Here it is... THE BIG REVEAL!

Here it is... the day I'm sure you've all been waiting for with anticipation just as much as I have.  The day I get to reveal the news I've been hiding for several weeks..months even.

So, take a look at the picture...look through the door way and wonder what it is I could have been hiding all of this time.  Many of you have had guesses....lots and lots of guesses.  Many of you have had some pretty outrageous guesses.  Many of you have had the right guess, but I didn't want to let you know that easy.  Many of you have probably decided that you're bored with waiting and just done.  And I understand, I got to that point, too.

But, wait no longer.

The picture you see above is a very special entry way.  It is the entry way to....

MY NEW HOUSE!!

Yep.  My new house....as in Hubby and I bought a house.  We own a house.  Not just any house, either, but we found our dream home.

Back in February, you all might remember how unhappy I was about the house I'm living in right now.  I made it my goal...no, my mission to find a house this year so that I could move out of the ramshackle piece of crap I'm living in now.  I spoke to a banker and got pre-approved quite easily for a home loan.  And yes...you'll see the constant "I", because I started the process off alone.  I realized that unless I started pushing Hubby, nothing was ever going to happen.

After receiving my pre-approval letter, I went and found a realtor.  I sat down with an extremely nice lady and she asked me for my "must-haves" (just like they do on House Hunter).  I told her we had to have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, had to be move in ready, large back yard, and preferably out of the center of town...country would be best.  She then asked me how much I wanted to spend.  When I told her no more than $130,000... I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy.  She told me it would be extremely hard to find what I wanted, but she'd do her best to try.  And so the search began.

After some serious arm twisting of Hubby, I got him to agree to look at some houses.  He really didn't believe we would be able to afford what we wanted, and was worried I'd fall in love with a house way above our price range or a fixer upper that was just as bad as what we were living in.  We looked at a total of 6 houses in a range of about a month.  One had the space, but was too run down.  The next was beautifully updated, but way too small.  The next offered space, an extremely low price because it was a foreclosure, but way too much work needed.  After that, we had the space and some of the updates and was a maybe.  Then, I walked in to a house and knew right then it was the one.  We'll get to that in just a sec.. but the last house we looked at was right after THE house and even though it was gorgeous, I didn't feel the same connection as I'd had just a few minutes prior.

We went home after looking at those last two houses, and I begged and pleaded with Hubby to put in an offer.  It took some nagging, and sitting down and crunching all of our numbers before I was able to convince him that the house of our dreams wasn't that much more than what we are currently paying for the dump we live in.  We made an offer two days later, it was accepted March 14th, and we've been going through the loan process ever since.

We closed yesterday morning...and the house is now ours!

Let's take a tour, shall we?  At the moment, I only have the pictures from the listing because I haven't had a chance to take any pictures at the house yet... but the pictures I'm going to share with you are ultimately the reason I knew the house was going to be our home.  When my realtor emailed them to me and told me that the house had been drastically dropped in price, I just knew that it was the one before I ever set foot in it.  And I was right.

The house we managed to get for $127,000.  It is 2376 sq ft.  It has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.  It has been completely remodeled and renovated with new hot water tank, roof, and AC unit.  It has brand new laminate floors in the living areas, tile in the kitchen and bathrooms, and carpets in the bedrooms.  It has a huge fenced in back yard, a large front yard, a small private side yard...and a bonus room attached to the carport.

Here we go...

The formal living room and formal dining room (the new couch stayed)

The den/ informal dining room (the pellet stove went, and now we just have a regular fire place)

The kitchen...lots of cabinet space!

The master bedroom... with privacy deck

Peanut's room, that no longer has brown carpet..because they put brand new blue/gray carpet it in for her

Butter's room

Kids' bathroom/ guest bathroom

Outside covered patio area that's attached to the huge carport

Side yard...that I've claimed as my own retreat area

Huge fenced in back yard..that is a lot more green now, and bigger than this picture portrays

And then, there's the added bonus....

OH YEA!! An inground pool..completely fenced in!

With pool house separate from the house

The house looks a lot different, and bigger now that it's empty.  I'll be sure to get some pictures today when we go over there.  I just couldn't be happier with it.  It has everything I asked for...and then some.  And even the realtor just couldn't believe how much house we were getting for the price.

Before closing, we met with the sellers to do one last walk through.  They were so nice to us.  They explained how they'd changed the carpet in Peanut's room, they didn't want the new couch they had purchased just a few months before - because it was too big for their new house and wanted us to have first dibs on it before they sold it or gave it to someone else, they bought a new motor for the pool pump because they were nervous the old motor was going out, they left a bucket of pool chemicals, the pool electronic self cleaner, and all the tools to go with the pool, and even bought us a small gift to welcome them to the home... a set of lavender candles.

Today is our first day to go and start moving in, and I'm so excited.

I know that most of you had already figured out what my secret is, and I hope that those of you that didn't aren't disappointed.  I had to wait, because I wanted to make sure the house was officially ours before I said anything.

Now, I have to run so I can go spend some time in my new home.  Oh, how I've waited so long to call a place HOME.

What's In Store This Week?

It's Monday.  Again.  And thanks to springing forward in time, a bad tooth ache, a sick child, and house hunting - I'm so ready to crawl back in bed and not wake up until next Monday.

But, I can't.

Got to get ready to get back in the classroom for another fun filled week of learning.

This is going to be a really tough week for me.  I just know it.  Because my mind is going to be somewhere else...consumed with thoughts and anxiety and maybe even a little fear.

I found the house I wanted, yesterday.  It happened.  The moment I've been waiting for...where I walked in to a house and just knew it was the one for me.  From the brand new floors, to the high ceilings, to the floor to ceiling rock feature around the fireplace, to the large bedrooms, the country style kitchen, and the inground pool.  I pictured myself living in that house within a few minutes of walking in the front door.

While everyone else was walking around asking important questions about utilities and neighbors and structural problems - I was already placing the furniture in the living room, assigning kids to bedrooms, and imagining myself drinking a cup of coffee on the private deck attached to the master bedroom that just happens to overlook a mini lake that is behind the house.

I'll even admit that Phillip Phillips started playing the background music in my head.

Within an hour of leaving, I was on the phone to my banker talking numbers.  Wanting to know what could we offer, what would our payments be, what type of inspections and assessments would need to be done....I was on the ball.

And then, I got home and faced the look on Hubby's face.

Surprise, surprise...he has reservations.

The monthly payment is going to be about $150 more than we're currently paying.
We have no idea how much our utilities are going to be on such a large house.
What type of insurance payment are we going to have to pay?
Are we really ready to take on such a big commitment?
And the million dollar question...
What happens to the house we're in now?

I could feel the anger well up inside of me.  I knew that would happen.  Him having the reservations - not me filling up with anger.

The Realtor, the banker, and my parents all admitted that we're not going to find such a beautiful house for such a cheap price anywhere else.  In fact, just waiting a few days to put in an offer could compromise our ability to buy the house - because a house that nice at that price won't last long.

Plus, if we pass and decide to try and find something cheaper....we may be waiting a very long time.  Not just that, but another month and house buying season starts...meaning a lot more people will be looking for houses to buy, increasing the housing market prices.

Of course, I understand some of his reservations.  I surely don't want to jump in to something we can't handle.  But, I'll also be fuming if we let this house pass us by and end up back at square one looking at houses in the same price range that need major work that we just can't afford.

I also understand him not wanting to just walk away from the house we're living in, because it will put his parents in a terrible situation with what to do with the house if we're not paying for it.  In fact, I love that he cares so much....

But, at the end of the day, I strongly believe that if the roles were reversed he'd make one statement to me "We have to put us first".

Do we continue to live in a rundown house that could possibly be verging on the level of dangerous - and not just structurally but also medically if there's as much mold in this house as I think there is?

I don't think so.

So, I don't know what this week is going to hold.  Will we put in an offer?  Will we sit on it a while and it be too late?  Will we decide to let it go and keep looking?

I just don't know.

But what I do know is that many of those options could lead to the road to disaster and utter turmoil in my mind.

Let the anxiety begin!

Did You Remember to Spring Forward?

Thanks to the wonder of all the technology I keep in my home, putting my clocks forward during daylight savings time isn't really that much of a big deal to me.  I just get to wake up and think "It's that time already?"

Not that it would have mattered much, last night.  Worst night of sleep ever.

It started around midnight, while I was still up watching House Hunters on HGTV.  I'm pretty sure a ghost walked up to me and punched me right in the jaw.  That's the only logical explanation I can think of being that all of a sudden I had the most worse shooting pain go from my jaw up the side of my cheek.  The pain was so intense, that it brought tears to my eyes.  I had been fine all night..then BAM!

It may have something to do with the fact that I watched both The Awakening and The Possession last night.  It must have angered some spirit living in my home.

And the reason I was up until midnight watching HGTV was because it was pouring down rain outside, so the back wall of my living room looked as though we had a fancy water feature built in to it.  Water was pouring from a hole in the ceiling, and coming in through the window.  I hate this house.

Hubby was busy changing out towels, and I was placing pans to try and catch the water.

If that wasn't bad enough, Jelly decided at 3am - technically 4am due to springing forward - that she was going to throw up all over the living room floor.  Awesome.

I had a feeling something like that was going to happen.  The child had the WORST gas all day yesterday.  Like so bad she passed gas on one side of the room, and within seconds everyone in the room was ducking for cover from what can only be described as the fumes of a dead animal living inside of her.  It was sure sign indicator that she was experiencing some tummy troubles... I just didn't expect it to come out of the end it did.  I was already for a back draft explosion.  Which I guess I'm happy about.  If I had to choose between puke or the diarrhea, I'll go with cleaning up puke.

So, pretty sure I can put that down as one of the worst nights for sleep.

On the up side, Hubby and my visit to the building company yesterday gave us a lot of great information - and has put us in the place I'd hoped we'd be.  I wanted to walk out of that place knowing whether we were going to build or buy.

We're going to buy.

As much as both Hubby and I would love to have a custom built home, the price just isn't something we can work with.  For $125,000 we could get a 1440 sq. ft home built.  Or we could look at houses in the 2200 sq. ft. range pre-built.  The building price is not even including land and clearing the land and hooking up utilities.  It would be pretty easy for that $125,000 to grow upwards and closer to $150,000 by the time it was all said and done.

What we did consider is the fact that if we buy now, we could always build later.  Find a house that's big enough for all the kids to enjoy the remainder of their youth, and then when they've started to move away we could spring for a custom build that was smaller - perfect for just the two of us and the occasional visit from the kids and grandkids.

Hubby had to agree that spending the next 5-10 years in a house we're buying is much better of an investment than trying to wait out whatever crazy scenario could play out with where we are now.  Even the contractor told us, after hearing our story, that we should basically run and never look back from what we're dealing with now.

Which makes me a lot happier.  Just having that information in front of us really helps with the house hunting. It was so hard before, because we'd look at house and leave wondering what we could afford to just build a home.  Well, now we know.

Of course, Hubby is still on the weary side.  His concern with a pre-built home is the costs that could come from repairs and such.  But, the way I look at it - we either spend a lot more money each month paying for a brand new house, or we pay much less money over time and run the risk of needing a large sum of money should we need to repair anything.  But, I'm pretty sure that's what home insurance is for.  If we buy a house and a couple of years down the road something happens to it, we call the insurance company.

So, this afternoon, we're going to look at the three houses I discussed yesterday.  I'm keeping an open mind, and hoping that Hubby does the same.  Fingers crossed.

House Hunters, Northwest Arkansas

Have you ever thought about being on a reality TV show?  With the boom of reality shows in the past few years, I've often heard people say "My life could be a reality show" or "I would love to be a part of that reality TV show".

I can happily say that I've very rarely uttered those words.  Unlike many, many people I know, I'm not a big fan of reality TV.  There's actually only two reality shows that I love - The Biggest Loser and House Hunters.  We all know what The Biggest Loser is, but unless you're a HGTV junkie, like me, you might not know what House Hunters is.

House Hunters is one reality show that I'd love to be a part of - just because what I'm going through right now with trying to find a house.  Basically, people are given three houses to look at and then they decide which house to buy.  And like pretty much every reality show out there, it's totally rigged.  Come to find out, the people on the show have already bought the house they chose - but they did originally go through the turmoil of finding a house.  The show just makes it look as though the turmoil is happening as the show unfolds.

This weekend, I'm basically creating an episode of House Hunters - minus the cameras and pay check that I'm sure people get for appearing on the actual show.  This entire weekend is all about looking at houses.

Today, Hubby and I are going to see a construction company to look at our options for building a house.  Yesterday, I looked at some property for sale that would be the PERFECT site for our dream home.  Only 10 minute drive to work for me, 20 minute drive for Hubby.  It's up on a beautiful hill with the most beautiful views.  And the best part?  It's affordable.  Like, REALLY affordable.  The land is situated behind a currently developing subdivision that's being populated with the hugest and most luxurious houses.  Of course, our house wouldn't be anything to that level... but it sure would be nice to live around houses like that.

However, if we find out today that building is just a little out of our price range - we have three houses waiting for us to look at tomorrow.

Our realtor has managed to stumble across three houses in the town next to us that are in our price range with pretty much everything we're looking for.

So, in my best House Hunters narrator voice....

Option number 1 is 4 bedroom/2 bath.  It's 1846 sq. feet.  If sits on an acre of land.  It's a quaint house with screened in porches, large trees in the yard, and lots of charm.  It's the cheapest of all three houses, but also the smallest.

Option number 2 is 4 bedroom/2 bath.  It's 2376 sq. feet.  It sits on just under an acre of land.  It has a in-ground pool, pool house, landscaped private yard, and a large "park-like" side yard.  If this house is anything like the pictures - it's BEAUTIFUL!  Hardwood floors, remodeled kitchen, lots of open space.  And, will probably be a quick favorite of the three in terms of what it has to offer, location, and price.

Option number 3 is 4 bedroom/ 1 1/2 bath.  It's 2352 sq. feet.  It sits on 1.1 acres of land.  It has no pictures with the listing, and just listed yesterday.  The description says it has a game room, 2 living areas, a huge in-ground pool, hardwood floors, and granite countertops. It's so hard to give an opinion, though, because there's no pictures to look at.  The house offers the most land and privacy, but with the highest price tag of the three.

The list of must-have's Hubby and I have are:

Private
4 bedroom
Outside the city limits
A big yard for the kids to play

All three houses offer these, except for option number 2 - because it's sitting right between two houses...so the privacy factor will be compromised.  Another downside is the fact that the town they are in is actually further away from both of our jobs - by about 10 or 15 minutes.  My commute to work each day is about 25 minutes and Hubby's is about 20 minutes.  Depending on which house we choose, we'll both be looking at a 35-40 minute commute one way each day.  That doesn't bother me, if it's a house we really love.

So, that's our game plan for this weekend.  Fingers crossed we at least walk away with a better understanding on whether we're going to build or buy.  If it's build, then we can start making the necessary steps.  If it's buy, then one of the houses we look at tomorrow is "the one".  Just as long as I can come out of this weekend with a better feel for how much longer it's going to be before we're moving!

Back to Work...For A Day

After not going to bed until 11 last night, I sure am feeling mighty perky and ready to go this morning.  It surely has to do with the mini spa I gave myself in the shower with my new Dead Sea beautifying stuff...and my freshly manicured looking nails.

Pampering yourself is really rejuvenating.  Who'd have thunked it?

I get to go back to work for an entire day before I get another day off.  It's up in the air whether the day off will be from more snow, or for the original reason I booked the day off - Hubby's having dental surgery.  I really want it to be the latter, because I don't want to book another day off work if he has to reschedule.

I know I've been begging for snow days all winter, but I've had two - and now I'm ready to finish off the rest of the school year without any more interruptions.  I'm a firm believer in too much of a good thing, and too many snow days will result in the loss of other days off we've got between now and the end of the school year - or it will mean pushing out the end of the school year further.  A couple of days later I can deal with, but I don't want it to get crazy.

The house hunting saga continues...unsuccessfully at this point.  Finding a house that has everything we're looking for isn't going to be an easy feat, that's for sure.  What we'd really like to do is build our own house - but holy cow, land is expensive.  From what I've seen, land by its self is just as expensive as buying a house. I don't see how an open plot of land can sell in the tens of thousands.  In order to have the 3-5 acres Hubby is wanting, we'd be looking at shelling out $40,000-$50,000.  How insane is that when I can find a house sitting on that much land for only $30,000-$40,000 more?

I remember the good ol' days when you could find acreage for $2500 an acre.  That's what it was like when my parents bought land back when I was 16.  Definitely not like that anymore.

We'll be lucky if we can find an acre for less than $15,000.  The listings I've looked at have tons of 0.03 acre plots for a new subdivision and the seller is wanting $14,900 for each plot.  Can you believe that?  Less than a tenth of an acre for just under $15,000?  There better be gold deposits on the land before I'd consider something like that!  Ridic!

But, I'm not giving up faith.  My goal is that we're moving in by this summer.  Either in to an already built home or a house that's been built for us.  I watch enough HGTV to know that house hunting is hard, frustrating, and stressful....but not impossible.  I just got to keep my faith and not jump in to anything I don't absolutely feel right about.  This is my dream house we're talking about, after all.

Well, I'm sure you've heard quite enough about my house hunting saga for yet another day, so I should probably get to getting and get myself ready for work.