HOLY COW! If you follow the ticker at the top of the blog, you'll see it says 4 moths and 2 days until the wedding. I can't believe it's so close, it's going to be July in the blink of an eye! We have been doing so much these last few weeks it's been a blur. I forgot to mention that we did order our invitations last weekend! I love them, they are so simple and unique. I have never seen anything like them! We spent the weekend preparing for the new house (that still technically isn't ours) We went furniture shopping for ideas, we spend Friday night at Home Depot. Gone are the days we bar hop on Friday night. Dinner and a couple cocktails and Home Depot with my man was just as fun!
We've pretty much got everything picked out, and a budget set in place for everything that we need. We added to our registry, and once we are moved in we'll probably add more to our registry too. Sunday Aaron was AMAZING and went with me to see the Hunger Games, I had been begging alllllll weekend, and he didn't want to go. I figured the craze would have died down by Sunday afternoon..boy was I wrong! It was packed, but he was a trooper and even asked questions..so I know he got into it!
Today we had our inspection. I was so flippin nervous, that this house was too good to be true. Good news!!! There are no red flags and our amazing inspector said there is nothing that we need to renegotiate, or anything major that needs to be addressed anytime soon! While we were at the house (we were there for over 3 hours) I decided to see how this lady organized her kitchen. I opened a cabinet and found a baby bottle with an Appletree Logo on it. There are tons of Appletrees around, but it got my brain working. Later I found all their wedding pictures (I swear I wasn't being a snoop) they were on the coffee table, clearly there for people to look at. When I opened one of the books I found Appletree Apple Grams (notes we keep about the kids each day) I looked at the bottom and the note was signed by a teacher at my school. When I got into work I asked the last name of one of the families...turns out we're buying their house. WHAT A SMALL WORLD.
Now all we have to do is get through the appraisal, and hopefully we can close early!
Not much more on the wedding front. We're just at a stand still, nothing much to be done right now. I'm excited to get the ball rolling on the wedding again, of course that will be right when we start moving!
<3 Karissa
Monday, March 26, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Home Sweet Home
We've done it!!!!! We found a house! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited I can't even think straight. Honestly it hasn't been that horrible of a process. We spent 2 Saturdays looking and a couple weekdays looking, and we managed to find a house. We actually managed to find two houses, put an offer on one, and backed out after Aaron's dad looked at it. I know I said I hate hearing the "everything happens for a reason" stuff...but obviously it does, because had we gotten the first house, we wouldn't have ended up with our dream home!
I can't even begin to describe how perfect this house is. We meet up with both of our dads on Saturday and went to house number one. It was cute, but both noticed way too much work. We took a nice little drive into Kentwood and drove up to the cutest house I have ever seen. Everyone had the same reaction from the outside, our "drive in" was good (which is so important to Aaron) the yard was cute and the house looked great. We all walked in, and it was almost like our entire group knew at the same time this was our house. Everything about it screams us. It's the perfect size, three legal bedrooms (plus a room without a window but will be a great forth room) The kitchen is huge, the backyard is amazing, has a family and living room and 2 full bathrooms. Best of all, all of the appliances (including new front loading washer and dryer) are staying!!!
The Master is awesome a walk in closet that opens into into the master bathroom with double sinks and tons of storage!! I could sit here and rave and rant about the house, I won't though! We went back to look at the house on Sunday, put our offer in on Monday, and became homeowners on Monday night!! (Pending inspection)
This whole experience has been very eye opening. We didn't fight much, we did catch ourselves bickering back and forth when it came to this house 4434 Summertime Ct! I think we bickered because we loved it so much, and we're scared we were going to lose it, so I pushed to just "do it" while Aaron wanted every bit of information about the price, location, bills, everything...I'm a just do it type of person, and usually he is too, which is what caused the bickering. This is such a huge step in our relationship. I'm so happy we were able to get this done now. I was worried the process would drag out and we would be moving into a house 2 weeks before the wedding.
Sometimes I still feel like I'm 20 years old and have to remind myself..you're an adult get it together. Now that I'll be pulling into my own garage, and mowing the lawn (ok lets be real Aaron will be doing that) and painting rooms I finally feel like a real "grown up" I can't wait to move in and make it our own! Lucky for us we have a bridal shower and wedding to help us furnish our house!!!!
The Dream The pictures don't do it justice, but you get the picture!!
<3 Karissa
I can't even begin to describe how perfect this house is. We meet up with both of our dads on Saturday and went to house number one. It was cute, but both noticed way too much work. We took a nice little drive into Kentwood and drove up to the cutest house I have ever seen. Everyone had the same reaction from the outside, our "drive in" was good (which is so important to Aaron) the yard was cute and the house looked great. We all walked in, and it was almost like our entire group knew at the same time this was our house. Everything about it screams us. It's the perfect size, three legal bedrooms (plus a room without a window but will be a great forth room) The kitchen is huge, the backyard is amazing, has a family and living room and 2 full bathrooms. Best of all, all of the appliances (including new front loading washer and dryer) are staying!!!
The Master is awesome a walk in closet that opens into into the master bathroom with double sinks and tons of storage!! I could sit here and rave and rant about the house, I won't though! We went back to look at the house on Sunday, put our offer in on Monday, and became homeowners on Monday night!! (Pending inspection)
This whole experience has been very eye opening. We didn't fight much, we did catch ourselves bickering back and forth when it came to this house 4434 Summertime Ct! I think we bickered because we loved it so much, and we're scared we were going to lose it, so I pushed to just "do it" while Aaron wanted every bit of information about the price, location, bills, everything...I'm a just do it type of person, and usually he is too, which is what caused the bickering. This is such a huge step in our relationship. I'm so happy we were able to get this done now. I was worried the process would drag out and we would be moving into a house 2 weeks before the wedding.
Sometimes I still feel like I'm 20 years old and have to remind myself..you're an adult get it together. Now that I'll be pulling into my own garage, and mowing the lawn (ok lets be real Aaron will be doing that) and painting rooms I finally feel like a real "grown up" I can't wait to move in and make it our own! Lucky for us we have a bridal shower and wedding to help us furnish our house!!!!
The Dream The pictures don't do it justice, but you get the picture!!
<3 Karissa
Sunday, March 11, 2012
An Ocean of Emotion
Ohhhh lordy what a weekend!!! We put an offer in on a house on Thursday evening, and were told we would hear back by Tuesday. Of course I was on pins and needles all day on Friday. It was the longest day EVER!! We put a lot of thought and effort into our offer, and we were really excited about it. While we waited to hear back about our offer, we packed ourselves up and headed to Detroit to see Aaron's cousin, wife and baby!
It was the first time I had met them, John is in our bridal party, so I was pretty nervous. Luckily everything went great! I loved them, and they have one of the cutest babies I have ever seen in my entire life. I made a new little best friend! Hopefully they liked me just as much! We headed out to a Pistons game. My first one, I was pretty excited. We had AMAZING seats I think we were about 7 rows form the court! Sooo much fun.
On our way into the game my phone rang and guess who...our realtor, with the counter offer. Except, it wasn't really a counter offer they dropped $400.00 from their original asking price. UHHHH excuse me?? What a slap in the face. We decided to sleep on it and just enjoy the game. On our car ride home we decided to have "the conversation" awesome time and place for a real serious conversation. We couldn't get away from each other so we had to hash everything out. Let's just say it was a tense few miles. We ultimately decided that we were going to hold firm on our offer. They don't want to negotiate with us, we didn't want to negotiate with them. Once we got that convo out of the way, we started second guessing ourselves. We asked to see the place one more time before we made a final offer. We went for a drive trying to find new areas to look at, and couldn't find anything that we liked that we could get for such an awesome price. Suddenly Aaron wanted to reconsider, and said maybe we should just pay what they are asking. It was a day full of back and forth and very mixed feelings.
Aaron is really stuck on this whole "I don't want them to win" thing, however, we know they aren't winning. They couldn't come down from their offer since they owe so much on the house, and have already purchased another house (smart planning on their part!) even with their asking price they were still having to bring another 20,000 to the bank to make good on their loan. I feel for them, and my goal isn't to screw their deal, however, it's not our fault that they got themselves into the situation, and we're trying not to get ourselves in that exact same situation. We ended up deciding to go through the house one more time tomorrow, and look at EVERYTHING Aaron's dad is coming so we have an extra set of eyes, and then we'll make a final decision.
This experience is so hard. We aren't having issues agreeing on what we like, we're having issues on deciding how much to to spend! I know "Everything happens for a reason" but no one wants to hear that when something doesn't go the way they want it do. I know everyone is trying to be supportive, but I swear if this deal falls through I don't want to hear anyone say "everything happens for a reason, you'll find something" I know that, but in the moment I just want to be sad. My mom and I were talking about that saying, she put it so perfectly. She said, people only say that when they don't have anything useful to say!
We got a flip video camera for Christmas, and I can not for the life of me figure out how to upload the videos on here. When I figure it out I'll post videos of the houses we've been looking at!
We had a wonderful weekend, everything (besides the house) was so much fun! It was nice getting away form GR for a night!
Have a wonderful week!!!
<3 Karissa
It was the first time I had met them, John is in our bridal party, so I was pretty nervous. Luckily everything went great! I loved them, and they have one of the cutest babies I have ever seen in my entire life. I made a new little best friend! Hopefully they liked me just as much! We headed out to a Pistons game. My first one, I was pretty excited. We had AMAZING seats I think we were about 7 rows form the court! Sooo much fun.
On our way into the game my phone rang and guess who...our realtor, with the counter offer. Except, it wasn't really a counter offer they dropped $400.00 from their original asking price. UHHHH excuse me?? What a slap in the face. We decided to sleep on it and just enjoy the game. On our car ride home we decided to have "the conversation" awesome time and place for a real serious conversation. We couldn't get away from each other so we had to hash everything out. Let's just say it was a tense few miles. We ultimately decided that we were going to hold firm on our offer. They don't want to negotiate with us, we didn't want to negotiate with them. Once we got that convo out of the way, we started second guessing ourselves. We asked to see the place one more time before we made a final offer. We went for a drive trying to find new areas to look at, and couldn't find anything that we liked that we could get for such an awesome price. Suddenly Aaron wanted to reconsider, and said maybe we should just pay what they are asking. It was a day full of back and forth and very mixed feelings.
Aaron is really stuck on this whole "I don't want them to win" thing, however, we know they aren't winning. They couldn't come down from their offer since they owe so much on the house, and have already purchased another house (smart planning on their part!) even with their asking price they were still having to bring another 20,000 to the bank to make good on their loan. I feel for them, and my goal isn't to screw their deal, however, it's not our fault that they got themselves into the situation, and we're trying not to get ourselves in that exact same situation. We ended up deciding to go through the house one more time tomorrow, and look at EVERYTHING Aaron's dad is coming so we have an extra set of eyes, and then we'll make a final decision.
This experience is so hard. We aren't having issues agreeing on what we like, we're having issues on deciding how much to to spend! I know "Everything happens for a reason" but no one wants to hear that when something doesn't go the way they want it do. I know everyone is trying to be supportive, but I swear if this deal falls through I don't want to hear anyone say "everything happens for a reason, you'll find something" I know that, but in the moment I just want to be sad. My mom and I were talking about that saying, she put it so perfectly. She said, people only say that when they don't have anything useful to say!
We got a flip video camera for Christmas, and I can not for the life of me figure out how to upload the videos on here. When I figure it out I'll post videos of the houses we've been looking at!
We had a wonderful weekend, everything (besides the house) was so much fun! It was nice getting away form GR for a night!
Have a wonderful week!!!
<3 Karissa
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Let the Search Begin
I've always been the type of person who gets an idea in my head, and then I run with it. I don't stop until I get exactly what I want. The project, idea, thought (whatever it may be) consumes me until I figure out exactly how to accomplish the goal. I've also always been a very spontaneous person. I don't dwell on things very long. I don't sit around and come up with a plan, I just do. I want a tattoo...I get one no thinking. Once you think about things, you can always find a reason to talk yourself out of it. Obviously some decisions take some time (I'm not irresponsible). I never thought I would find someone who has these exact same traits. Aaron and I have a completely spontaneous relationship and we don't stop until we get what we want.
I remember earlier in the summer we had talked about getting a kitten and the topic kind of went away. On July 5th we woke up and I said lets get a kitten today. We spent the whole day going place to place in search of an itty bitty, sure enough that afternoon we brought the little bean home!
We've pretty much had the same attitude about buying a house. The topic came up, we played around with the idea for about a week, and then spent this whole week looking at houses online, finding a realtor and creating a list of places we wanted to see. Aaron is just as consumed with this process as I am. I would get emails at 4am from him about houses he found, so I know he was searching on his lunch at work too. Saturday we spent the whole day looking at houses...no wait we didn't look at houses we looked at CRAP. Everything that we picked sucked. There was only one house that we would even consider. Of course it's above where we told our realtor we wanted to be...but we could offer less, and be within budget. This house was move in ready, and done exactly how I would have done it. It has a beautiful backyard. All hardwood floors, a huge living room, the most amazing finished basement and 3 bedrooms. The issues we had were the bedroom sizes, and apparently Aaron hates trees, and is scared they are going to fall on the house. WHATEVER. I seriously fell in love with this house. Aaron had to really talk me down from my high. Telling me that it wasn't worth the asking price, and that we could find a lot bigger space for a lot less.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1061-Elmwood-Dr_Jenison_MI_49428_M46997-52193 This is the house we loved yesterday. It doesn't have very many pictures, and I tried to upload a video of it, but it won't work...sorry!
I remember earlier in the summer we had talked about getting a kitten and the topic kind of went away. On July 5th we woke up and I said lets get a kitten today. We spent the whole day going place to place in search of an itty bitty, sure enough that afternoon we brought the little bean home!
We've pretty much had the same attitude about buying a house. The topic came up, we played around with the idea for about a week, and then spent this whole week looking at houses online, finding a realtor and creating a list of places we wanted to see. Aaron is just as consumed with this process as I am. I would get emails at 4am from him about houses he found, so I know he was searching on his lunch at work too. Saturday we spent the whole day looking at houses...no wait we didn't look at houses we looked at CRAP. Everything that we picked sucked. There was only one house that we would even consider. Of course it's above where we told our realtor we wanted to be...but we could offer less, and be within budget. This house was move in ready, and done exactly how I would have done it. It has a beautiful backyard. All hardwood floors, a huge living room, the most amazing finished basement and 3 bedrooms. The issues we had were the bedroom sizes, and apparently Aaron hates trees, and is scared they are going to fall on the house. WHATEVER. I seriously fell in love with this house. Aaron had to really talk me down from my high. Telling me that it wasn't worth the asking price, and that we could find a lot bigger space for a lot less.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1061-Elmwood-Dr_Jenison_MI_49428_M46997-52193 This is the house we loved yesterday. It doesn't have very many pictures, and I tried to upload a video of it, but it won't work...sorry!
We came home feeling very discouraged. We didn't really know what to do. We were pretty much at each others throats about everything so I needed to get away. When I got home Aaron had a whole new list of house put together. We raised our price range a bit, and knowing now what we really want I think our new list actually has a lot of potential. I told Aaron that I had a feeling that our house was on that list. We did a little Sunday driving today and drove by most of the houses on our new list. The curb appeal of all of them has me very excited to see the insides. Like I said we don't stop until we get what we want..I have a feeling this process won't take very long because it has now totally consumed us. Poor wedding...getting shunned. I feel bad..hopefully we can get this all figured out, and I can go back to only stressing about a wedding!
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
<3 Karissa
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