Well, after about six weeks of house hunting it looks like we're nearing the end of that journey. We found a house that we loved, and we offered, went back and forth with terms and needed repairs, etc., and now we could be closing on it at the end of next week! I thought I'd just take a few minutes to chronicle some of the memorable things that happened throughout the course of this experience.
Drive Time
First of all, perhaps the thing that we'll remember the most about house hunting is the killer commute we had to take to get to the area where we're interested. Since I'm working at Hill AFB and Shauna's probably only going to be working another year, we decided to settle closer to my work rather than hers so that in the future, I'll be able to be home with the family sooner after work. However, we didn't rule out any houses more south than Hill (closer to Shauna's school) to try and cut time off her commute. That meant that we were looking in between Woods Cross and Ogden, or 45 minutes to an hour and a half drive from Provo. I think we took five or six trips total with our realtor (poor guy), and we must have looked at at least 60 houses.
After a couple trips, it became apparent that the houses and price range we started to love put us in Clinton, UT, a small town neither of us had heard of before. And, in fact that's where we found "the one".
"Ye are too superstitious..." (-St. Paul)
Now, I'm not the superstitious type. But after a few trips and so many choices, we started joking about how Shauna and I just needed some sort of sign to tell us which one to buy. After talking about this, we pulled up to a house, and I kid you not, as I got out of the car, I looked down and right where I was stepping was a dollar bill just chilling on the grass! I'm serious! I showed everyone and said, "Hey, here's our sign! This is the one! Where do we sign!" Haha. Fortunately, the house was in pretty bad shape and we walked away and I didn't stake our lives to a house based on a dollar bill superstition. But hey, it would've helped on our down payment!
Another "sign" that I noticed, and perhaps it was even on the same day, was the house number of one we looked at. The house I grew up in had the number 2090. I loved that house. It was home. This house we were looking at that day was on a street called 2090 West! And it was a sweet house! I just kept thinking, How ironic would it be to be in a 2090 house again! But, again probably fortunately, this house was a short sale and Shauna didn't like the view out the backyard. (The house backed up to a new medical clinic.)
Drumroll, Please
Now, I arrive at the ONE. What was really interesting about this experience was that there were actually two houses we loved that we saw on the same day. This one house was new, in a great neighborhood, and backed up to a brand new city park; it was just a beautiful area and the house itself was very nice. It was a multilevel house, so the garage entry was in the basement part, meaning we would have to bring the groceries or laundry up stairs, and it had some negative aspects, like all houses, but overall it was great. It was also priced like it was great, meaning that it was on the very high end of our price range.
This other house we looked at was a ranch style home, which Shauna and I both love. It has three bedrooms and two baths up stairs and a partially unfinished basement downstairs that we could do whatever we wanted to. The kitchen is very nice, the yard is huge, the house itself is newer, and overall we just really, really like it. It did have some things wrong with it too, but still, we loved it.
The Tiebreaker
So, Shauna and I went home that night and just didn't know what to do. We talked for hours about the pros and cons of each. We went back and forth about each house. Okay, let's take the parkside house. Well, I think I would like the ranch house better. And on and on. Before we knew it, it was after midnight, and we were no closer to a decision than we were when we started. Finally, Shauna said, You know, we haven't really said a prayer about this yet. We said a quick yet fervent prayer and then just sat quiet. It seemed simultaneous when we both took a deep breath, looked at each other, and said, It's the ranch house. And that's the one we decided on, and that's where we could be living a week from today!
The very next morning, we met with our realtor and did all the paperwork for our offer. We offered slightly under their asking price but felt comfortable with it. Six hours later, the realtor called us and told us that they had accepted our offer! From this point on--actually from the time we said our prayer and made our decision--everything has just seemed to work out, like the six hour response time on our offer! That was on a Friday! We didn't even expect to hear back until at least the following Monday.
Inspector Gadget
Something we knew we wanted to do was order a house inspection. Shauna and I both agree that it should just be mandatory, so we highly recommend it. We did order one on this house and we're very glad we did. He found some things that would have never noticed, such as a leak in the plumbing that only manifest when the master bathroom tub was draining! Who notices those things?? Well, I mean you'd notice eventually when there's a big mess in your basement, but remember, this basement isn't even finished yet, so perfect timing... Anyways, with our realtor, we went back to the seller and asked them to make that and other repairs that the inspector had found, and after they conducted their own investigation, they agreed! As we speak, they're making the repairs, and we're getting ready to close the deal next week. Incredible!
There will surely be more to post soon.
