Happy New Year!

Home Decorating

Last week my friend, Summer Griffin, and I went shopping for little things for the house. One of the main things I was looking for was this mirror key rack. I had seen it on PotteryBarn.com but never again since. We went everywhere searching for it or something similar, we checked Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, Home Goods, Pier 1, Walmart and the like. Then today I was at Target getting some prescriptions filled when I saw it! I was so thrilled!!! I ran home and had my brother Cameron help me put it up. It is the first decorative thing I have been able to put up since we moved in almost two weeks ago!

It's Official... we're home owners!

After lots of budgeting, saving, looking, offering, and waiting we are finally homeowners!!! Earlier this year Brian and I made the decision that we wanted to save money and buy a house. So immediately I went to work budgeting and planning to see if we would even be able to do it. We watched the housing market and became familiar with certain terminology, prices, areas etc. Then around the end of August early September we called up my Uncle Alan, who is a lender and real estate agent, to meet and discuss the process. Brian found a couple listings and our search began. We saw many condos, and town homes but nothing that jumped out at us. Then we saw a place in Rancho Santa Margarita that was great! We walked in and it was the first place that actually felt like a house, not a condo but a house. I was elated, so we made and offer and got rejected… but then the same day realized that there was another house we saw online that was the exact same floor plan and model just different area. We immediately checked it out and loved it, so we put an offer on it and about a week later received a counter offer… little did we know what we were getting into. It has taken us about 3 months to actually get this house because of so many issues with their real estate agent and all the work that comes with a short sale, but thanks to my awesome Uncle and his team we finally own the property. I must say that when Brian and I first started to budget and save I didn’t think we would be able to buy a house in less than a year but we did it! We can actually say that we bought this house completely on our own and I think that is the biggest most exciting part of this whole thing. It really goes to show that if you want something bad enough and you work hard, you can achieve it. Many people have questioned us buying a house during this huge recession that the country is going through and the continuous decline of housing prices and I would be lying if I said we hadn’t thought about it, but we fasted and prayed about each house we put an offer on and this is the house for us.