My new house.

Hi Everyone,

Well over a year ago I bought my first house. It was a long, tedious, and terrifying process. The terrifying part was because I was buying a house on my own with no second income to have as a backup. Just me, myself, and I to depend on. After several delays I finally closed escrow. We had been trying to close before the end of the year but thanks to my loan officer's screw up and vacation we closed after the first of the year.

The house was bigger than I was expecting to get because of my limited budget. I qualified for a healthy loan but didn't want to be house poor so I put a cap on what I felt I could get by on. Thank god I did because several things happened to cut down on my monthly budget. With the reasonable mortgage I was able to survive. Barely, but survived. As for the house hunt I had been pretty simple in my wishes to my real estate agent. What I needed and what I wanted was a big difference. I told her that I needed 2 bedroom, preferably 2 bathrooms. After sharing 1 bath with 4 kids I knew I had to get 2 bathrooms if possible. But again, budget dictated my housing options. My one firm non-negotiable request which had my agents jaw dropping was NO tract homes. Her reply to my request, "You do realize that nearly 80% of the valley is tract homes. Between that and your low house budget we are very limited in options. You are going to have to get used to the idea of maybe commuting a bit further than you had originally planned." I hated the idea of a long commute, especially after living in the L.A. area, but I wasn't willing to compromise on my price limit.

By pure luck I found an area that had homes in my price range and were not tract homes. The bad part was because of my low price cap I was looking at homes that investors were looking at also. We ended up putting in offers on 8 different homes before getting accepted. Four of those offers were submitted the same day they hit the market but investors beat me because they offered cash and short escrow. Frustrated I searched on the Internet for ideas to help me find a house without going over my cap. I LOVE GOOGLE!!!!!! Thanks to google, I found a website that talked about submitting a personal letter along with your offer. I found it two days before I did a walk through of my current
house. I had to work hard to hide my excitement because it had everything on my wish list and more. I told my agent about the letter and she laughed as she had just heard about doing a personal letter at a convention she had gone to the previous weekend. I crossed my fingers and prayed the letter would work this time as I was getting sick of putting in offers. I nearly fell off my chair the next day when my agent called and said I got the house. The owners, who were going to give the house to an investor, read my letter and decided that they would rather have the house go to a family.


Now this house was in pristine condition, except for two things, as it hadn't been changed since the day it was built in 1973. It was as if the house was closed up the day construction finished. The only changes the owner had done since then was in the 80's. I know this because they are in the garage now. The kitchen cabinets, counter tops,
and carpet were changed out. Now this wouldn't have been so bad but they went with oak Formica cabinets and NEON Yellow counter tops. Plus the wonderful fruity wallpaper on the kitchen soffits. The carpet was changed from an avocado green to a lime green carpet. Ick!!!!!!!

My original request list and what I ended up buying is totally different. I was so lucky to get my home. I'll list the differences here so you can see what I mean.

Original request list: (very simple but you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a house in my price range despite my lack of requests).

Less than $80,000.
2 bedroom
2 bath if possible
No tract homes
No smaller than 800 sq. feet.
fixer upper OK


What I got:

$78,000
3 bedroom
2 bath
1600 sq. feet.
2 car garage.
RV parking on the side of the house
Home sits on 1 1/2 lots.
orange and grapefruit tree
custom built home
all appliances included, and they were in super condition despite being from the 1970's. (The good old day's where manufactures actually built them to last.)



On the day I finally got my keys and moved in I was in a daze. I had been living in a 500 sq.ft. apartment and now had so much room that I actually didn't know what to do with the empty spaces. After doing a happy dance I walked through the house brimming with ideas to make it my own. The upcoming posts are going to go over the changes I have made so far and the upcoming ones. I have searched near and far for ideas that were budget friendly (CHEAP), something I liked, and helped to increase the equity of the home since I'll be needing a new roof soon.

Looking forward to hearing any ideas you have.

Have a great day,
Lisa

Update on what's happening since my last post.

Greetings everyone,

I have neglected to post anything for pretty much the whole year. It's been a crazy year as I was busy with several things.

I finally got to see Max for the first time in over two years. He was able to come home for a visit after finishing his second tour in Afghanistan. It was a surprise as he didn't tell me he was coming home. Everyone had a good laugh at my reaction. A blubbering idiot is not a pretty sight. We had a great time catching up and taking a trip to Texas to see old friends.

My health issues continue with me seeing a super specialist. He has tried various treatments but so far none have worked. We've been trying to avoid surgery again, as it would be a 10 hour surgery with a very long recovery time. Meanwhile I just hang in there and try to enjoy life the best I can.

When I had surgery last year I was sitting on the couch bored. Sick of reading and watching TV I wondered what to do. By pure inspiration I decided to write down a little story that was bouncing around in my mind. Since then I have written 2 books and have 3 others in the works. I'll post a link to the two that I have published with Amazon Kindle. "The Sound of Fire" is the first in a series about a hearing-impaired firefighter. "From Humvee to RV" is about a journey around the US in an RV with a military working dog. Feel free to provide any feedback about them as I welcome any advice, suggestions, or errors. I'm not perfect so I may have missed something. 

The biggest thing is I am currently in escrow to buy a home. Yes, it's a huge step and a frustrating one at that. I've never realized the amount of paperwork, appointments, and calls it takes to get one. Keeping my fingers crossed everything goes well and I'll be able to close escrow the first of the year. Mom said it was a perfect Christmas gift to myself. I think it's a scary one because as I was filling out paperwork I was terrified from all the big dollar amounts. But the nice thing is my mortgage payment will be less than what I pay in rent. 

I hope the year has been good to you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas. I'll try to do better and keep you up to date on happenings around here and I'll also post when the other books are published.

Have a great day. 

Click on name of book to get link to website: 

                                                     

                                                         The Sound of Fire

From Humvee to RV

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Years to everyone. Hope you all rang in the year safe, warm, and with your friends and loved ones.

I was at home with my two youngest, Nicole and Morgan. We spent a quiet evening munching on food, watching shows, and having a good time. We rang in the year with sparkling cider. Morgan remarked that though it was cider it looked a bit like beer. He soooo wants to be grown up and drink the real stuff. I told him not to be in such a hurry to grow up. Before you know it you will be older and wishing for your younger days. I know I wish I had enjoyed my days more and had more time to enjoy them while I could. What I wouldn't do to be in my 20's again. Young, skinny body, endless energy, AND a body that works normally. Well, guess I will have to just live with my hard earned wisdom and pass it on to the young ones.

The kids flew in the day after Christmas and the first thing they did was open their presents. They had been begging me for months for clues as to what they were getting and I only gave them one each. They didn't like what I gave them because it didn't help a bit. One of Morgan's presents I wasn't sure if he would like and told him that if he wanted to trade it he could. It was a ticket to fly a plane. He said "No way. I will only trade it for a laptop computer. I love this." Little did he know, one of the other presents was a laptop. When he opened that one he got up, picked me up, and gave me a big hug. Felt weird having my son being big enough to pick me up and hug me. Needless to say he was happy. Nicole was jealous and disappointed with her present because she didn't know what she had gotten. I gave her a Kindle Fire. After showing her what it was and she played around with it for a while she was very happy with it. Despite my worries all of the presents were hits.

We have been busy traveling to visit family and friends, hanging out, playing video games, and having fun. I did discover one bad thing. Shopping with a teenage girl is MURDER! I promised to take Nicole shopping for a formal gown for a winter ball that she is going to. She is one picky girl. I didn't realize that after having 3 boys. This is the first time I have been shopping for a formal anything with her so it was a learning experience. 2 1/2 hours later we agreed on a dress. I grudgingly agreed to it though I still think it is a bit too body hugging but I was told it is the fashion now days. After looking around I realize that it is and  I am just being an overprotective mama. Being a mama of a girl is harder than with the boys. With the boys I just had to deal with the attitude and temper. Girls there is the picky eating, clothes, hair, looks, mood swings, what I say around her, and that is just this year. Everything changes from year to year. Geeze....She is only 14 and I am wondering how I am going to keep up with her. My sis is probably reading this and laughing because she only had one kid and it was a boy. She had it easy....

I had made an appointment for Morgan's flying trip to be on Thursday. He was excited. Well, as excited as I can tell because teenagers don't show excitement like little kids do. That was something else I discovered. Nicole and I dropped him off at the airport and went shopping while he went flying and he called when he was done. When we went to pick him up I was curious to see what he would say about the experience. He got in the car and said "Can you book another flight for me when I come out again?" I told him I would see as it was expensive. He had his paperwork as to the prices to get his pilot license (Mucho Grande Bucks), a pilot training book with his hour he flew that day, and a small smile on his face. I asked how it was. He said it was cool and then silence.....So how was it. Nice.......Did you have fun? Yes........Were you nervous? Nope......It's different than flying on a commercial plane isn't it? Yes it is.......I kept getting silence from the backseat of the car. It was killing me with curiosity. I wanted to know all the details and he was telling me nothing!! Nada! Zip! Zero! No Details! What happened to the little kid that I couldn't shut up with details up the ying yang when he was excited about something. Guess my only clue that he liked it was that he asked to fly again.

This week had been nice being with the kids. I took time off from work to be with them and it has gone by way to quickly. They are due to fly home tomorrow since they have to start school Tuesday. I hate seeing them go. Our visits go by fast and we always count the time till the next visit which will be this summer. As for me I will be back to work until my yearly trip to El Paso for my Runners Convention. Wonder how the weather will be this time. Will let you know how that goes. Can't wait to sink my teeth in my favorite texas BBQ foods and see all my friends.

Wishing you all a Happy New Years.