OUR house!

We bought a house!!! Wow! It's an incredible feeling.

I mean, being desperate to be a homeowners seems like we've been brainwashed by our material culture. And maybe we have been. But for a handy guy and a creative lady, renting just wasn't cutting it anymore.

We moved in with Brian's parents, Phil and Gion, in August 2010, and we started house-hunting in January. We got a hold of realtor Jolene Horn, who we have several connections with. We went to school with her daughter, a couple of friends (friend couple) had bought a house with her help a few months earlier, and Jolene and her husband Glenn (also a realtor) go to Parkfield Music Festival with my parents. We really enjoyed working with Jolene (and Glenn as the process went on). She is easy to talk to, responds quickly to all my emails and calls, and she's relentless when dealing with all the different parties you deal with in the home-buying process. We were grateful we went with Jolene, especially when the offer was accepted on our home, and it became as complicated a purchase as is imaginable.

It felt like we jumped right into serious house hunting. I believe it was about a month after we started looking at properties that we put our first offer on a house in Paso Robles. It was a cute little house. Not too little actually. It was 3 bedroom, 2 bath, plenty of space for us, and a studio for me. It was basically move in ready. We were a little concerned about living in Paso. We ideally wanted to be in Atascadero. It was also a little north of downtown, which can be a little sketchy in parts. And the yard was small, very small.

We were outbid on that one.

A little while later we found a cute little house in Atascadero, Cayucos Avenue. Little was the key descriptor for this place. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, small living space and tiny kitchen. But the neighborhood was nice, and there was enough land that we could imagine adding on eventually.

We were outbid on that one too. 

BUT bidding on the Cayucos house was the best thing that we could have done because the agent for that house found out about us. A little family with a baby. Father's a special education teacher. Mother stays at home and is an oil painter. Who wouldn't want to help find this awesome family a house!?!

He gave us a tip on a bank-owned home he was selling on Santa Lucia Road. It had been listed quite a bit above our price limit, but the agent knew our pre-approval amount, so . . . 

We put an offer on it, and it was accepted!! 

Then the real work started. 

More meeting with our awesome loan advisor Kay Otis, lots and lots of paperwork at the Academe Real Estate office. We even had to do work on the house BEFORE we closed so we could get our USDA loan (all approved by the bank owner). Luckily my dad's cousin Bob, a contractor, came down to help. And a handful of amazing family members and friends came over to tear down the death trap of a deck that needed to come down for financing.

After the work was done, and the appraisal was complete, it seemed like we waited and waited for financing news and title company news (the escrow was actually pretty fast, but it just seems like you're waiting and waiting). 

Jolene fought to get us a new water heater, which is incredible since it was bank-owned! . . . hint, there was a warranty involved. 

More waiting, more signing.

On April 11th, we had the house re-keyed because that's what the bank wanted. 

That night a traveling notary came around to sign our escrow papers. 

Then we waited and waited (I know, we waited days, not months. It wasn't a short sale!). 

Thursday morning we found out our loan had been financed. Yay!

Jolene told me to get all the utilities set up in our name. 

And Friday at 4:30, it was getting late!, Jolene called (30 seconds after she found out) and said the sale had been recorded. Phewf (!!), it was done. 

Ok, now I'm going to talk about OUR HOUSE! 

The "specs" are amazing considering the other houses on the market in our price range which are usually 2 bedrooms/ 1 bathroom on not much land. 

OUR house has 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths, enough for me to have a STUDIO and an extra bathroom for, you know, why everyone wants more than one bathroom. 

It was built in the early 1960s. 

It's about 1400 square feet total, more than either of the other houses we bid on. 

And it's on over a HALF ACRE with beautiful oak trees and a creek. You look at it and think "this is a great place for kids to have adventures!!" 

Before you start thinking, "they lucked out! What a steal!" . . . 

We have A LOT of work to do. There's some water damage in the half bath. The kitchen is awkward and not too functional, so we're planning a nearly complete kitchen reno (we'll keep the floors). We'll need to build a new patio or deck. In not too long the carpets will have to be replaced, the carport may need to be replaced. It's a fixer upper, but that's how we knew we'd get into the market. 

It's the kind of place where some people (the lock smith) roll their eyes thinking we'd buy such a turd. But when others with building experience look at it (the inspector, my cousin the contractor), they think it has a lot of potential. We think so. 

The house is quite close to the street. It's on more than a half acre, and they had to build the house with just a little strip of lawn in between it and a busy street!?! . . . guess the street wasn't so busy in the 60s. But we're planning on planting more (native) bushes to hopefully cancel out some of the street noise. 

There's a big yard, but it's not too functional. It slopes down to the creek and past it. Our property actually goes to the street on the other side of the hill. Mostly we'll just admire the view and weed whack. But there is a side yard for planting. 

We've met a few of our neighbors. They're all really excited to see the house occupied since it's been vacant for 3 or 4 YEARS!! One set of neighbors is actually the daughter and son-in-law of the people who used to live there, so we've received some great information from them. It should be a nice neighborhood to live in. 

Brian and Phil (and Gion) have been working in the house over Brian's spring break, and we plan to work even more over Brian's summer vacation, so we don't actually plan on moving in until late summer.

One more thing: if you try to Google map-it (if you have the address. I'm keeping it off blogger for obvious reasons.), It doesn't really work. You need to go up the hill a little more, toward Navarette.

We're so excited about our new house!!

Now for some pictures! 

Kitchen (before)

Love the built-ins (studio to left, kitchen to right)

Everett and I in the living room (door behind goes to bedrooms)

hall bath (near bedrooms)

hallway (left door, our room. right door, Everett's room.
Bathroom off left edge)