We May Have a Winner!

I don't mean to jump the gun and I certainly don't want to jynx us, but I am just so excited about this house we found!

We looked at houses this last Sunday. This was our third time looking in total, but our first time since we received our pre-approval. The houses we looked at feel from the $235K to $265K range. Our pre-approval is for just under $260K, but we figured we could potentially negotiate down from $265K, and the mortgage varied based on specific location because of taxes and stuff.

This was definitely a lower range than what we had looked at before. However, we really liked the little bit smaller size of the houses because it made it feel more like a home.

We looked at 10 houses on Sunday. We definitely crossed off 5 of the houses either because we didn't like the layout or amount of TLC it needed, or because there was no yard (one was zero-scaped and the other was not fenced in). It is really hard to get a good feel for a house from the pictures, and since our realtor had not shown the specific properties, she didn't know either. Plus you never know what we think we are willing to change. We kept track of the ones we liked and kept a running list of which ones we liked best. These are the top three choices so far:



Rosewalk





Rosewalk Kitchen



Our third choice is the first house we looked at, Rosewalk. When we first walked in it really did feel like home and place we could see ourselves living in for a long time. It had a partially finished basement (a bedroom), but plenty of room to finish the rest how you wanted. A little bit of a small yard. We really loved the kitchen and the layout. This falls into our third choice overall. We will be looking at it again on Saturday. It so hard to keep them apart! Plus you change how you feel as you look through houses. Since we had such a positive reaction to it, we thought it deserved a second chance. Another plus was that it is on the West side, so closer to my parents.



Morning Glory



Morning Glory Entrance

 Our second choice overall is Morning Glory. AKA "The Old Lady House" because an old woman currently lives there. This was the first house that Dylan really got excited about. It has a nice kitchen and good sized living room. The back yard is definitely a good size and the deck was beautiful. The master bedroom was really big and had a walk-in closet. I definitely liked it, but it was hard to get past all the decor since everything was decorated with paintings and knick-knacks.



Laredo



Laredo Kitchen



Laredo Yard

Our first choice is Laredo. We both fell in love with this house!  I don't even know how to explain why. It just seems like a great home for entertaining but also for kids to run around in. It has hardwood floors, 4 bedrooms, finished basement, and the best part is the backyard. It is HUGE! While yes this means more yardwork, it more importantly means a ton of space for Freya, Puppy #2 and our three future kids to run around in. It already has a playset,  but we will probably relevel it. It has a really big deck with a hot tub (the motor needs to be fixed). So backyard=awesome. But we love the house too! It has a really nice kitchen with room for a breakfast nook. The entrance is a really versatile space. The living room has a fireplace and second door to outside (it's a split main level). The 4th bedroom is on the main level, which we would use as a study for now. The basement, although not a full basement, is finished and could be a made to have a bedroom or just be a play area or general man cave. All of it is just great. Only downsides are no 5-piece bath or walk in closets (two closets though and a good sized master bedroom to allow for more than one dresser) and that it is on the east side of HR. It's about 25 minutes to my parents house.

This Saturday, we are looking at these three homes, plus two others that we found this week. If Laredo is still our top choice, then we will be ready to make an offer. It is so great that Dylan is really getting excited about buying a house and I am excited to be getting this close!