3

Well, Travis and I celebrated our third anniversary yesterday. Can't believe we've been married that long already! We're actually waiting to celebrate until Sunday lunch since we are in Trussville with my family for a few days for the holidays. Last year I created a "Memory Jar" for us to write in every year on our anniversary. Each anniversary, we describe our favorite memory, a hard time we went through, a big decision we've made, and something we've learned throughout the past year.When we get older, I think it will be neat to go back and read through some of the things we've written!

3 years!

the obligatory Christmas card pic :)

Yesterday was the funeral for my great-aunt Georgia, Granny's sister. Uncle Bill, Aunt Gale, and her mom drove down from Richmond for the funeral, so we all went out to eat for lunch yesterday before the funeral. I'll always remember Aunt Georgia for her sweet and caring attitude. I don't think I ever heard her say something mean or rude to anyone. She went on our Cushing family beach trips a few times after Papa died, and the last time she went with us was back in 2006, the summer after Travis and I started dating. She wanted to see a picture of "this new boy" that I was talking to every night on the phone, and when I showed her his picture, she exclaimed, "Oh, he looks just like a movie star!"

I learned a lot about Aunt Georgia yesterday at the funeral that I'd never known before. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and worked for TVA as a "She-Engineer" on projects for World War II. Her husband was in the military and went to Japan, Korea, and Pearl Harbor among many other places. It was cool to look at old pictures of them when they were younger and read about their life together.


Today, we ate lunch with my mom's side of the family for Christmas. Gran told us a lot of her family's history while we were eating, which was really cool too. I didn't realize that the dining room table that Travis and I have was my great-great-grandmother's. Gran said one of her best childhood memories is sitting with her doll under that table at her grandmother's house singing hymns with her grandmother. That table has a lot of history to it! As you get older, I guess you start to appreciate that kind of thing more...


Tomorrow we're eating with the Cushing side of the family for Christmas. Uncle Bill and Aunt Gale have already gone home, but we'll get to spend time with the Palmers and Granny. Should be a fun time as usual! Then, it's back to Huntsville for Christmas with the Grant fam on Saturday :)


Quick update on the house situation: The sellers paid to have the house re-tested for radon, and the level this time averaged 12.1, which is somewhat lower than last time, but still higher than you want it to be. They've agreed to pay for a mitigation system to be installed, and they also agreed to all the other minor fixes that we asked for. Yay! Now, we've got to arrange the termite inspection, decide on our homeowner's insurance, and get the house appraised. Hopefully things will continue to go smoothly!

That's about all for now...Hope you have a very merry Christmas! :)

Radon, Lovely Weather, and Other Fun Topics...

Just to be upfront...a lot has transpired in the past week, so this will probably be a pretty lengthy post. You have been warned :)

I'll back up to last Friday. Travis and I met with Amy at Regions to sign paperwork...lots and lots of paperwork! Good thing I have to sign my name 50 million times a day at work, or it probably wouldn't come so naturally. She explained all of the stuff about our upcoming loan to us, which made me excited and nervous at the same time. Closing day is less than a month away. So we leave the bank, eat a quick supper at Rosie's (yum!), and then head to the mall for some Christmas shopping. In honor of my parents taking my sister and me Angel Tree shopping several times when we were growing up, I wanted us to do the same thing this year. I let Travis pick out our "angel", and he chose a little 10 year old boy named Ramzie. Now get this...what made this little boy special, apparently, was the fact that he listed a "science kit" as one of the items on his wish list. Haha :) So, off we went in search of a science kit. We finally found a "cool" one at a toy store (I think Travis was reliving his childhood a little!). We also bought Ramzie a card game from another toy store and a new pair of jeans and a sweater. I hope he'll enjoy everything!

Saturday morning was the big inspection on our house. We met the inspector there at 9 AM, and we were there until almost 11:30! He'd set up a radon test last Wednesday in the house (which takes at least 48 hours to complete). Steve, the inspector, walked us through the house inside and out and showed us all sorts of things we didn't know. Overall, we learned a lot, and the house was in pretty good shape according to him. He found a couple of safety issues that can easily be fixed (by the sellers, before closing), and a few other minor issues that the sellers would hopefully fix as well. If anyone needs a recommendation for a home inspector, let me know because he was great! Darlene, our realtor, took our picture in  front of the house before we left Saturday morning:

Yipee!

 So, we left the house feeling pretty good about everything. Steve said he would download the results from the radon test and send us an email with his inspection report later that afternoon. We went home and got ready to head to Montevallo for Alan and Katie's wedding. Andrew came over and rode with us down there. The wedding was beautiful, and we had a lot of fun! Katie looked gorgeous, not surprisingly, and they both seemed really happy. It was great to see a lot of people from Tuscaloosa that we hadn't seen since May as well! 

Alisha and me at the wedding!

  Bad news, however, arrived in the form of an email just about the time we got seated for the ceremony. Steve sent us the results from the radon test, and the house tested really high with radon. Really high. According to the EPA, if your house tests higher than 4 pCi/L, you need to have a mitigation system put in. Well, our house averaged 20 pCi/L! 

Some of you may not have ever heard of radon. I hadn't until earlier this year. If you go to the EPA's website, you can learn more about it. Basically, it's a gas that you can't see, smell, or taste that is formed from decaying uranium in soil. It can get into your house from cracks in the foundation or even through the water supply, and if it builds up to high levels, it can cause cancer. It is the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer (behind cigarette smoking), and the EPA estimates that almost 1 in 15 homes in the U.S. have high levels of radon. Check out this map to see which parts of the country have the highest radon levels (red = the worst). 

Anyway, my first thought (since we know someone personally who lived in this area, never smoked, got lung cancer and died in his 40s) was to say "Let's walk". Because we can technically get out of the contract, since radon is considered a safety issue. But, what's to say that the next house we found that we liked wouldn't have the same problem? All of north Alabama is in the red on the map. Plus, we've also learned that just because your house tests low or high for it at one point, that doesn't mean that the next test will have the same result. The results depend on the weather and the pressure in the atmosphere at the time. So, what if we found another house we liked, got it tested and the results came back ok? Who really knows if the results would be the same time if it was tested a month later? Here's the kicker: the people who own the house now say that they had it tested back in 2007 when they bought it, and the results were fine. Now they're 20??

Basically, the only way to assure yourself that the radon levels in your house are within the acceptable limit is to have a radon mitigation system put in. We got a couple of quotes from different companies in the area, and they cost between $1000 to $2000 to put in. Of course, if we decide to stay with this house, we'll have the sellers pay to put a system in. 

Right now, the house is being re-tested for radon by a different person. The sellers offered to pay for it just to double-check that the first results were accurate. This test should be finished tomorrow, so we'll hopefully know by tomorrow night what the new results are. I'll keep you posted, of course!

Moving on, it has been freezing cold around here lately! I feel like we are living in Antarctica, not Alabama! Travis actually got to leave work around lunchtime today because of the sleet/freezing rain in the area. It was so nice having him home during the day...brought back memories of our college days when we'd actually see each other at other times than just at night.

Work has been crazy this week. A lot of out-of-the-ordinary stuff happened to my patients, which translated into me feeling like a pretty awful nurse. Most of it I guess wasn't really my fault, but it was still frustrating. I wish everything went smoothly all of the time, but some things are just out of my control. Anyway, I had a breakdown yesterday after everything happened. Luckily, Mom answered her phone and helped calm me down and remind me that I'm a good nurse and stuff like that just happens sometimes. I have the best Mom :)

If you're still reading at this point, I'm proud of you! I figured this one would be a little long-winded :)

Hope you are staying warm and dry this week! Aren't you thankful for a warm place to sleep at night? I know I am!

*Explanation*

Confession: I didn't do a very good job of transitioning from my post on the day after Thanksgiving to my post on Monday night. I'll blame it on the fact that we go to bed so early these days (usually before 10 PM)...

So, some of you were probably left wondering why we decided on the house we did, since in my previous post, I'd said we were leaning toward the new house (my "dream" house). I'll try to go back and fill in the gaps so it makes more sense:

Last Friday afternoon, we went back to look at the new house...

 
...and we left there still liking it. I had some hesitations though...mainly about the fact that it doesn't have much storage space (both in the attic and in the closets throughout the house). Also, the kitchen is smaller and doesn't have a lot of cabinet space...I'm not all my stuff would even have a place to go! But, it still had a lot of perks (the sitting room in the master BR, big laundry room, really nice view, etc.)

Before we left that evening, our realtor told us that the sellers of the other house were going to be dropping the price again soon because they really wanted to sell soon. So, we decided to go back and look at it one more time Saturday morning...

We met Darlene there Saturday morning to take another look, and it didn't take much to convince me. The kitchen is much bigger, the backyard is really nice, and it's been really well maintained. I could definitely see us living there longer because there's just more room. It may not have as much "curb appeal" as the other, but I think we can fix it up by planting different shrubs in front of the house and near the mailbox. We did a lot of thinking over the weekend...and the rest is history! 

Once we close in mid-January, the next step will be repainting the inside of the house. I'd like to repaint almost every room, so it may take a little while to do that. We're not really in a huge rush to move in though. 

Moving on, we've almost forgotten about the holidays since we've been so busy with the house hunt! We decorated our tree Friday night and put a few other decorations up around our apartment. No presents are under the tree yet, but we've gotten a couple bought. We still have most of it left to do though! Maybe next year, I'll be more on top of things :)

We also have an anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks! We've almost been married for 3 years...pretty crazy! It's really flown by. And, yes, I'll probably say that every year. 


This Saturday, Alan and Katie are getting married. Yay for December weddings! We'll be going to that Saturday night. Saturday morning, we're getting the house inspected. Should be very informative...since neither of us know a whole lot about the way homes are built and maintained. Tomorrow afternoon, we're meeting with Amy at Regions to go over some stuff about our loan. Then, tomorrow night we're planning to go out to eat and just relax. I'm really looking forward to it. It's been a busy few weeks...and I'm thinking it's not going to slow down anytime soon...

Here's to a short break from our busy schedules! And here's to remembering what's really important in life (and it's not the house we're buying)...


Hope you have a chance to slow down and think about the important things this week too! :)

It's official!

It's going to be ours!!!! :)

Quick update...we have a contract on this house!! We're set to close January 13th if all goes according to plan. I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the recap of the house: 16 years old, 1930 square feet, almost 1/2 an acre of land, 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, BIG kitchen with plenty of cabinet and counter space, fenced-in backyard, etc. This is the house that has had pretty much everything replaced or very well-maintained, so it's almost like new. 

We were able to talk the sellers down almost $5000 off of their asking price, and they are paying almost all of our closing costs, so that's good. They are also going to fix a couple of minor things that need repair, as well as pay for a 1 year home warranty. I feel like we're getting a great deal! Overall, we're getting the house for about $15,000 less than they paid for it in 2007, so hopefully when we get ready to sell, we'll be able to make a profit if the market improves! 

I guess doing this around the holidays might be crazy, but we are busy all year long, so it probably doesn't matter too much. At least, buying in the winter gives us more time to buy things like a lawnmower and grill! :)

Well, it's almost time to get ready for bed....just wanted to share the good news with you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you're all having an awesome week!

Thankful :)

I'm writing this from the living room of my parents' house. Mom and Jenn are on their way to Tuscaloosa for the Iron Bowl. Dad is at Granny's house. And Travis is sleeping upstairs.

Yesterday was a fun day! We had Thanksgiving lunch at Granny's with the Palmers. Gran came along too, so that was nice. We ate too much good food, watched football, and looked through the Black Friday ads. Travis and I decided not to get out with the crazies this morning to shop. He did find some movies online that he may order later, but that will probably be the extent of our shopping for today. 

For a few minutes, I'm going to try to take a step back from The House Hunt to be reminded of how blessed I am. It's too easy to be consumed/stressed out about finding the perfect house for the perfect price. But we wouldn't even be house hunting at this point if Baugay hadn't been generous enough to let us live with her for a little while. We are so thankful for you, Baugay! And we also wouldn't be house hunting if we both didn't have good jobs right after graduation. I'm thankful to have a nursing job where I don't have to work nights, weekends, or holidays. We've both got awesome families and friends that encourage us and inspire us to be better people. We have each other. We're going on 3 years of being married, and I still am convinced that I couldn't have found a better guy. And, most of all, we've got a great God watching over us and taking care of us. 

So, when I'm obsessing/stressing over finding a house, please remind me of how much I have to be thankful for!

Just a few updates on the house hunt, in case you're wondering...


1. We got pre-approved for a loan on Wednesday! We also found out that we would qualify for twice the loan amount that we'll probably need...now that's crazy! The pre-approval lasts until February 22nd, so if we don't buy before then, we'll have to get pre-approved again.


2. I think we've ruled out two of the four houses from my last post. We went back to see two of the four on Wednesday afternoon, and that helped us cross one of them off the list. 

So long! :(

Now, I loved this house from the first time I saw it. It's got great curb appeal and a great yard, and it's in a great neighborhood. However, it has some downsides. The owner lives in Virginia, and the house has been a rental house. The home is 9 years old and has the original appliances, roof, HVAC, and hot water heater. It has new carpet and paint, but the paint looks like it was slopped on the walls without any care at all. There is water damage in the master bathroom and possibly in the guest bath. And there are other minor things that would need to be fixed before we moved in. The owner is supposedly "very motivated", but even if we got a great deal, I'm just afraid all the fixing up we'd have to do would cost a lot more than we planned for. 

Bye, bye!

This house is in great shape, but it's a lot smaller than the others (only 1650 sq ft). The biggest negative to this house, though, is the neighborhood. I'm afraid we would have a hard time re-selling it in the future. 

As for the other two...

Maybe??

 

 I still like this house a lot. It has been meticulously maintained. I'm talking...new roof, stove, microwave, fridge, carpet, paint, HVAC, vinyl windows, hot water heater, insulated garage door, kitchen sink, dishwasher, vinyl flooring, bath countertops/lighting/mirrors/fixtures, etc. It is practically a new house that just happens to be 16 years old! The only things we would need to do would be re-paint (for personal preferences) and fix a couple of other minor things. 
 

Dream home = reality??

But, as of today, I think we're leaning toward this house. It's probably in the best location of the four. It's brand new, which is really appealing. It's my favorite from the outside, and it has a great view of the mountains. We think it would probably re-sell the best. We LOVE the floorplan. It has a sitting room in the master bedroom and a huge laundry room. It's slightly more expensive than the others, but not by a whole lot. 


We'll see. I'm not going to stress! Repeat, I'm not going to stress! Whatever we end up in will be awesome, I'm sure. 


Ok, time to get ready to watch the Iron Bowl!! Roll tide!!

The Contenders

"The Contenders."
  
That sounds like the name of a TV show, doesn't it? :)


Well, here's the weekly update on our house hunt. Last Thursday, Darlene took us to several more houses that were a good bit cheaper than the ones we'd seen before. It was a good experience! They were definitely smaller, but we saw a couple that had potential for sure. 

This Saturday, we are going back to 4 houses that we've already seen once, and Mom and Dad are going to come along and give their opinions. In no particular order, here they are...

#1

This is one of the houses we looked at 2 weeks ago with Darlene. Built in 1994, 1930 sq. ft., 3 BR/2 BA. The owners have really done a lot to it (new roof, carpet, HVAC, appliances, etc.) It has been on the market since June. 

#2

 This is one of the houses we looked at last Thursday. It is considerably cheaper than the other 3 houses. It is between 10-15 years old, 1650 sq. ft., 3 BR/2 BA. It has a really nice backyard, and it is pretty much move-in ready. It has only been for sale since mid-October. 

#3

 

 This house is one that we saw 2 weeks ago. It was built in 2001, 2020 sq. ft., 3 BR/2 BA. It has been on the market since early September. The seller just recently dropped the price several thousand dollars. I love it from the front, and it has a great backyard. 

#4

 

 Last but not least, this house is the one I fell in love with. It is brand new, 1849 sq ft., 3 BR/2 BA. The view from the backyard is really beautiful. I love the color of the brick. The master bedroom has a nice-sized sitting room. It's in a great location. I could go on and on :)


So, there you have it. I'm not ruling out looking at other houses, but I would say those are our top 4 right now. 


In other news, Travis gets home from Latrobe, PA, tomorrow. I can't wait! This was his very first business trip, and it sounds like it's been quite the adventure. He came really close to missing his flight up there, so I'm glad that he didn't! He got into a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game for $20 (tickets are regularly $100, and they were sold out!).  He found his way to church on Tuesday night (gasp!). Apparently, all of the congregations either meet on Tuesdays or Thursdays up there. And tonight, a bunch of them are watching the Bama game together...Roll Tide! This will be the first game we haven't watched together since who knows when...probably before we met...


Next week is Thanksgiving, so we're excited about spending it with my family. We're both only working Monday and Tuesday next week, so it will be a nice long break (almost like being in college again..haha). 

Well, I've got to get back to work...I'm in the middle of making a "Lender Comparison Spreadsheet"...Travis is definitely rubbing off on me :)

A rollercoaster!

That's what this week has been.

To catch you up on what's been going on, I think we've pretty much decided to wait and get Travis a new car. The master cylinder is fixed, and we are $300 poorer, but at least the car works! We got a lot of advice (thank you, thank you!), and we feel like it is smarter to use the money we have saved for a down-payment on a house rather than spend it on a car right now. Hopefully, the ol' Honda will keep ticking for several more months (or years!!) without needing any major repairs. 

Last Friday, we looked at several houses in the Harvest/Monrovia area. Six had been lived in previously, and four or five were brand new. All of them were in the same general price range. The realtor who showed us the houses was awesome! We met her not really expecting much because I'd contacted her about a month or two ago about a house she was selling. We didn't know anything about her, and we figured we'd end up using a realtor who had been recommended to us already (we've got the names of two or three). However, she really, really impressed us. She wasn't pushy at all. She let us walk around and explore the homes on our own without hovering. She pointed out bad qualities and things that needed to be fixed as well as the good qualities. She was very knowledgeable about the whole process of buying a home. She just seemed like a real person...not a pushy salesman. It was great! So, that was a definite step in the right direction. I feel like we can actually do this with her help. As far as the houses that we looked at, they were awesome. I could see us living in any of them, really. They are all one-level, full brick homes with flat yards. But, here's the problem--they are too expensive!

Looking for a way to be idiotic? Here's how: Go look at several nice houses before you sit down and redo your budget to see what you can honestly afford. 

Ok, we could afford them for sure with both of us working. But, in a few years when we (hopefully) have kids, I'm not going to be working...and we'll be down to one income. Will we be able to afford that same house then? I know Travis will be getting raises between now and then. He should bump up to a DB3 in two years hopefully, which is supposed to be a $10,000 jump in salary. But, it's probably not smart to assume that...not when you're talking about a monthly mortgage payment. 

Unfortunately, I got my heart set on one of the houses that we looked at Friday. It's PERFECT. Perfect, perfect, perfect. And perfectly too much money. I was so excited Friday and Saturday...thinking that it was THE ONE. Then, we sat down with the dreaded all-powerful Excel spreadsheet, crunched the numbers, and boom. I was crushed. All of the sudden, he's wondering if we need to just wait another year or two to buy. That house won't be there next month most likely. My emotions swung from one extreme to the other in the span of a couple of days. Normally, I'm really not that emotional. Ask anyone who knows me very well. Travis is probably the crier in the family (shhh...don't tell him I told you!). But, not the past couple of days. I shouldn't have let myself get emotionally attached. That was a huge mistake. There will be other houses out there when we're ready. They may not be as nice as what we were looking at, but they'll be home. 

So, after a lot of number crunching, Excel spreadsheeting, thinking, praying, crying, etc., the plan is that we're going to look at some much cheaper (as in $40,000 cheaper!) houses tomorrow with Darlene, our realtor. I think there are 7 on the list. Wish us luck! Who knows what we'll find. They won't be like the ones last Friday, but that's ok. This may be the convincing I need that we should just wait a while longer, save up a bigger down-payment, and be able to afford something nicer down the road. 

We'll see how it goes. I'm just glad to be back to my normal, mostly level-headed self, and I know Travis is too! Tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to be more objective, not get my hopes up, and not get attached to anything at first sight. This is a big decision, and rushing into it on an emotional whim would be stupid. Especially rushing into something we can't afford on one income. 

So, the search continues. Updates are sure to follow :)