Its been a while

Well its been a short bit since I have updated the blog here. So update on the house for the moment, my future brother in law has been busy scraping the popcorn ceilings before my fiance moves in. We found out fortunately that the ceiling is not asbestos which is a great relief. Jon and I have been working in the yard digging up the flower beds, sifting the dirt, and putting in new flowers and fertilizer. We have discovered that using the kitchen sink causes the bathtub to back up so we are going to see what we can do to fix that. Jon has a lime tree planted in the back yard and pepper plants in a planter box on the side of the house. Our peach tree is starting to produce peaches which are tasty but a bit firm, once the tree stops dropping fruit we are going to move it from the planter it is in right now so that it won't outgrow the planter. I still haven't really done anything about the wedding but am trying to set up my appointment to sign contracts. I also really need to get back to triathlon training because I am so unprepared and I really want to do the race in September. So I will keep you posted on all these things.

Its official

Well we are officially home owners. We got the call from our agent at about 4:30 this afternoon stating that we are now the owners of a home. My fiance picked up the keys so we shall be heading down first thing tomorrow morning to get to work. It's kind of confusing to figure out what we should do first. Look for appliances (we need a fridge, a washer, and a dryer)? Start cleaning? Start thinking about what colors to paint the rooms? So yeah I have no idea what I am going to do tomorrow but I am sure I will figure something out. I shall be posting pictures soon!

Final walk through

So today we did the final walk through of the house. If everything goes according to plan we will be getting keys tomorrow. We were reassured by our agent that its not just that we are noobs and don't know what we are doing that caused yesterdays document signing to be so stressful. According to our agent the escrow company are really not doing a good job of getting things together and telling us information about wireless routing and stuff that we should know. So the walk through went well the appliances are installed, there are new smoke detectors, a new heater, the kitchen door is fixed, so yeah, basically its ready to move in. So its looking like we are going to spend the Fourth of July weekend celebrating in the independence of our own house. We are planning to go appliance shopping this weekend, we need a refrigerator! We might not starting moving in much stuff until after we get the feelings scraped because we have popcorn ceilings. We might move a little bit of kitchen stuff in though (the kitchen doesn't have popcorn ceilings. I also went and picked up a bunch of cleaning stuff (murphy's oil soap, bleach, simple green, windex, rags) so that we can start cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms if nothing else. I also want to paint the kitchen, every room of the house is the same beige color, I don't want a beige kitchen. I think I am going to just paint the kitchen white. So yeah super excited about getting the house. So yay maybe even tomorrow night we can be sitting on the bare floor of our own house sipping champagne celebrating having our very own house (I am actually hoping to kind do some sort of celebrating especially considering we didn't really do anything when we got engaged cuz we had to drive home so I could go to work)

Well hopefully tomorrow I will be posting pictures of us with the keys to our new house!

Almost a homeowner

So it appears that we are going to be closing a week early on the house. Meaning we are going to be closing this Friday!. EEEKK I am super excited! I am really glad because that means our first weekend of being homeowners I will not be at work (which would have been the case the following weekend). Tomorrow we are going to do the final walk through of the house with our agent, then go to escrow to begin signing the millions of pages of documents. We are hopefully going then take keys on Friday. There is so much to think about... utilities, trash service, finding a refrigerator, all kinds of other crazy stuff like air conditioning and getting the ceiling scraped, quite a lot to think about. Plus I really should start doing something about having a wedding next year, which I really have not done a lot towards getting anything done.

Well much to be done, off to bed for a good night's sleep to be ready to tackle the busy days ahead.

Random Stuff

So have been doing a lot of thinking about all kinds of stuff lately (6 hour car ride each way to and from Sacramento gives you time to think) I suppose funerals have a way of making you think about your life and who you want to be so I have done a little thinking about who I want to be have come up with this:

The Woman I Want To Be

Wife:
I want to be a wife that respects and honors her husband, who does not belittle him, who's opinion he respects, who's cooking he adores, who does nice things him just because she loves him not because she wants something, who keeps her home in order and good repair, to be the helper God created her to be, who takes care of him when he is sick, the person he prays with, to be goofy and have fun with him,

Mother:
Someday I want to be the mother of children, to teach them respect and manners, to lead them towards God but allow them to make their own choice, to cook for them and teach them how to cook, to help them with school work, to teach them skills for life, to teach them the value of hard work, to teach them responsibility for their actions, to make Halloween costumes for them, to take them on family vacations to see interesting places and learn new things,

Adventurer:
I want to take on new challenges, try new things, learn to ride my motorcycle better, rock climb, river raft, explore many places, try new food to cook and eat, learn to surf, race triathlons (maybe someday even an ironman)

Artist:
I want to create beautiful things, I want to be able to make my own dresses and other clothes, I want to use my talents to make gifts to give to people I love, to glorify God through art,

Christian:
I want to be baptized, I want to pray to God daily, in private and before meals with my family, I want to pray together with my husband, I want to read the Bible daily as a way to better understand God's work and to use it in my life...

So yeah still a work in progress but where I am at for the moment.

In other news I have figured out roughly when escrow should close which should be close to the middle of July, so yeah that sounds about right really, give us some time to get a few things in order, then take possession of the house, and get started on working on it.

I worked on cleaning up my storage unit today, preparing to move. I sold my bunk beds, started a pile of stuff to sell in a yard sale, put like items together so I can put them in the house when we get it. I still have a bunch of stuff to sort through but I will get to that soon. I am at least in a mood to pitch things which helps when trying to clean things up.

Not much to report in the wedding planning at the moment, its kinda on hold due to going out of town for the funeral and with all the house buying madness

Think thats about it for now, sorry for the long post.

Endless Paperwork

Ok there are piles of paperwork concerning the house that I am trying to read through and most of it is just mumbo jumbo.

However I am at least pleased that we are making progress towards getting the house. I can't wait to be able to have a place free of crying children, my own kitchen, and my own space.

We finally picked a date and a location for the wedding. I am reviewing the contract for the location before I sign. Then at least we get to think about all the fun little details of the wedding.

Today I am off to get a quote on home owners insurance and pack because we are going to dirt bike school this weekend. That and pay my endless parking tickets, I really can't wait to move so I can have a place to park my car that won't earn me tickets every other day. Alright off to do my errands, see you all soon.

Silly stuff that makes me happy

Sometimes it is the strangest little things that just make me really happy with the way my life is going.

Today at work I was once again charge nurse of the less than delightful waiting room. This being the 3rd time this week of being there, I complained to my assistant nurse manager asking to be put somewhere else tomorrow because there is only so much of that place anyone can take. He asked if I was ready to be charge nurse of Resus (the trauma bays) and I replied no way resus is scary. We then had a nice little talk about how not to feel like I'm being picked on its just that they trust me to do a good job and I am versatile so I often get put places because I can get a job done. He was also talking about how I have grown as a nurse. So overall a pretty complementary little chat.

Then when I came home my fiance said I want to go to home depot and maybe buy a saw and a hammer for the stuff we are going to need to fix around the house. So I said ok. So off we went to the home depot we looked at circular saws, after looking at the saws we headed over to look at hammers. After much discussion mostly him telling me various things about hammers and me going which ever one you want, him handing me different ones to try, and me going uh I don't know, we finally decided on a hammer. Then we headed back over to the saws picked out a corded makita circular saw and called it good for now.

After the home depot we headed to the grocery store, because my parents took all the food from the fridge when they left on Friday leaving me nothing to make lunches with. Its kinda silly but it was a really fun shopping trip because we knew these are the silly little things that we are going to get to do together when we are married and have our own place. Plus seeing as my parents are gone we didn't have to come home to the barrage of questions of where have you been? what did you get? and the obligatory theres already food in the fridge comment. Plus my fiance being the more adventurous food type than me decided we should try different kinds of bananas so we bought mini bananas which were yummy. I guess it just has to do more with the freedom of not having to report every little thing I do and just get to enjoy the silly little parts of life.

Overall the whole evenings shopping trips just kinda made me feel all fuzzy inside because it was just me and him, working towards our new life together.

Sorry for the long post, see you all soon

Escrow

So we had the home inspection today, overall it went pretty well. There were obviously lots of issues, most of them not major. However the electrical breaker panel has issues and so there is no power to part of the house. This also means that they couldn't test the water heater and the furnace because they are on that circuit. In addition the gas is not turned on either so even if there was power they couldn't test the water heater or furnace. So we will need a second inspection once those things are fixed.

Following the home inspection we went over to the sellers office, met with the primary agent selling the house. I don't really know what it was, nothing I could put my finger on, I didn't like the agent. Maybe it was because he really didn't seem to know what was going on and things are taking too long. After talking to him about the things that needed to be fixed we headed over to escrow. In escrow we dropped off our good faith deposit, so we are officially in escrow we have money in the game.

So yeah, scary but exciting, hopefully they fix that stuff so we can continue with the home buying process. Well I shall write more once I know more!

Productive Day

Well today was an incredibly productive day!

We are officially in escrow on the house!. Tomorrow the house is being inspected, so we will be there at the end of the inspection so he can point out all the areas needing improvement. I am very excited and a little scared. So YAY! More to follow about the house as we progress on the path to home ownership.

In wedding news I have picked a date and the site is tentatively reserved (still need to make a deposit and sign contracts). I also booked my hair and make up artist (to make sure he is available). Mom and I still need to find fabric to make my dress, but I have found a pattern.

In other news our friends had their baby girl yesterday. So congratulations to them. I am so happy for them.

I think that's about it for today. So YAY for progress!

Coming together

Things are coming together quite nicely!

Yesterday, I along with my mom, matron of honor, and fiance went looking for wedding sites. We decided Pickwick Gardens in Burbank would be great so Yay finally a place settled upon for the wedding. It has a nice outdoor garden for the ceremony which happens to be shaded (a plus for pale people). It has nice reception rooms plus pretty all inclusive packages (including alcohol) that are not too expensive. So Yay now all I have to do is lock in a date and yeah I will have a location and date, which makes me very happy!

In other news hopefully tomorrow we will be getting started on purchasing the house. Hopefully will be getting the house inspection done this week, not sure when the appraisal will be done. Now my little mind is coming up with what furniture we will need and where it will go. Plus now that I have a wedding site (and soon a date) I can start thinking about wedding registry so we can have tools for our kitchen (and some towels and such the like).

Yay things are coming together nicely I am very excited!

Um OK

So got a call from my fiance earlier today, asking if I wanted good news or bad news. I said bad news. He said ok well the bad news is we're going to pay a bit more but the good news is we are getting the house. It turns out the other offer that the seller accepted fell through so they called our agent and asked if we were still interested. So yeah just waiting for some clarification on the title of the house. Of course I had already planned to go look at another house later in the day. So I talked to our agent and she said we could talk later in the day after I saw the other house. I went and saw the house because it was bigger and looked like a better neighborhood. So went and saw the house (a bank owned property) The house needed a lot of work but the neighborhood was really nice and the rv parking situation was nicer. We talked to our agent about it turns out that the house had fallen out of escrow earlier in the year because it didn't meet FHA inspection criteria which means we wouldn't be able to buy the house. So yeah guess we are going to proceed with purchasing the first house. Waiting to hear back on what we have to do to get the ball rolling towards purchasing the house but it looks like we will probably be getting the house.

In other news we are going to go look at two potential wedding sites this weekend. We being my fiance, my matron of honor, and maybe even my mom, and of course me. So with a little luck we will be able to choose a site and nail down a date and then at least that stuff will be started as well.

As another note I have started reading the book Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson in preparation for having a house of my own to keep. Hopefully it will give me insight on taking care of my house and making it feel like a home.

Well I'll hopefully have updates on the wedding site and the house soon!

Rejected

Well our offer was rejected they went with the other offer. So now we are back to square one. Time to start looking again, I went online found 2 more houses to look at. So will wait to hear back from our agent to see when we can go looking again. I am kind of annoyed that the sellers of the other house strung us along for such a long time. Oh well. Maybe we will find something even better because of this.

Counters

So they finally counter offered. Today we are sending in our counter offer, fingers crossed. With a little luck they will accept our offer. I am excited but not really that nervous I guess because this process is starting to drag on already (and we haven't even gotten to escrow!).

In wedding news, going to see a location tomorrow and then probably decide where to go. Don't have any other leads on places so really feeling like I need to pick a place soon because I feel like I am stalled by not having a date and location.

4 weeks until my next triathlon EEEKK!. I am not ready but at least I think I am making progress as long as I don't take any more breaks from training I shall be fine. That and get my bike fixed, it won't shift which is less than helpful.

Well with a little luck we shall hear back on the house soon. Fingers crossed!

Frustration

So finally heard back from the agents on the house. We offered 10K below asking and for closing costs, they are countering they want full price and no closing costs. So now we have to decide how we want to offer back. Plus they waited until they got another offer and have countered on both offers. Seeing as it is owned by real estate agents they are trying to get as much as they can because its a flip. We think our agent is a little annoyed by their tarrying. So yeah Jon and I will discuss what we want to offer back and have her put it in tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Still trying to find a wedding site, if we do a lunch reception at the Castaway in Burbank it fits our budget but I still have one more place to see before I lock anything in. My cousin Katie and I are going to Pickwick gardens on Thursday. So with a little luck we shall come to a conclusion on where to have the wedding so I can stop stressing about that.

In other random life stuff I am back to triathlon training. There are only 4 weeks left until my next triathlon and I am really unprepared so hopefully 4 weeks will be enough time to get in shape enough to complete the race. Luckily it is a really short race. On the plus side training will help me get in better shape so thats a plus.

Ok well fingers crossed. Hoping to hear more about the house soon.

Wedding Venue

I am so frustrated by trying to find a wedding location. I want to find a place where there is a beautiful outside space where we can have the ceremony and a nice indoor or outdoor space to have the reception. Plus the venue has to be super cheap because our budget for the wedding is quite small. I have seen 4 places in person so far. I loved the first place we went to but it is out of our price range so no luck there, I have issues with all the other places I have been to. I have come up with a few more places to call tomorrow. Hopefully I can find something in our price range. We have been engaged for 3 months so I am starting to feel like I should have more stuff done for the wedding but I can't do anything until I have a date and place. I just want to cry because I feel like I am never going to find a place that will meets my criteria.

As another note, we have not yet heard back from the seller whether our offer was accepted or not, so with a little luck we will hear tomorrow.

Ok off to bed for me hopefully I will feel less discouraged tomorrow.

Home Offer

We went and looked at a few more houses today. We also went back and looked at the house we liked best of the houses we saw on Saturday. We decided that our top pick from Saturday was still our top pick today. So we went back to the realtor's office and wrote up an offer. Our realtor talked to the agent for the house, there have been no offers yet, so now we wait and see if our offer gets accepted. Hopefully we shall hear back tomorrow. I am very excited, a little nervous, but mostly excited. We noted a few neat things about the neighborhood near the house: there is a fresh and easy market that can easily be reached by walking, and the nearby gas stations have diesel (random but good to know). We, being goofy, went and looked at appliances at the store after we got home, the house will need a refrigerator, washer and dryer. On the plus side the house has a new stove/ oven, dishwasher, and microwave. We didn't pick out any appliances but it was fun to look at them and think about what kind we want. So yeah I shall keep this blog updated as we find out more!

The Begining of a Blog

About this blog: This blog is to chronicle the wedding planning, house buying, and generally becoming a wife.

About us: My fiance and I have been together for 7 years. He proposed on Valentines day 2010, we rode motorcycles up to a waterfall in Kernville, we walked down the road to get a better view of the waterfall, he then proceeded to say "I didn't just bring you up here to see the waterfall, I brought you up here to ask you to be my wife" he of course went down on one knee with a ring. I of course was a smart aleck and proceeded to say "well ask me already", I of course said yes.

So we have been engaged for 3 months and still no date or location for a wedding. Agghhh! This part is seriously stressing me out. We have a very small budget because we are trying to buy a house this year, we are paying for the wedding ourselves, and we want to have a nice honeymoon. So trying to find a cheap site for a wedding in Southern California is a bit of a challenge. I have seen 3 sites so far, the first 2 were two expensive, the third one was in our price range but I am not entirely in love with the reception area. I have a few more sites I am going to be looking at in the upcoming weeks, so with a little luck I will be able to find a place I like that is in our budget.

We have also just been pre- approved for a home loan and seeing as we both still live at home, we really need to find a place to live, because living with ones parents after being married is just a big fat no for us. On Saturday we went and looked at houses with our realtor. We found a few that would be ok, one that we felt like we could acctually live in and would have adequate space to park the RV. So on Wednesday we are going to look at a few more places and then maybe make an offer on a house.

So yeah hopefully this blog will help chronicle my progress to becoming a bride, homeowner, and a wife.

See you soon!