase price. It's actually really nice for us (the buyers) because it puts my mind at ease about whether or not we overpaid for the house.

I still can't believe we're actually going to be homeowners! This is such an exciting time!

Have you ever dealt with a home inspection? How did it go? Please share your stories...I'm a total newb at all this so I love hearing other people's experiences!

Home Decor Blog Love

Since deciding to purchase a home I have noticed a major shift in my blog attentions. I was going through a 5 month long health & fitness blog kick, and although I still love and read those, my love is waning in favor of another genre of blog.

Source: Thrifty Decor Chick

Home Decor Blogs.

Oh my goodness. There are SO many amazing home blogs out there, but the ones I love the most are just normal couples like you and me who are making over their own homes one room at a time. And many of them do it on crazy low budgets as well! Talk about inspiration.

Since I know we'll have a lot of home improvement projects on our hands when (if) we close on this house, I figured I should start getting inspiration and ideas. And boy have I ever!

Here are some of my favorite, recently discovered home decor blogs for your reading pleasure.

-Nesting Place: This one actually isn't recently discovered. I've been reading her blog for a while now because she is a RENTER who still manages to make her (rented) home look beautiful and custom. That's quite a feat!

-A Soft Place to Land: Beautiful room re-dos and lots of great small ideas too (like hanging a hydrangea basket on your front door!) that make you say "Why didn't I think of that?!"

-Young House Love: This one I seriously fell in love with at first sight. They're an adorable couple, both of whom contribute to the blog, who are renovating their home. They show great step-by-step tutorials and lots of photos. This post on painting kitchen cabinets has me thinking that maybe we should paint ours. They also just seem like the type of people we would be friends with.

-The Inspired Room: Melissa is a design consultant who truly does inspire with her room makeovers. I love her style and her "keepin' it real" attitude.

-Better After: I love a good before and after photo for inspiration, so this blog is right up my alley. It's dedicated solely to showing great before and after transformations. Sweeeet!

-Thrifty Decor Chick: This girl seriously knows how to spy a junky looking piece at a thrift store and see it for what it could be. She transforms them into beautiful, magazine-style pieces in little to no time. And can I tell you how much I loved this post on being a "piler"? Because that's totally me. Note to self: Must work on that nasty little habit!

Hopefully with inspiration from these ladies (and one guy) I'll be a home decor professional in no time and have our house looking immaculate! (Yeah right.)

Do you have any favorite home decor blogs? What are they? I am always looking to add to my Google Reader!

Did We Just Buy a House?

I know I've been kind of MIA lately, but I have a good reason....

We are in the process of buying a house!!

It's actually kind of a crazy story as to how it all came about so I figured I would share it here.

A few months ago, we found out we were being sent to Fort Campbell as our next duty station. We were thrilled with this because we've heard lots of great things about Fort Campbell and the surrounding area.

So as the move approached (we're moving at the end of July), we started discussing whether to rent or buy a home. In the past, we've always just rented because we really didn't even think of buying as an option for us. In my mind, buying a house was something we would do when we got out of the Army.

But as we started looking into options in the Clarksville area (the town outside of Fort Campbell), our views on buying started to change. The idea of purchasing a home still scared the bejeezus out of us, but there were too many advantages to it for us to not at least consider the idea.

I decided to book a trip to fly out to Tennessee with my mom and attempt to find a home (my husband couldn't get away from work). My mind was still pretty much set on finding a rental, but we went ahead and got pre-approved for a loan just in case we decided to buy.

The trip to Tennessee was this past Monday and Tuesday and we looked at a whole bunch of rental homes on the first day. About half of the rentals were immediately ruled out when we toured them because they were just disgusting/dirty/unlivable. We did find two rentals that would have worked for us, but one of them was already rented out (to someone else) by that evening and the other was located really, really far from Post.

At this point, I started to revisit the idea of buying. We were down to only one viable rental option and it was located super far away from where we wanted to be. It was also really expensive. Rental homes in Clarksville are in high demand so they charge a hefty premium for them. I just couldn't stomach the thought of how much money we'd be putting into a house that wasn't even ours.

On the second day, I asked our realtor to show us some houses in a price range that we were comfortable with just to see what we could get. That was the beginning of the end. :)

We looked at a couple of houses for sale on the second day, but still nothing was really jumping out at me. I was determined that if I was going to purchase a home it had to really WOW me. I wasn't going to settle just because I was desperate.

That is, until I found the house.

The moment I saw this house, even just from the outside, I felt like it was home.
It felt warm and comforting inside and it had a lot of the features that were important to us.

Possibly my favorite part of the house is the ginormous backyard with a lovely deck and tons of trees. I could see us throwing a party out here and having a blast with our friends.

The master bedroom could use a paint job and it's smaller than we're used to, but I know we'll make it work.

Now here's a shocker...the kitchen isn't perfect, but somehow I still love it.

The cabinets are a lighter stain than I like. It's not an open floor plan. There aren't a ton of cabinets or counterspace. The pantry is smaller than I'd prefer. The appliances are old and need to be replaced. The backsplash is boring white. Etc, etc, etc.
I thought the kitchen would be the thing I would be the most picky about, since I do spend so much time in it. But, surprisingly, those things didn't deter me. Instead of looking at those things as a negative, I saw them as potential. We can improve those things ourselves and potentially increase our resale value.

(Sidenote: I think my expectations for kitchens were also too high. I was sorely disappointed with almost every kitchen I saw, so this one seemed like a huge step up! I don't know why, but it seems like people don't put the same importance on kitchens in this area as they do in other parts of the country. Most of them were TINY and I simply can't work in a tiny kitchen. )

After we finished touring the house, I knew I wanted to put an offer in right away. Coming from the Queen of Indecisiveness, this was huge.

I still had to convince my husband, who was back in Arizona and still thinking that we were going to rent. Luckily, once I talked to him over the phone and told him to look at photos online, he (somewhat reluctantly) agreed that we should put in an offer. Poor guy was probably blindsided by the whole ordeal!

So we did. That same day we put in a offer. Talk about a whirlwind!!

We received a counteroffer by that same night from the seller, slept on it, put in our own final counteroffer, and then waited and prayed that things would work out.

As I was about to step on the plane to head home I got a call from our realtor letting me know that they accepted our counteroffer (!!!!).

So that's pretty much where things stand as of now. We're awaiting our inspection next week to see how that goes, but we're hopeful that it will come back without any major issues.

I have lots to say on the subject of buying a home, but this post is long enough already so I'll leave it like it is for now.

I never expected this to happen in such a whirlwind so it's been a bit of an emotional journey thus far, but I'm confident that things will work out the way they're supposed to.

If it's meant to be, it will be!