Saturday: Our realtor was already booked and we couldn't go out with him to look at houses. So since Taylor and I didn't have any other plans for that day, we decided to just drive out to all the houses to see how the neighborhoods looked and rule out any of those houses that were somewhere we just didn't want to be. So after that, our list was down to 5. Yes, 5. We ruled 8 houses out based solely on the area they were in! Nuts.
Sunday: Pretty normal day! Church, lunch, quick trip home, youth group, then home!
Monday: My mom and brothers came up for a visit and for the Hawks game! I went to work that morning and they beat me to my house by about 45 minutes. We ate lunch then went to the mall for a little while then headed to Pappadeaux, a seafood restaurant, for dinner. My mom had really been wanting some good seafood so I thought that would be fun. We had never been there, but loved it! Super yummy! After that we just came home and hung out for the rest of the night.
Tuesday: I went to work then Mom, the twins, and Taylor came and met me at Silver Skillet in Atlanta for lunch. Then we headed to the Coke Museum!
Coke bottles decorated from different countries
The American Idol couch
After she tasted the Beverly, a really gross Coke product from Europe or something like that.
After Coke, Taylor had to leave us so he could go to music rehearsal, so we dropped him back off at my car then we headed to The Varsity for dinner. My fam had never been there before, so we of course had to go! Then we headed to Philips Arena for the Hawks game! We had a great time, and the Hawks won!
I got Tanner and Taylor's Birthday message on the big screen.
Don't they just look so happy!
We were so tired after the game, so we came home and went to bed soon after!
Wednesday: I left early for work then Mom and the boys headed home not too long after I left. I was really glad they got to come! It's not all too often that they venture out of the City of Opportunity, so I enjoy it when they do! While I was at work, I had a string of e-mails going with the program director for Study Abroad. I basically found out that my financial aid was not going to go through in time for the program. I talked to a financial aid counselor on the phone, and they basically told me there was nothing they could do for me. So, of course I was SUPER bummed about that! More on that later... I also found out while I was at work, that 2 of the houses we had left on our list had gone under contract between Saturday and Wednesday! Ugh. So after work, Taylor and I had an appointment with our realtor to go check out the 3 houses we still had left on our list. He then informed us that my FAVORITE house had just gone under contract as well, so now we were down to 2! One of them we couldn't go to that day because of the homeowner, so we headed to the one and only house we could go to. We just weren't impressed at all, so then there was one. We did still have two possibilities that we had not ruled out from previous visits, so we decided to revisit one of those to see if we still liked it and we had our pastor come out (he's also a builder) to look through the house and help us point out any issues it had. Well, we still liked the house and it didn't have any huge issues that couldn't be fixed fairly easily. However, it was in a nice neighborhood, except for the houses on each side of the house. On the right is a bright yellow run-down house, and on the left is a green house with an old run down barn/shack in the back yard. We just did not feel that the house would hold its value and could be hard to re-sell later on. So, we took that off our list and were down to one house we liked but had not seen yet, and one house we had seen and liked but it didn't have any storage so we put it on the "maybe" list.
Thursday: I had several e-mail conversations with my program director for Study Abroad. The financial aid situation is just not in my favor. So we were trying to figure out anything we could do. She basically wanted me to front the $4500 myself and then be reimbursed once my aid money came through. I was like, um, no lady. I'm NOT giving you my down payment money! So she basically wanted me to go in and talk to a financial aid supervisor and see what we could make happen and I could have one last night to decide yay or nay on going. So, I prayed and thought A LOT about the situation. I felt like God was just saying, Beth, stop and listen. It's not the right time. Why do you think I'm making this so difficult for you?! So, after I talked to Taylor about it too, he said he was behind my decision whatever it may be. So, I have decided not to go to Greece. This was not an easy decision nor one that I liked, but it's just the right one at this time. I just feel like we'd be struggling to get through May if I have two weeks of no income, and the house stuff, etc.
Friday: Went to work again, and while I was there, I asked some people in the office about how I could add some storage space in the house that we had on the "maybe" list just in case. (I work at a renovation company, so their advice is legit!) They basically told me that it would be super easy to put in a closet and I could do it for around $2300, so it would not be something that should make us not buy that house. Just FYI, Taylor and I LOVED that house, it just had no storage. So, after work we had an appointment with our realtor to go see the one last house we hadn't seen yet, and I asked if we could go back to the "maybe" house as well, just to look again and see if we liked it enough to add the closet and move forward. So we went to the first house, liked it a lot, but still wanted to go to the maybe house. Still LOVED it! It really is great! So we had our pastor come out and take a look at this one for us and point out any issues he saw. Only a couple of minor things, so we decided to put in an offer on the house!! We found out that there had already been 3 other offers put in but all fell through and there was a lot of interest in the house, so we didn't want to wait any longer and risk it being sold. We had to leave our realtor to work on the offer because we had planned a middle school night for our youth at a mini golf course. So we went and did our golfing and playing around, then headed back to finish up the paperwork and sign off at 10:30 that night! We ended up staying at our realtor's house until 12:30 getting everything done! I felt really bad, but we got it done!
Saturday: We had senior brunch at our house for the youth this morning. During that, we found out that our offer was accepted!!!! So, we have 20 days to get inspection, appraisal, and financing all in order and we will close! Well, we'll close as long as everything passes. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed!! After that we went to Home Depot and Brandsmart to price out a refrigerator and washer and dryer, and looked at some other random stuff we'll want to do once we're moved in.
So, that's my week in a great big ol' nutshell. It was a super fun, stressful, letdown, and great kind of week! I just thought it was so funny how it seemed like everything was falling apart, then I made the decision not to go to Greece and everything started working out. Think maybe God was trying to tell me something there? I sure do. Isn't it awesome how much better his plans are than our own?! PS... I will have to take 2 classes this summer now, but then I will be done! And I will be hopefully personalizing my new home while I'm at it! :) And just in case you want to see a little sneak peek, here ya go! We love it! I'll add some more pictures when (if) it's ours!
That's so exciting Beth! I'm happy you and Taylor have found a house you love!
ReplyDeleteSo will I get to see this NEW house??? I hope so :) I will be in touch soon about the weekend!
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