House Update

I haven't spread the word on this yet. It'll be interesting to find out who reads this.
We decided to stop waiting and waiting for the bank to approve the short sale. It's been like 6 weeks or something. Even Steven's ready to move.

We went to go look at it w/ our Realtor (and his wife and son since they're our friends). We were looking at all of the things that really need attention and Jolyn was taking pictures for the bank so they would put a rush on our case. Well looking at all the parts that need work really turned me off to the house. It was more than I had remembered. The hot tub part of the pool looked like a dinosaur puked in it. There were big tadpoles swimming around in the big pool. Dylan was pointing and saying "eew, gross!" Steven and I both said to each other "I'm not going in after him, you are" if he fell in. I should have Jolyn send me a pic of it, but then again, nobody wants to see that nastiness. I'm sure Steven could possibly get the pool perfect, but it would be hard to get the image out of my mind when going for a swim.

Then we went to my mom's old house. We hadn't seen it empty and clean. We came home and made a pros and cons list between the two houses. They both have a room and bathroom for Maria since she'll still be living w/ us. They're both 4bed and at least 2 bath. They both have good kitchens. They both need washers and dryers. Our dining room table will fit in either easily.


The Pre-foreclosure House
1. size (it's twice the size of my mom's)
2. location
3. location
4. location
5. cool floor plan
6. exciting potential, seriously

My mom's house
1. price
2. move-in ready (seriously, it doesn't need new carpet and has fresh paint inside and out)
3. perfect pool (redone recently and no tadpoles)
4. gate for the pool
5. storage shed for the pool
6. deck space
7. sprinkler system
8. curb appeal
9. big yards (both front and back)
10. garage
11. 3 lane driveway which fits 6 cars easily, the other has a nice long one but we'd still have to park a car in the front or make a round driveway unless the same person always comes last and leaves first.
12. The house stays in the family!
13. usable good appliances in the kitchen
14. better tile in the kitchen/dining room/entry way





Even w/ location listed thrice, my mom's won. Like the purple tree? I do. I knew my mom would sell it when it was in bloom. Dylan was standing in the sprinklers and it was starting to rain too. You can't tell though.




The bad part is that we had to "break up" with our realtor. Steven and I felt so bad. He worked so hard and we signed 3 contracts, but none of them worked out in the end. Steven may have even used the "it's not you, it's me" and the "we can still be friends" lines. We played tennis w/ them the next night for family night. We're still on speaking terms, that's good:) If you need a local realtor, LMK and I'll give you his contact info! We'll use him to sell this (Maria's) house after we do some renovations to it.

So we can move in like yesterday! We're not using Realtors so Steven's going to draw up a contract, find the mortgage, insurance, and title companies and we'll sign at the end of June. I'm so happy! The master bedroom is big. Steven and I will each have our own closets. My mom used a small room and put 4 boys in the big one at one point, but we're claiming it. It's SUCH an improvement from our last house.

The houses we had under contract were all in different church branch or ward boundaries. I've been teaching the same youth since before Steven was in Law school. That will be one of the biggest changes for me. The good news is that we ended up with being in the same congregation as my mom, dad, and grandma. That may be one reason that my mom lowered the price for us. My brother, Martin, on his mission will come back to a new house, but can go to his old one too.