Soon to be home owners!

We have the house under contract! We were able to workout a deal with the sellers after several back and fourths. So baring any problems with the inspections and appraisal....We are HOME OWNERS!

Sean and I are super excited! I'll keep you all post about that and my job. I should find out whether they are going to give me an offer next week. It seemed very promising after my interview yesterday so keep your fingers crossed (mentally of course....cause that could get painful otherwise)

Big developments in Kateland

Sean and I put an offer on a house today! We have already received a counter offer which we are mauling over tonight. We are super exicited about the house! It is a brick ranch with 2000 sq ft. So plenty big for our little family of 4. Above are a few pictures of the house. First is the front of the house, second part of the kitchen plus Bob our buyer's agent, and third the family room. I'll keep everyone posted on what happens.

Also tomorrow is my interview with the Dayton office of my current company. So wish me luck! I really want this to workout because job hunting sucks and I'm really exicited about the position.

Whirlwind of activity

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. June has been a whirlwind of activity. I was home in Colorado for 10 days for a wedding and to visit family. I had a great visit minus some yucky stomach bug! The wedding was absolutely wonderful, the best I've been to in a long time! I'll try and post some pictures later.

I saw Max, Jenn, and Tim. All are doing well. Max is talking up a storm of mostly understandable english. Tim became his favorite uncle however "Uncle Tim" sounds a lot like "all done" so it was a bit confusing! I really wished they lived closer so I could see him more often.

Once I returned home I launched head long into preparing for our house hunting trip this weekend. I've spent hours and hours this week going through listing and prioritizing them. I gave the Realtor a list of our top 25 house yesterday morning. Lucky he deals with this sort of thing all the time due to the base. Last night I was up past 1am getting all of our stuff ready to go and printing stuff for the mortgage lady. This was really a bad time for Sean to have a business trip. He flies back in at 2pm today and we leave again for Ohio at 9:30pm. Lucky him! I've have my laptop while in OH so I'll try and post how things are going.

A contrarian's view of buying a house

I read this article today on MSN about how investing in stocks is better than buying a house. An interesting view point. I think he has a good points but there are other reasoning for buying a house besides financial. Give the article a look.

While I have never believed that renting is like throwing your money away it would be nice to be able to paint or customize my house. There is no point to improving my rental property because that would be throwing money away while doing some small improvements to a house might improve its value or at least you know that its yours and you can take pride in the improvements you make.

Lists, lists, and more lists

Here is an update on my progress so far on all the things I need to accomplish before leaving Friday! The completed tasks are in gray. Below are partial lists for our wants and would like for our house. The house hunt is on! (think the song "The heat is on")

To do before Friday:
1. Call House of Brides
2. Find an alterist for Megs wedding
3. Pack
4. Clean the house
5. Find someone to baby sit my herbs.....(maybe Heather can do that and Charlie)
6. Organize trip to maine this weekend
7. Pack for trip to maine
8. Work 9 hours each day (mon - thurs)
9. Exercise at least 3 times per week
10. Mail cell phone rebates and saftey form
11. Call cell phone company to get phone adjusted for Puerto Rico
12. Guest list for Shari
13. Buy black swim suit bottom from tankini top
14. Buy more memory for my camera at Costco

What we are looking for in a house the must haves:
1. Large kitchen
2. Open layout
3. At least 1 3/4 baths
4. At least 3 bedrooms
5. A basement (finished would be nice but not necessary)
6. At least 1400 sqft in top portion of house
7. Good sized yard. (fenced would be prefered)
8. Good, safe neighborhood (a family neighborhood, don't get any idea about kids yet though!)

The would likes:
1. Walk in closet in master
2. Big master bath
3. Separate family and living rooms
4. Eat in kitchen and dining room
5. An extra room or study or loft area for my craft room
6. Laundry Room not in basement
7. Two car garage
8. Patio or porch in back yard
9. Fire place
10. Double sinks in master

I think that may be enough lists for one day. Enjoy....And of course feel free to comment!