The Rad House | How we went from Renters to Home Owners!

At the end of July, Matt and I decided that we wanted to start looking for a house to buy. We decided we were going to stay in the area for the next 3-5 years for sure, and it was a good time to buy. I blogged about wanting to document the house hunting experience here. I had really good intentions, but that was the only post written during the process because life and it's busyness got in the way.

We looked at two houses the first week of August, thought we fell in love with the second house, brought my parents to check it out and they raised all the right red flags that we weren't able to see because we weren't looking at it objectively. We were disappointed but knew that they were right in their concerns for the resale rate and factors affecting living conditions.

Then, my family went to Canada on vacation for a week.

We came back, I had 4 senior sessions in 5 days, and we decided to start looking at houses more seriously again the last week of August.

On a Saturday morning toward the end of August, I was emailing our realtor, listing some properties we wanted to set up times to go see. While looking up one of the addresses, I saw it was having an open house that weekend, both Sat and Sun. So I asked Matt if he wanted to go check it out. He said sure, and we headed out.

We loved it.

My parents are very knowledgable about houses, and red flags when looking for a house to buy. My dad has a contractors license so he has an especially keen eye for picking out potential problems. They came out to see the house on the second day of the open house, Sunday.

They loved it.

We heard other people at the open house mentioning loving the house, and being very interested in it. We knew that if we wanted to make an offer, we had to act quickly. So we called our realtor and spent Sunday evening writing up our offer.

After a quick phone call to the seller's realtor, we discovered that we were part of a multiple offer situation. People wanted this house!

We looked at three houses, we are completely new to this process, and we need translation for each realty term used. How did we find ourselves in a multiple offer situation less than a month after starting to look for a house?!?!

Our realtor encouraged us to give the best offer we were comfortable with, and so we talked and decided on the best offer we could give, and feel ok knowing we'd given it our best shot if we weren't chosen. Monday morning, the offer was submitted.

Monday was a waiting game, hoping to hear the decision from the seller.

Monday night came, and our realtor called. The seller was going to think overnight about it, but we were one of two offers left standing. We should know by 9am Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning comes, 9 am comes and goes.

No word.

I started to think that our offer hadn't been chosen because I figured the seller would call the accepted offer's buyers first and then the ones not chosen wouldn't be notified until later.

Then, at noon on Tuesday, the 28th of August, we found out from our realtor that our offer was accepted and we bought a house!!

Closing was set for October 16th.

...

Wow, three houses looked at and we had an offer accepted!

Breathe, Laura, Breathe.

The next 6 weeks were full of trips to the bank, getting paperwork in order, and tying up loose ends. Giving our 60 day notice at our apartment and making plans for the house.

On Tuesday, October 16th, 2012, Matt and I became official homeowners at 2:45pm.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

The house is on a little road off of Gull Dam Rd. It has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath on the main level, with another room finished downstairs. The basement is largely unfinished, which leaves the potential for us to add 1 more bedroom eventually, in addition to another bathroom and a family room.

The last 9 days have been full of renovations, paint, and ideas. There is SO much to do, and life feels a little like a stressful disaster in the middle of a hurricane.

We are moving our belongings out of our apartment this weekend in preparation to be out of here by Halloween. We will be staying at my parents for a few days while the last of the renovations are finished, and we think we'll be able to spend our first night in our house around the opening weekend of deer hunting.

Someone pinch me, I think I'm dreaming!

It feels surreal to me, even though we've been up at the new house every night since we bought it. We've put tons of hard work and sweat into it already, with lots more to go. Thank goodness for my parents and their vast knowledge of home remodeling and renovations. If we didn't have their talents and time at our disposal, our first home would look very, very different than it will.

I've been photographing the whole renovation process, and plan to show all our hard work, as well as the finished product. I hope you'll tune in to see what's ahead for the Radniecki House! Or should I say, The Rad House?
*Don't judge my architecture photography skills. It was almost dark when I took these photos and I was like the energizer bunny, amped up on caffeine.  This angle makes it look like more garage than house, which it is not. More, better photos to come.*