Well, house numbero uno is a no go. As it turns out, the sellers are not willing to fix anything wrong with the house. And we are talking: rodents in the attic, nearly everything with one of the fireplaces, plumbing, electrical, outside trim that is completely rotted, etc. It would just cost too much for us to fix all of these things by ourselves to be able to afford the house. Today we officially decided to not go forward and to essentially start fresh and be out the money of the inspection. We are kind of bummed; however, after looking some I found some great possibilities.
On a side note, if you are going to be the agent for somebody trying to sell their house, you should actually try to help them sell their house! The sellers agent we had been working with was absolutely horrible. He wouldn't return phone calls or e-mails. He didn't inform the sellers that they couldn't be there for the showing or inspection. He was absolutely awful to work with. Our agent, she is phenomenal! A true blessing after trying to work with him.
We might have to take yet another trip up to MKE to look at houses this week to find our house. Driving 3.5 hours twice a week and staying in hotels has not been fun. Both husband and I are pretty much exhausted from the traveling, paperwork, keeping up with school, keeping up with working overtime, and ensuring our pup is entertained and happy.
25 July 2015
15 July 2015
Future kitchen ideas
Now that husband and I are on our way to becoming home owners, I feel absolutely horrible for anybody who follows me on Pinterest! I am fairly certain I have pinned over 1000 things in the last week alone. Having an accepted offer on a house gets me almost giddy with ideas of what I want to do to the place to make it more "us" and a little more updated. Who loves the smell of paint and fresh cut wood? That would be me.
The kitchen in our house isn't the largest and the appliances are a little bit outdated; but, I have high hopes for brightening up the kitchen and dinette. Right now it has dark cabinets and black appliances that weigh down the room. The dinette has a really funky paint job that makes you wonder if the bottom half of the wall is extremely dirty. My goal is to brighten it way up.
I plan on painting our upper cabinets a bright white and the lower cabinets a bright teal. Something surprising to me because two things I am not fond of are: painting wood and white. In an older home though ('77) and with a smaller budget, I am totally okay with it.
And because the large black fridge will only keep weighing down the room, husband and I figure, "Why not try painting the fridge?". I want to go with white or stainless steel; but, he likes the idea of a teal fridge.
I also plan on creating a coffee "bar" (sans chalkboard wall) for husband in our dinette. My mom and dad are giving us a cabinet that used to be my grandmas and I got the okay to do whatever I want to it. It will be painted to match the kitchen counters so there is fluidity between the two rooms. The cabinet will gratefully provide extra kitchen storage for all of the gadgets I have acquired throughout the years to help me in baking.
The lighting also needs to be changed in the kitchen and dining room. In the kitchen something simple that provides enough light in the room is really all that is needed.
And for the dining room, I have found this beautiful (and affordable) chandelier that I think will be perfect to make the room look a little more luxurious.
I cannot wait to post actual before and afters of not only the kitchen but all of the rooms.
The kitchen in our house isn't the largest and the appliances are a little bit outdated; but, I have high hopes for brightening up the kitchen and dinette. Right now it has dark cabinets and black appliances that weigh down the room. The dinette has a really funky paint job that makes you wonder if the bottom half of the wall is extremely dirty. My goal is to brighten it way up.
I plan on painting our upper cabinets a bright white and the lower cabinets a bright teal. Something surprising to me because two things I am not fond of are: painting wood and white. In an older home though ('77) and with a smaller budget, I am totally okay with it.
And because the large black fridge will only keep weighing down the room, husband and I figure, "Why not try painting the fridge?". I want to go with white or stainless steel; but, he likes the idea of a teal fridge.
I also plan on creating a coffee "bar" (sans chalkboard wall) for husband in our dinette. My mom and dad are giving us a cabinet that used to be my grandmas and I got the okay to do whatever I want to it. It will be painted to match the kitchen counters so there is fluidity between the two rooms. The cabinet will gratefully provide extra kitchen storage for all of the gadgets I have acquired throughout the years to help me in baking.
The lighting also needs to be changed in the kitchen and dining room. In the kitchen something simple that provides enough light in the room is really all that is needed.
And for the dining room, I have found this beautiful (and affordable) chandelier that I think will be perfect to make the room look a little more luxurious.
06 July 2015
House Hunting
The hubs and I have known for a year and a half that we would be moving out of Illinois. Funny thing is, just before we found out we were actually looking for a house in Ptown. That all came to a stop though when hubs had different tentative offers coming to the table.
So, when we finally received a firm offer for Milwaukee (which took a lot of talk as to which place we should move to) we talked a lot about whether we should rent or buy right away. After 6 years of apartment living, the answer was really clear for me: I wanted a house! I NEED a house to call home. Being a girl who loves to paint and fix things around the house (all thanks to my parents), living in an apartment has been rough. I mean when something breaks the last thing I want to do is to call and wait for a day and time that is good for management to come check it out.
The week after the fourth of July we spent four days with our realtor to do one thing and one thing alone: find our home. One house that I had fallen in love with since the beginning of researching was of course "sold" which led us to search for anything and nearly everything we could in four days time. We ended up looking at 11 or 12 houses and didn't really have to persuade one another to get one house over another. The third day, we found our house and put an offer in on it! With many problems due to the listing agents being extremely old school (who doesn't have a cell phone, voicemail, e-mail, or actual hours of operation for a business?) our offer was only countered once before it got accepted.
Come the end of August we will officially be home owners*! *Pending the inspection and 30 years of payments of course ;)
So, when we finally received a firm offer for Milwaukee (which took a lot of talk as to which place we should move to) we talked a lot about whether we should rent or buy right away. After 6 years of apartment living, the answer was really clear for me: I wanted a house! I NEED a house to call home. Being a girl who loves to paint and fix things around the house (all thanks to my parents), living in an apartment has been rough. I mean when something breaks the last thing I want to do is to call and wait for a day and time that is good for management to come check it out.
The week after the fourth of July we spent four days with our realtor to do one thing and one thing alone: find our home. One house that I had fallen in love with since the beginning of researching was of course "sold" which led us to search for anything and nearly everything we could in four days time. We ended up looking at 11 or 12 houses and didn't really have to persuade one another to get one house over another. The third day, we found our house and put an offer in on it! With many problems due to the listing agents being extremely old school (who doesn't have a cell phone, voicemail, e-mail, or actual hours of operation for a business?) our offer was only countered once before it got accepted.
Come the end of August we will officially be home owners*! *Pending the inspection and 30 years of payments of course ;)
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