Our New House!

 Yesterday we received the word that this house had officially been recorded as ours! (Meaning -- the title is now in our name!)  Let me back up a minute...

... for those who haven't heard yet, we bought a house. It is a fixer-upper in Simi Valley that is down the street from what is ranked as the highest elementary school in the county! Danior and I have spent the last 4 years managing our apartment complex and saving every penny that we could for a down payment on our first home. With help from amazing parents, we decided to house hunt. We went looking at homes with our realtor on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We looked at 8-10 different homes on one day -- exhasuting, but exciting at the same time!

After going home and thinking about the homes we saw, we decided to ask our realtor to find out more info on one of the homes we were interested in. It was a short sale. We have heard stories, and our realtor even warned us, that short sales can go on f-o-r-e-v-e-r... like... months! We got more info from the realtor and decided we wanted to put an offer in for this house.... knowing that it would take a while to hear back from the bank and that we would, in the meantime, keep looking at more homes as we waiting for an answer.

We got a phone call the next day from our realtor that our offer had been approved. WHAT?!?! Turns out that the bank had already done all of the work that usually takes months to complete. The tip we received about the bank wanting a specific offer turned out to be such a blessing. We offered exactly what they wanted, and they accepted!

We spent the next couple of weeks getting all the paperwork signed and ready. What a pain in the neck... but, luckily we had a great loan officer and realtor to help us get through it all!

Wednesday me, the kids, my mom, my sister, my nephew and the realtor stopped by the home for a final inspection and he handed me the key! That was exciting. As I was driving home I kept thinking...MAN, I totally should have taken a picture of me and the kids standing in front of the house holding up the key... I guess we could still do it for journaling purposes.... but oh well (I even had the camera with me!!! Hindsight is always 20/20!)

So, Danior and I are now faced with the task of ripping out all the old, smoke infested (the previous owners were smokers) flooring and painting the walls! There is a lot of cleaning to do and a lot of decisions to be made. Here are a couple pics to give you a brief tour of the home!

This is the bonus room! It is pretty big and we plan to use it as both an office and a playroom for the kids. On the left side of the photo is a sliding glass door that leads out to the patio and the backyard! I love that I will have a space for my business things! I won't have to drag all my stuff out of 3 different rooms just to work on projects and orders!

This is the view towards the living room and front door from the dining room. Our street is nice and quiet! I am hoping to put up some coat hooks and maybe a little storage bench along the wall behind the front door to act as a faux mud-room. (Somewhere to take shoes on and off and store them -- also a place for the kids to put their backpacks when they go to school!)

And here is one of the most exciting parts... the patio and backyard. (It's also a picture of Bren a couple days before the baby was born!) We plan on putting up a patio cover at some point, but we aren't too worried about doing that just yet.

The house has a really nice backyard that we intend to plant a garden in next spring, and possibly put up a shed on the cement slab in the back corner. Danior has said that one of the things he is really looking forward to about buying this home is that he now has an excuse to buy all the power tools he has always wanted! 

This is a view of the kitchen. The right side has a stove top on the counter and a wall oven. The left has two pantry cabinets. It is easily triple the size of our current kitchen and has twice the cabinet space (if not more). I love that the sink has a window behind it so I can look out into the backyard! Oh... and do you see that blank appliance next to the sink?!?! Yah.... that's a dishwasher!!!! It even works!! Maybe my dishpan hands will finally get a break!

We are so excited and have been so blessed to be in a position to afford this home. We can't wait to get started working on it! And best of all.... I won't have to drag 3 bags of laundry to and from laundry rooms at the other side of the bldg! I don't have to make sure I have at least $2.25 in quarters on hand for an emergency load of laundry. I am pretty sure that even if I stood at the farthest point in the house from where the washer and dryer will be.... it would be less than 1/2 the distance to the washer and dryer I use now! (Can you tell I'm excited about this?)