Andy informed me last night that it’s been a week since my last post…”so get on it!” he tells me.
Why the blogging pseudo-hiatus?
Well, life at the Gibson’s has been pretty crazy busy lately. Why you ask? Well, because…WE’RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!!
Huge. Seriously. We’re actually in escrow, and apparently have been since the 22nd of February. Although we didn’t know because the listing agent is the biggest flake in the history of mankind. Luckily, our realtor is absolutely amazing, otherwise, we’d really be in trouble. Anyway, that’s a whole different topic…
We’ve spent pretty much every free moment perusing the web, going to open houses, reading through the classifieds, walking through model homes, and dragging our poor realtor all over town to show us places. Not to mention meeting with banks, going over Andy’s 800 excel spreadsheets to see what we could afford, praying, praying, praying, and living life in general. Funny how laundry and dishes still pile up regardless of how busy you are! Hello! We’re house shopping here! A little respect! But no, there they are, sitting on the counter dirty just waiting. Bums.
I haven’t blogged about our home buying process because…well…I didn’t want to jinx it. I know, it’s silly, but I just didn’t want to tell the whole world and then for whatever reason have lending fall through or something and having to re-explain it all. We figured we’d wait until we were in escrow and basically have a house “officially” (save the mountains of paperwork we’ll have to sign between now and the end of closing).
We had really wanted to buy in the 5 Cities area. And I want to be clear: not because we don’t like Santa Maria…because, actually, we do. I think Santa Maria gets a really bad rap…because people immediately think of the ghetto places (which certainly exist), but there are really nice parts too. In fact, I think there are more nice places than not…they just don’t get as much attention I guess. I think I might do a post defending Santa Maria’s honor someday…Anyway, we really wanted to move a little north because between church, Andy’s work, and the fact that with the exception of the Heldt’s, all of our friends live in SLO, it’d be nice to be a little closer. I knew that it would be more expensive than Santa Maria, but I had no idea it was THAT much more! For the same price, I would get a shanty in a scary part of town that was barely habitable and maybe 800 s.f. if we were lucky. I told Andy that I didn’t really love him enough to live in such a small place. I’d probably kill him. Not to mention that we wouldn’t have any money after making the mortgage to actually do any kind of repairs…making his murder all but guaranteed. (Boy, that sounds morbid! In case you weren’t sure, I am totally kidding!)
So, what did we get?
- Built in 2004
- 2,035 s.f.
- Oversized 2 car garage
- On a cul de sac
- 3 bedroom/2.5 bath
- Pretty big backyard (by California standards)
- Giant kitchen
- 1 mile from where we live now
The house was a foreclosure (which is really sad…that’s another post altogether). It is in perfect condition…it just needs some color and a little TLC. Every wall is white. No color anywhere. The original owners never did the backyard landscaping so it’s pretty much just weeds. I’d really like to re-do the kitchen countertops (although that is probably a ways out)…they’re that brand-new-tennis-shoe white high gloss ceramic tile with white grout…not really my style, but better than dusty rose (which is what I have now). Andy wants to build a deck in the backyard and put in some sod. The outside of the house is okay…all the houses in the development seriously look exactly the same, which kind of stinks, but of all my concerns, that’s a silly one.
Escrow should be closing by March 22nd…which means I have a lot of packing to do! Yikes!
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Congrats!!! That is so exciting. I love where we live, but a culdisac would make it so much better. We are actually on a bull head which is a circle, so it is still pretty safe for bike riding, but the culisac a few houses down call to me when I am on my walks after the school kids get home!
CONGRATS! i have been waiting for this post :) seriously buying a house is soooo stressful! AHH – and i was the SAME way and didn’t want to “jinx” it so i didnt tell most people until we were like signing papers the next day… cause you never know. well its beautiful and i cant wait to hopefully see it. too bad you cant just cut down henry’s cute nursery wall and put it up at the new house cause its so cute! congrats again! yayyy
I know! The wall! You have no idea how many times I have groaned when I walk into Henry’s room.
I can’t decide if I’m going to re-create it at the new house…it was SOOOO much work!
Congratulations!! I was so stressed when we bought our house that my eyes were always twitching :) we didn’t tell anyone either.
you are right foreclosures – it is really sad. Jason & I are helping his friend buy a condo and every time I pull a new sheet off the mls about 95% of the houses are either repo’s or pending repo’s.
Henry’s wall is so cute – you have to redo it. When I was doing Dillon’s room, I made sure that we were not moving anytime in the near future – at the time it was a possibilty.
Congratulations again!!
congrats! so glad it worked out! can’t wait to see it.
and don’t worry, your grout won’t be white for long. (oh wait, that’s probably just me that refuses to spend hours scrubbing and cleaning it! i DETEST glossy white tile with white grout!!!)
oh its the cutest wall and its something you could leave up there for a long time :)
do you have to paint over the other one before you move out or do you get to leave it as is?
Brianna-You made me laugh out loud! I’m actually glad you commented about it…I was a little worried that you might be offended about my tile comment since I know that’s what’s in your house! Good to know you hate it too! Not only is cleaning a problem…it’s just so stark and harsh. It might not be so bad if it were matte, you know?
wooooooooo!!! That is awesome news! We’ve been immersed in the whole house buying thing ourselves and almost everything we’ve looked at has been a foreclosure, so I know how it can be. We’ve actually been looking into Santa Maria mainly because our money will go so much farther there. Although, we’ve put the house thing on the backburner until this baby comes. Congratulations – that is so exciting! Owning a house is a BIG DEAL – you two should be so proud of yourselves!
Congratulations!!! How exciting for you guys! Guess you’ll have to host the Christmas party again so we can all see it, huh? ;)
Kidding, just kidding!
Well, sort of.
ha, no not offended. that’s what was here when we bought, so it’s what has stayed. there’s lots of things about our house that i’m not a fan of. i actually mind the look of the tile less than the practical, it’s a pain to clean so much grout issue–plus it’s so hard to roll out any sort of dough on it. but i guess it could be worse, we could have bright green formica…
wow, that home is beautiful! that is so exciting. can’t wait to see how you make is yours. packing stinks, but it will be great to get everything unpacked and in your new HOME!! Yay!
super pretty! So excited for you. Just checking, is the house in SM? or another town?
If you need help painting Hen’s new room, I would be glad to help, we painted the entire interior of our new two story house after my parents remodeled…. I actually enjoy painting! :0)
Congrats.. we are so happy for you!!! It looks awesome… I can’t wait to see it in person:-) Let us know if you need any help! b
YIPEE! Congrats! That is so cool! Please do a post about the merits of S.M. because I’m one of those (having grown up in SLO–though notice how I escaped it once I got married and how I have no desire to actually go back because of the whole mentality shift there) who never, ever liked S.M. and definitely has a certain opinion about it. it would be nice to hear something good about the town. (and i am totally serious!)
we are thinking of selling/buying this year, so that has me pretty excited. the house you bought is huge! that’s wonderful! look forward to seeing more pics when you move in!
This is wonderful news. I am so happy for you guys. I do enjoy reading the blog and keeping up on Henry. He’s adorable and I want you to know I pray for him. Nancy Rogers