House Update!

We had the inspection a couple weeks ago and the roof inspected last week. Things looked great & he only found 4 things: 1) a window was cracked (freak accident-kid must have thrown a rock at the window!), 2) the dishwasher wasn't installed properly which isnt something huge, but its sort of an eye sore, 3) the dryer vent was full-so easy to fix, & 4) there was a gap in the siding that could have been potentially a bad thing depending on the rain. So, overall minor things! We heard back from the seller today & they are fixing all the things we asked for-awesome so we dont have to do them! We were worried that since they weren't major problems (>$1,000) we didnt think they would fix them. Praise God for reasonable sellers and a wonderful inspection! It could have gone wayyy worse!

At this point, I'm ready to move in & enjoy it, but we still have 2 more months. On a wonderful note (another praise!) I posted our apartment on Craigslist & we've gotten several subleasing hits this week. One couple is coming tomorrow night to check it out-YAY! We might not have to pay double payments after all!

We're still alive...

We are still here...not much going on lately. We've been busy with the inspection (went well), roof inspection (went well too), and getting all things together for the house. We have been shopping around for bedroom furniture & purchased that Saturday. Still hunting for cheap patio furniture on Craigslist and other discount shops. Deciding on paint colors, etc for the house. Trying to sublease our apartment to cut double payments! Sell our washer/dryer we bought for the apartment that we dont need, things like that. Exciting, but lots of that kind of stuff lately.

Saved by the Space Heater!

Yay! The space heater we purchased last month helped out a ton with our electric bill this month! We saved ~$100-and netted (if thats a word) $50 since the space heater was $50 from Sam's Club (of course). We did also turn our heat down to 62 from 64 so that probably helped too. All in all it wasn't much warmer in our apartment, but we saved money keeping the temperature consistent. My heating pad works wonders too...I put it on my side of bed to warm it up before I get in each night-since Jake isn't there most of the nights (he is a heater himself) I'm usually cold when I get in bed. Last year in an apartment (yay!) and we KNOW our windows are much better in our house than this apartment-but if anyone wants to sublease its a great place in the summer time (May-September!)

If all goes well...this is it!

Here it is! The house we are getting as long as everything goes well with the inspection tomorrow & the rest of the details until we close on April 19th. We will post more pictures after we move in-providing again that everything goes well!

Blog Poll: Doodles?

I'm trying to convince Jake that a Labradoodle or Goldendoodle or a Mini-Doodle would be a good dog for us. He's in love with Boxers (a manly dog)! What do you think about this super cute dog (not one we could get, but we could get its' babies)? Leave a comment with your input!

If he looked like this I would call him 'Teddy' like a teddy bear.

Love/Hate Relationships

Hate is a harsh word and it's not what I really mean to say, but you get the point. And, I have discovered that I have a lot of these type of relationships. For example, I love clean clothes that smell like fabric softner, but I hate doing laundry! Another good one is I hate the government taking taxes out of my paycheck, but I love getting our tax return (got it yesterday-only 1 week after Jake did them online!). I could go on and on: love the snow, hate driving in it; love facebook friends, but hate every 5 minute updates (especially ones with cute babies that I want & the ones where it recaps the whole day-same as the day before and the day before). And finally the love/hate relationship that I have the most and made me post this....the one about Sam's Club! Love (and appreciate & praise God) that Jake has a job that can provide for us, but I hate when it takes our time away from each other. I'm sure you all can think of your top love/hate relationship-they seem to be easy to find!

House Hunting Update

We are headed out for our 3rd adventure house hunting a little discouraged from our 2nd outing. The day that I got home from my business trip there was an offer on the house we liked the most from our 2nd outing. So, we needed to get a move on quickly if we wanted that house. Turns out an hour later we had an offer in which was 97% of list price and the first offer ended up being list price, but the sellers said they would take it for $1,000 less than the list price-which was roughly 99.5% of list price!! (I thought this was a buyers market?) Needless to say we were thinking objectively and not subjectively about the house and thought 'no way' we would pay that price-seeing how usually they come down a little bit from where the list price is. Well, the first buyer had contingencies where we didnt or else we wouldnt even have gotten the thousand off. A lesson well learned-no hesitations next time.

We have several nice houses on our long list to see Saturday & we're really excited and hopeful that one of them will be a great catch. We are still hoping to snag a nice one before the tax credit deadline on April 30th all while not trying to be too picky while searching. We found one we really like that backs up to our biking trails (AWESOME!) and has a nice deck, screened porch, etc so hopefully the kitchen speaks to me!

We have a little more money to put down now since we got our tax check deposited today (yes!). It only took a week-thanks to Jake's expertise in the taxing area which I am clueless about! Every little bit counts towards a down payment!

Pray that we make the right decisions in the next few days & that we have patients and a clear mind going into each house so that we can decide on the house He wants us to have.

Simple Pleasures

This is a blog that has been going around the blogging community (got it from Lindsey L, thanks) so I thought I would list some of my simple pleasures. As I was reading her list some of them we have in common! Here goes:

my comfy robe

time with my husband (its limited now a days)

cuddling to stay warm in our freezing cold apartment

raisin bran for breakfast

I agree with Lindsey on the heated seats in the car (I could add to that keyless entry, automatic locks, etc-since we only have that in one car)

awesome co-workers

Bible study on Saturday mornings

exercising to relieve stress

chocolate

time with family members-especially new babies

diet coke, fountain only!

our new portable space heater

my pink zebra lunch bag

a clean apartment-thanks to Jakes efforts

a dishwasher that works

an awesome job

*& many, many more!

What are your simple pleasures in life? Repost on your list!