March 7, 2004

Wow!  Breathe in... breathe out! 

Eric has found the perfect house.  Talk about a concession or two on my part, but wow, I have to give it to him... perfect house.

After a great deal of searching, we were devastated to find that we have been totally priced out of the local market for houses.  For what we have been approved for mortgage, we would not be able to find a house that will reasonably fit all of us into it.  I mean, we could if we got rid of most of what we own and put all the kids into one room, but we didn't really want our first house buying experience to be having to settle for a box just to have a place to sleep. 

So we were pretty discouraged.  Out the hundreds of homes for sale in our area, literally 90+% of them had "sale pending" listed on them.  The real estate agents we've talked to say that most of those homes sell under "bidding wars" because there are multiple offers.  Eric hasn't been able to sleep since this all started (as seriously as I take this, he does even more so... I don't let stuff get in the way of my sleep if I can help it), so he's been up combing the internet for houses.

Yesterday, he came in at around 3am and told me that he'd found the house.  It's absolutely amazing.  An acre of land, unheard of in California and bigger than the house we have now by 200 square feet.  It's two story, which I love and... amazing.  (I know I used that word, but damn.) It's also $20,000 less than what we were approved for on a mortgage.  Eric spoke to the agent yesterday who said that the guy who owns it bought it a few months ago and just lost his job, so he's eager to sell it.  It just went on the market again and it has already had a recent VA inspection, which is important because it's an inspection we were going to have to pay for in a house.  Since Eric is a disabled vet, he can get a few extra concessions on a loan.  We should be able to not pay closing costs or have a down payment (which would be a deal breaker).  I'm telling you, this EOS reader who contacted us who is a mortgage broker is a miracle worker, a whole patch of calla lilies on her own.  No way could we have done this without her. 

So here is the house:

CUTE COUNTRY FEEL CHALET RETREAT IN DESIRABLE GRIZZLY PARK. LOTS OF STORAGE & ROOM FOR ADD ONS OR YACHT! LEVEL LOT, NO SLOPE! PRICED TO SELL, NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR SOLD FOR $300K! NEW LEACH LINE, NEW OVEN, 2 FIREPLACES, LARGE INDOOR LAUNDRY. THIS ONE IS SPECIAL! HURRY DON'T MISS OUT! PRICED WELL BELOW COMPS!   

Like dig on that widow's walk, baby!  Is this not just so "ME?"

The kicker is (and it took me a bit to work through this) that it's not in town at all and I could never imagine leaving Sacramento.  I love this town and I have strong attachments to people in it.  Josh and Valerie (my son & his girlfriend, who are expecting a baby) are moving into a duplex pretty much across the street from me next weekend.  David is 10 minutes from here.  All of my wonderful circle members are here in town.  This place is about an hour away up into the mountains.  I wouldn't get to see them as often as usual and I'd miss that tremendously since they are pretty much the only people I ever see.  I will have to get a hot tub just to entice them up.

Everything about this place seems perfect, right down to an inside laundry room.  Eric and I were making a dream list when we first started looking for a house and the only thing this doesn't have is a 4th bedroom, but when the boys are older, we can by god build a 4th bedroom.

The schools in this area are the best in California.  I hope they have a preschool with an opening!!

So that's where that stands.  We still have some paperwork to complete with the mortgage, but that will be done this week.  Eric had to send out for an updated VA eligibility form and we have to fill out and sign some info that the mortgage broker is overnighting us.  Then it's ON. 

Yayy!!

This is the big one, folks.  If we can get this house, life will change drastically, in a very, very good way.  I'll miss my sons so much and it's going to be hard to have lunch with my circle girls  :( but I'll find a way to make that happen!!  I'm all shaky and giddy and trying to focus on writing these spoiler commentary columns while my head is up in the mountains trying to secure my dream home.  This is the one I was feeling from the previous posts before all of this ever began.

I feel like this is the first day of the rest of my life.

I'm just... in awe.

(Thanks Joey, I love you... you know what you did!  Thanks wonderful mortgage lady who made this all happen!  Thanks people who have been wishing and praying so hard for us!  Thanks Universe for knowing what we needed when we didn't!  Just... thanks.)

Love,
K