We did it....we really did it!!!

We are officially HOME OWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it! We have taken the plunge. We are so excited & a tidbit overwhelmed, but it's a good overwhelmed feeling!

The house is in Georgetown Landing in Ooltewah TN. We ended up getting it as a short sale, which is the only way we could afford that neighborhood. It was a little complicated because it's a "new construction" home, but was built 2007/2008 and no one has lived in it. The bank was letting the builders try to sell it, but the bank was calling the shots on the counter offers being made, making it a short sale..kinda. It was a complicated negotiating process since there were multiple sellers. Over the 2 years it was on the market they went down $46K to the current asking price. We offered about $35K less than their current asking price. When it was all said and done we came up $11K from our original offer and they came down $24k so we feel like we got a pretty good deal.


The best part is that the bank agreed to make any repairs the FHA appraiser found wrong with the house! There were things about the house that you could see were done poorly and we figured the builders didn't put much effort into the house once they realized they weren't going to get their money out of it anymore. For example, the tub in the master bath wasn't completely tiled in and they didn't bother to put up gutters. We knew what we felt comfortable doing and where our limits were. We prayed that Lord would make it work for us and we would walk away if it crossed our limit or if the Lord just shut the door. I'm glad it worked out and the Lord really took care of us!

I have been nervous about being out of the Cleveland bubble, out of a safe and familiar area. I'm not sure why we have a trend of uprooting ourselves from the comfort and familiar, but we tend to do that. I'm only 15-20 min. away from Chattanooga and the same distance from Cleveland so I'm not far. it's just a mindset that chatty and ooltewah is far and when you're used to being 10 min. away from everything in cleveland. I just hope my friends still come to visit (hint hint). However, the deal on this house was great and I didn't want my fears to be the reason we didn't take this offer. I also relied back on my prayers, "lord, work this out where we are comfortable with the situation if it's your will." I'm WAY WAY more excited than nervous!! I'm soooo ready to be out of boxes and into something we own!

I've alwasy wanted to buy a house to PAINT IT! I've painted every rental we've been in since college. I just love paint. Guess what? This house is totally painted! The craziest part is it's a greyish color that I planned to paint our next place! This means there will be no painting at first. Eventually I'll change some stuff up, but now that we are home OWNERS and not RENTING, I'd like to save that money in case we need soemthign more than paint! ;)

To add to our chaos of moving 3 times in 3 months Christmas will be in our new home! That's right, the week of Christmas we will host 8 guests! I hope they don't mind eating on stacked boxes and sleeping on airmattresses!

I know you want me to just shut up so you can SEE so I promise to take and post pictures ASAP!