Home Ownership!!! Yup!!

This is my window... MY window... or will be soon... It has been a whirlwind... The last six days have been perhaps the most exciting (combined with scary) days of my life.  Last Sunday, in snow, sleet, and freezing rain (Ok...not really sure I know the difference between sleet and freezing rain... but it's good for dramatic effect!)  my realtor, Suellen, and I traveled from house to house (10 total) in my quest to become a homeowner. 

I have, for months, been looking at house listings.  The listings that intrigued me I visited many times and tried to envision how the house would feel, how it was set up... Several of my favorite listings were on last Sunday's list.  The first house we saw was one that was close to the ocean... and I wanted that house to be perfect for me.  But, as I suspected from the pictures... it was too small...literally... the ceiling on the stairs was too low and standing in the basement was impossible... but, as real estate guru's say, the LOCATION was amazing.  I am glad that I saw it because seeing it took the romance out of it.... then we went to another house, that, honestly, from the pictures, had become one of my top choices.  It was a house that, from the outside, looked like a cottage that belonged oceanside... on the inside... if you could see through the very outdated orange shag carpet and the bedroom colors painted by children whose well intended parents gave their children license to pepto bismol their bedrooms, and past the cracked window panes... was stunning... there was hard wood floors beneath the hideous carpets, a beautiful fireplace with more charm than practicality, and a layout that would have been perfect for entertaining at parties and hosting family... Being in that house felt like I thought it would... full of potential... but realistically it was in need of upwards of $30,000 to get it up to snuff... given that it had been on the market for a while my realtor anticipated the owners would have taken almost any offer I put on the table... and my mortgage people said that in a house that needed a lot of work I could get an estimate from a contractor of the costs to fix it and add that amount to the mortgage... and after being in the house, it was a very tempting consideration... I could picture it... the finished product after lots of work, but... it would have meant living in a construction zone... and likely more, less obvious, work would need to be done... possibly the electric system, possibly more... so it was risky... and wasn't oceanside... and was not my ideal location... but it stayed in my list of favorites. 
Then... then we went to a house that was new to the market and was in my top two, at least from the pictures... and when I walked in, despite the snowy dark conditions, I was struck by the brightness of the house, the natural light.  I immediately pictured my nephews sitting at the breakfast bar as I was cooking in the kitchen... and as I walked through the rooms could picture myself there, happy there, and it felt like it was mine.  I could picture my stuff there, my painting, my photographs... my friends and my family in that house... with me... and I wanted to stay there... my realtor had to push me to leave, to go to our next showing... and it was hard to leave... we continued our search...in and out of the car, in and out of houses, and getting snowed on and wind blown in between... and there were things about the rest of the houses that were appealing, but when I left them I felt good about leaving...
At the end of the day my realtor asked me what  I wanted to do... did I like any of them enough to buy? enough to revisit? or did I want to pick other properties to look at another day.  I wanted the house filed with natural light.  It was new to the market, less than a week... and  I doubted my offer would be accepted... but I wanted to try.  So... late Sunday night, my realtor submitted an offer.  Around 9:15 Monday night, my realtor called with their counter offer... $4000 difference... and I said YES... and then he said it... "Congratulations!" 

Oh My GOD!!!  I am buying a house!  I am buying a house.... I AM BUYING A HOUSE!!! 

The elation, excitement and holy shit feelings have been as intense as I have ever felt them!  It's a HUGE commitment...  and... in a strange way... freedom...

The night before seeing the house... I had a dream... in which the yellow bedroom was decorated with daisies... Mom's favorite flower... and the day I went under contract... was my grandmother's birthday... and the day I got to see the house, was Suellen's birthday... so perhaps there were other things at work...

Since Monday night, sleep has been...scarce.  I have been making lists in my head... lists of the things I want to do to the house like in the blue bedroom, I want to paint three of the walls white leaving one blue accent wall.  I have debated about what to do with the second guest room (3 bedrooms total) ... do I put a quenn bed in there or two twin beds? I am leaning towards two twin beds.. for when the boys visit...

Tuesday night... well Tuesday night I tried to sleep, but around 11:30 I turned on my light and began writing down the things that were in my head... things I am going to need... a snow blower... a mower... a broom, one of those big butt brooms (wide) for the driveway... a hose... I don't have a hose... a box in which I can store wood for my fireplace.. (MY fireplace!!)   I picture a box similar to the one that sat at my parents' house for years.. big, in which lots of wood could be stored... I want a wood box like that... and I would put some kind of cushion on top of it for extra seating when guests came over... (maybe my talented dad could build one for me like that one!)  A rake, I will need a rake... I want house plants, cat safe house plants... I will need bedding for the two new twin beds... and there are decisions to be made about whether or not I want to get headboards for the beds or not, and do I want a headboard for my bed... I have always wanted a sleigh bed... but it is a bit impractical with my height... yet I curl up when I sleep... and I like the idea of it... another option with the bed is to get a king size bed for my room and put a queen bed in each of the guest rooms... but a king bed is a big bed just for me... and I think two twin beds make more sense... so there's bedding for those... and pillows... I think I want all new pillows... Oh.. and the house has radiators, charming silver radiators... and I want to put shelves on top of them so that the cats can sit on them to look out the windows... And... the window pictured above... notice those smaller panes... (ready for a BIG hint drop?!)  those smaller panes would look so nice with some STAIN GLASS work!!!  (Betty is a stain glass artist!!) I eventually want a small table in the entry way with a couple of chairs, and a bench to sit on to put shoes on and take them off... with storage for footwear and I need a coat rack, preferably one that matches the bench, attaches to the wall and has a mirror... and the upstairs bathroom.. it's gray, which is very modern... but the downstairs has a lot of gray and I am not sure I want a gray bathroom... so I am looking for shower curtains that have gray, but also have some other brighter colors that may kind of tie the colors of the bedrooms into the bathroom... and I would like to get a bird feeder so the cats can watch the birds... these are the thoughts that have been keeping me up at night...

It is so tempting to want to buy new everything... but the bottom line is... I have a lot of what I need for this house, MY house... and I have promised myself that I am not going to make any major purchases (except the twin beds, I want those pretty early on...) until I get in the house, unpack everything, and see what I want to keep and what I may want to get rid of... (just ended a sentence with a preposition... eek!)  Oh... I will also let myself buy two bar stools for the breakfast bar... two comfortable bar stools... but everything else... will need to wait.. there are a couple of pieces of furniture that I have now... that I may end up not keeping... but... am not going to make that decision now... 

So I am continuing to pack... the basement is on the list, will not be that bad, as there is not too much down there, but will need to take stuff to the dump, or recycling center as it is now called.... and I need to pack up my bedroom... other than the stuff I  will need before I move... and I think I will hold off on the bathroom until right before the move...

I do not yet have an official closing date... but will be in my house before my birthday!  (Can you say Housewarming/birthday bash??!!!) 

This has also been an emotional process... Emotional for many reasons... about which I am not ready to write... but emotional...

I feel so incredibly lucky to have found a house I love... I also feel accomplished... I have worked hard and I feel like that hard work is starting to pay off... I am grateful... for the help I am being given and the offers of help as I go through this process...
I am grateful!