Category Archives: House Hunting

Waiting for it to Settle

Posted in Growing Up, House Hunting, Kara and Kyle, When Anxiety Attacks by

Hey You! Did you enter my super awesome giveaway yet? You probably should. Hey Look! I’ll even provide a quick & dirty link to it right here. Check it out, you won’t be sorry! TODAY IS THE LAST DAY YOU CAN ENTER!

Now back to your regular programming:

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Ever since Kyle and learned that our house offer was accepted, I’ve had nothing but horrible anxiety. Usually, it’s crazy butterflies, but now … now it’s chest achiness. And it’s HORRIBLE. It feels like someone’s punched me in the gut and is pressing on my chest.

It almost feels like indigestion. But it’s all. the. time. I just want all of the paperwork to go through, have those keys in my hand and move it. But I can’t. I have to wait a month. We still have, what I can assume to be, piles of paperwork to go through.

Of course, I’m still crazy excited to have my own house, I just didn’t think the anxiety would be this bad. But, when you think about it, it makes sense. We’re signing our lives away for 35 years. We’ll be almost 60-years-old. I’m still waiting for that idea to settle in.

In the meantime, enter my giveaway, help me keep my mind off the craziness that is house buying and have a great weekend! For the first time in weeks, I don’t have to work all day Saturday. It better be sunny, because I want to rid myself of my pasty white skin!

What are you weekend plans?

House Hunt, Round 3

Posted in Awesome, House Hunting, Kara and Kyle by

Hey You! Did you enter my super awesome giveaway yet? You probably should. Hey Look! I’ll even provide a quick & dirty link to it right here. Check it out, you won’t be sorry!

Now back to your regular programming:

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Kyle and I have been stressed out to the max, but I’m excited to announce that we’ve found The One!

After taking a look at houses last week, we were ready Wednesday night to make an offer on the townhouse I mentioned in this post. What it all boiled down to was the fact that it was the perfect starter. It had everything we wanted, was completely updated and was amazingly on the low end of our budget, making mortgage payments a little less stressful.

We only had to deal back and forth a couple of times before we reached an agreement, and if our financing (which we finalize tonight) and home inspection (which is tomorrow) all goes okay, we officially take possession on September 3rd! *insert girlish excited squeals here*

I’ve already spoken once with a lady on the strata council and she’s super nice. She said the “hood” (as she called it) is pretty tight-knit and fairly laid back. There’s no size restriction on dogs and she’s pretty sure we could get away with having two if they were quiet. We’re not going to keep Molly, but we’re glad that she’s staying within the family with Kyle’s sister.

We’re so over the moon excited and all of our family members are too. I’m so glad we’re going to be moving into Phase 2 of our lives!

Now I also have to move onto the packing and de-cluttering phase as well. Joy! Did I mention I have a ton of stuff? Just stuff, stuff, stuff! At least my new closet will be a walk-in! ANND! AIR CONDITIONING! I can actually use my oven in the summer now! WITHOUT DYING! Okay, I’m done being excited – for now!

You can read about Round 1 and Round 2 here and here, respectively.

House Hunt, Round 2

Posted in House Hunting, Kara and Kyle by

Kyle and I went and looked at more houses yesterday morning since he had the day off for a couple of doctor’s appointments and had a gap in between appointment #1 and me going to work. Our Realtor figured we could fit all seven houses before I had to go to work. SEVEN! (Yeah, we’re a little curious about real estate, so we just want to get a good grasp on what’s out there! )

So, how did Round 2 go? Well let me tell you!

House #1: It’s been on the market for quite some time and just recently went down in price, so we’d figured it was worth a peek. It wasn’t so bad but needed work: new roof, finish the loft area, etc. And the bathroom was bizarre! It was just a shower but with no separator except for a curtain. Essentially, you could go to the bath room AND shower at the same time. Verdict? Nope!

House #2: It was just down the road from the first one and looked absolutely amazing. It looked like “Grandma and Grandpa” lived there with the fancy throw-rug and French-style furniture. It had a xerioscaped yard which wasn’t so great and a loft area like the first place but finished. Verdict? It was gorgeous, but a little out of our range. The loft wasn’t really usable and there was no Central Air. And I didn’t really like the xerioscaped yard.

House #3: Right off the bat we got a funny vibe from it. It had a funky smell and needed some work. The basement had a horrible mural painted on one wall and we’re pretty sure it was used to grow marijuana at some points due to some random horrible wiring. Oh, and heavy-duty dead bolts everywhere! There was also a huge decked above-ground pool in the back, which is a no-sell for us. We don’t want the hassle of taking care of a pool. Verdict? Hell no!

House #4: Number 4 is actually a townhouse in the same complex as the first one we looked at last week, but across the driveway. It was GORGEOUS. The flooring upstairs was brand-new bamboo laminate and the paint was really nice. A downer though was that it doesn’t have AC or any grass in the patio area, and the furnace and hot water tank was a little on the old side. Verdict? It made the short list/Top 3.

Houses #5, 6, & 7: The last three were all in a bareland strata complex not far from where we currently live. They were rancher-style homes and for the most part were really nice. The first place I think was my favourite, but was priced a little high for a modular house. It did have a decent-sized yard and AC though. The second place didn’t have as nice of a layout as the first one and the yard was not as nice. It didn’t have AC and there was a hot tub in the backyard, which is a bacteria pool if not taken care of. The last one was absolutely horrible. It looked like a double-wide trailer and was white and horrible blue inside. Yuck! We ran away from that one. Verdict? They want a little too much for so little house.

Now that we’re at the end of Round 2, we’ve finally started to make some tough decisions. I’m going to make a call to the strata group that manages the townhouse complex to ask a few questions about the rules. I think we’re getting REALLY close to picking our first home! It’s still amazingly frightening and exciting at the same time.