It's Official! We're Homeowners!

On Wednesday, July 21, we spent the afternoon signing our loan documents and making it official!  It took a couple of days to finalize but we were able to get our keys on Friday.

Chad is already hard at work!
We were only in the house a few minutes before Chad dove in to projects in the kitchen... removing the child locks from the cabinets, cutting out pieces of broken tile, and taking down a broken cabinet door so he can sand it down to test whether we can restain the existing cabinets or if we should paint them. 


The contractors started work this week on some minor repairs, and we're also planning to have a pool guy come out and show us how to get that baby up and running ASAP!  We're going to need it so we can cool off since our AC seems be a bit of a dinosaur.


We're so thrilled to be homeowners and can't wait to really make it our own...

Let the projects begin!  


If you need us this weekend, chances are we'll be at The Home Depot!



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The Big 3-0!

Wow!  We've been in escrow now for 30 days!  And my, what a busy 30 days it has been! 

Everything is still on track to close by the end of July.  We just can hardly wait to get the keys and get started on all our projects! 

In the meantime, I'll be packing and moving because my lease at my apartment in Sacramento ends July 31!  If you're free in the evenings during the week of July 26 and feel like moving some boxes and furniture, let me know! 

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We love Independence Day sales!

Escrow day 17 and we've survived so far... well, barely.  Whoever knew that home buying was this stressful of an experience should have given us a heads up!   We've hit a couple small bumps in the road, but we're still optimistic that it's all going to work out just fine.  But, that's beside the point, we do have some good news to report...

Today we learned an important first time home buyer's lesson - take advantage of holiday weekend sales!!  We checked appliances off of our "things to buy" list this Independence Day weekend.  Thank you very much, Sears!

We went with stainless.  It's going to look great in the kitchen once we refinish the cabinets and put some nice new polished knobs and pulls on the doors and drawers.  That's all a project at the top of our list - in fact, it's above "Move in" on the list.  So hopefully it will all be done by the time you come over for your first visit!  Or, if you're one of our lucky friends or family members, you'll get to see it in progress while you help with the work!  Which reminds me, we're lining up helpers already - so if your weekends are clear in August - pencil us in!

We hope you're enjoying a great holiday weekend!

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"I've been dreaming about appliances all night!" - Meghan, June 25, 2010

Last night we started our appliance shopping homework.  First stop, Sears.  We now realize that we have some really good taste!  Good and expensive taste, I should add. 

Here's Chad checking out a new refigerator.  I love a man with a measuring tape hooked to his pocket!

Our current appliance shopping list consists of:

- Refrigerator
- Dishwasher
- Cook top
- Range hood
- Microwave

We both really like black, but we're afraid it may clash with what we have planned for the kitchen counters and cabinets.  White would probably be a better and cheaper choice, but I think we're leaning towards stainless.  Like I said, I guess we have expensive taste. 

But we're also good deal hunters, so after Sears, we decided we better compare prices with another store - our next stop was The Home Depot in Natomas.

We were barely through the door when ideas started swirling about in our heads.  Our attention was only diverted twice on our way to the appliance section - once to check out lights for the outside of the house, and again in the closet organizer section.

It turns out, those diversions were the best part of our trip to The Home Depot, because the appliance selection there was really disappointing. 

We spent the rest of the night searching online for appliances with good reviews and decent prices.  I think we've found what we like, now we just need to make the final decision and move on to the next thing!

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Inspectors, Contractors and Estimates - Oh My!

Nothing but good news to report so far!  Our pest inspection came in at much less than we were expecting, and no termites, thank goodness!  A few dry rot repairs here and there, but nothing that's going to break the bank.

Next we had a couple of contractors out to give us estimates on some of the renovations that we have in mind.  We've got some pretty good ideas from them and some big decisions to make within the next few days.  We have to tell the bank by Monday what repairs we want to bundle in to our loan.

We also had a home inspector out today and he found only a few minor things that we'll need to repair - most of which we can do over time.

Tonight we're off to scout out some new appliances for the kitchen! As you can see, she needs a little modernizing.  If you look closely you'll see we even have a built in electric can opener - booyah!


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Before We Got Our Hands On It...





Here are some pictures of the place as it is today, before we got our hands on it!

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Escrow - Day 7

It's unbelievable how much has happened in the last seven days!  We've signed our names more times than we can count; met with banks, inspectors, insurance agents and contractors; and basically analyzed the house from every angle.  We've scoured the internet for paint color ideas; kitchen designs; closet doors; BBQ sets; and just about everything else we could possibly wish for in our first home.  We've even made our first trip to Lowe's and we're still a month away from getting the keys!  One thing's for sure, we don't move slowly.  In fact, we hope to be hosting our friends and family for a BBQ and pool party before summer is over! 

In the meantime, you can follow our progress here.  Stay tuned for some pictures!

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