so basically the only thing consuming my mind nowadays is this new house. . .its not just as easy as i was hoping. i cant just hand them 100 grand and lets get on with it. so mortgage rates have been all over the place lately .. when we started getting ready to put money down the rate was around 6.5, then we locked in at 6.375 thinking that would be good and now a week later, its below 6. suffice to say i made the guy allow us to change the rate at no charge to us since it was his idea to "lock"
in addition to locking a rate (which every 8th of a % is about 30 dollars a month for 30 YEARS), you have to pay closing costs. . which just sound like a bunch of extra fees that really dont get you anywhere. you have "stamps", you have lender fees, brokers fees, water assesment fees, etc etc . .. basically its over 10 extra thousand dollars up front on top of the % down that you want to put.
our plan is to put 76,500 down. this is 15% of the entire amount of the house (510,000) .. .so on top of that money we have to put down 13,000 in closing plus first month, plus another 18,000 for flooring and window upgrades, plus another 4000 for countertops, appliance upgrades and lighting upgrades...so upfront we somehow had to come up with 111,500. . .
in order to save up that kind of money you clearly have to make some sacrifices .. which we have for certain, and then again we havent
christine and i both have been on weekly allowances for 7 months. each of us started by getting 100 every 2 weeks and that had to pay for anything and everthing you wanted to do outside of gas and grocery, we later lowered to 80 every 2 weeks and even tried 60, but that just was too hard . .so we stuck with 80..
christines pay check, our tax returns, her 2nd job at bjs, and her summer school and my job at my parents business on saturdays dont hurt by any means. . .but saving this kind of money in 7 months is something i hope to never have to do again! on the bright side christine did the musical Big River, we had Disney season passes, and access to go to Dodgers games . .so it wasnt like we did nothing the last 7 months. we really look forward to having room to actually entertain and have friends and family over. . . .
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Moving on Up!
I have never EVER written a blog before .. not even thought about it. . . who wants to read what I wrote? Oh well, even if its just my own personal "memoirs" I am ok with that.
I want to write about our pending move. Christine and I are quickly approaching the move to our new home. Christine and I have probably lived in a combined 25 locations since we both left our respective parents homes 8-12 years ago. I have even lived in 3 places in 1 year, and twice I have lived on friends couches for a couple of weeks while I figured life out.
I am ready to finally be a homeowner.
Christine and I currently live in Lakewood, CA where we have been for right around 2 years now. This home is OLD! It was built in 1949 I believe and it still owned by Christines grandmother, who happens to be have been born in this house. For all the negatives; heat, size, lack of modern amenities like air, and sprinklers on a time . .. this house is charming to say the least. Many of the neighbors are still original home owners or relatives thereof. The neighbors on the right and left of us are great people and we will surely miss having them around. I think I will most miss the backyard that is bigger than the house. Lakewood is a great town to raise a family, just not OUR family!
That being said, its time to move to Placentia. When Christine and I first started looking for places to live a year ago, our number 1 goal was to buy a home in Orange County from 1200-1800 sq ft. When we first started looking, this would cost about 550,000 and the house would be previously lived in.
What a difference 6 months made! When we finally went out and looked at our first house, we went to Placentia. Nowhere did we say we would HAVE to live in HB, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Cypress or any number of cities. We just wanted OC. The house we looked at was currently lived in, 1500 sq ft, had a burned down garage, had an add on room, had weird transitions of flooring from room to room, and had a roof that looked like it could go up in smoke at the first glance of a lighter. For this "awesome" house we would have had to pay 540,000
By chance on the way out of this neighborhood we drove past a sign that said new homes. we figured why not? when we drove up we noticed two things right away. the houses were VERY close together, and they were 3 stories. these were 2 things that immediately were CONS.
What we were surprised to find out, is that these homes were 2400 sq ft and 499,000. these were PROS. I still held out judgement until we went in. Once inside however, any judgement calls immediately went out the window. This place was nice! If it only was 2 floors we probably still would have been happy. The place just flowed. On the bottom floor was a kitchen openly connected to the living room, which connected to the dining room . .basically a "great room" that wasnt conventional.
On the second floor, we were happy to find 4 or 5 major things. First off, the master bedroom was probably bigger than most of our current house. And it had a really large bathroom with seperate shower and bath. and his and her sinks. The second floor also had one of Christines favorite things, jack and jill bedrooms. For those who do not know those bedrooms that are connected via a bathroom. This works out perfect when you have 2 kids, which we plan to in the future.
Even more great things on the second floor. We were happy to find that there was a laundry room, a walk in hallway closet that goes under the stairs for storage, and plenty of shelves and cabinets to store things. Just a well thought out 2nd floor that really has everything we wanted.
The third floor is full of possibilities, all of which we havent even thought of. The idea behind the the third floor is that it has a "tech area", and full bathroom, and a 4th bedroom or bonus room. We figured this tech area could be a bar/pool room, and the bonus could be a home theatre room. we could even turn the 3rd floor into a guest area if we are having someone over. . .really we arent sure what we would do with this third floor, but it has tons of options. . .we already had decided that if this were our future home, the 3rd floor would be a work in progress .. we might not even touch it for the first year we live in the house.
With all the things that we wanted in this house, it was already on my mind that this place was a keeper. Of course we went and looked at many other model homes, some pricier and some cheaper, but non caught our hearts like this place. I think the clincher at least for me was that when we brought my parents (who can be negative), they had nothing but good things to say and for me it was when my dad said, "you already put a deposit down right?"
Still i wanted christine to sign on and of course her family. When we brought them it was much the same as well as her grandmother .. . everyone is either lying to us, or we really found ourselves a winner. i will go with the latter.
So after about a week of looking at many places we chose this spot back in January 2009 and put down a 5000 deposit. Unfortunately it was refundable and just reserved the spot but did not lock the price. Sadly the price did bump to 510,000 but still less than what we were seeing out in the world for this size house.
We are now 60 days from moving into this dream home for us, and we really spared no expense. We upgraded all the flooring throughout: Wood on the first floor, NICE carpet and padding through most of the 2nd and 3rd floors, tile in the master bath, and just plain linoleum in 2nd and 3rd floor guest bathrooms as well as the laundry room to at least create some sense of savings.
We have already arranged to have 24 of our 29 windows filled with blinds. We have upgraded our kitchen appliances to stainless steel. We have upgraded out kitchen counter tops to granite. We really spared no expense! Also, my favorite and one with which I am glad Christine is ok, is that we ran wires for speakers throughout all the floors. we will have surround sound in the living room, master, and 3rd floor theatre. Additionally we will have speakers in all other areas for house music. The system that we have chosen will allow us to switch through 4 different sources, such as tv, ipod, etc, with just a small touch of a pad available in all rooms. Suffice to say we are broke!
I am excited to be writing and telling all of you about this and I hope that I continue to share our life stories with you . ..60 days and counting!
I want to write about our pending move. Christine and I are quickly approaching the move to our new home. Christine and I have probably lived in a combined 25 locations since we both left our respective parents homes 8-12 years ago. I have even lived in 3 places in 1 year, and twice I have lived on friends couches for a couple of weeks while I figured life out.
I am ready to finally be a homeowner.
Christine and I currently live in Lakewood, CA where we have been for right around 2 years now. This home is OLD! It was built in 1949 I believe and it still owned by Christines grandmother, who happens to be have been born in this house. For all the negatives; heat, size, lack of modern amenities like air, and sprinklers on a time . .. this house is charming to say the least. Many of the neighbors are still original home owners or relatives thereof. The neighbors on the right and left of us are great people and we will surely miss having them around. I think I will most miss the backyard that is bigger than the house. Lakewood is a great town to raise a family, just not OUR family!
That being said, its time to move to Placentia. When Christine and I first started looking for places to live a year ago, our number 1 goal was to buy a home in Orange County from 1200-1800 sq ft. When we first started looking, this would cost about 550,000 and the house would be previously lived in.
What a difference 6 months made! When we finally went out and looked at our first house, we went to Placentia. Nowhere did we say we would HAVE to live in HB, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Cypress or any number of cities. We just wanted OC. The house we looked at was currently lived in, 1500 sq ft, had a burned down garage, had an add on room, had weird transitions of flooring from room to room, and had a roof that looked like it could go up in smoke at the first glance of a lighter. For this "awesome" house we would have had to pay 540,000
By chance on the way out of this neighborhood we drove past a sign that said new homes. we figured why not? when we drove up we noticed two things right away. the houses were VERY close together, and they were 3 stories. these were 2 things that immediately were CONS.
What we were surprised to find out, is that these homes were 2400 sq ft and 499,000. these were PROS. I still held out judgement until we went in. Once inside however, any judgement calls immediately went out the window. This place was nice! If it only was 2 floors we probably still would have been happy. The place just flowed. On the bottom floor was a kitchen openly connected to the living room, which connected to the dining room . .basically a "great room" that wasnt conventional.
On the second floor, we were happy to find 4 or 5 major things. First off, the master bedroom was probably bigger than most of our current house. And it had a really large bathroom with seperate shower and bath. and his and her sinks. The second floor also had one of Christines favorite things, jack and jill bedrooms. For those who do not know those bedrooms that are connected via a bathroom. This works out perfect when you have 2 kids, which we plan to in the future.
Even more great things on the second floor. We were happy to find that there was a laundry room, a walk in hallway closet that goes under the stairs for storage, and plenty of shelves and cabinets to store things. Just a well thought out 2nd floor that really has everything we wanted.
The third floor is full of possibilities, all of which we havent even thought of. The idea behind the the third floor is that it has a "tech area", and full bathroom, and a 4th bedroom or bonus room. We figured this tech area could be a bar/pool room, and the bonus could be a home theatre room. we could even turn the 3rd floor into a guest area if we are having someone over. . .really we arent sure what we would do with this third floor, but it has tons of options. . .we already had decided that if this were our future home, the 3rd floor would be a work in progress .. we might not even touch it for the first year we live in the house.
With all the things that we wanted in this house, it was already on my mind that this place was a keeper. Of course we went and looked at many other model homes, some pricier and some cheaper, but non caught our hearts like this place. I think the clincher at least for me was that when we brought my parents (who can be negative), they had nothing but good things to say and for me it was when my dad said, "you already put a deposit down right?"
Still i wanted christine to sign on and of course her family. When we brought them it was much the same as well as her grandmother .. . everyone is either lying to us, or we really found ourselves a winner. i will go with the latter.
So after about a week of looking at many places we chose this spot back in January 2009 and put down a 5000 deposit. Unfortunately it was refundable and just reserved the spot but did not lock the price. Sadly the price did bump to 510,000 but still less than what we were seeing out in the world for this size house.
We are now 60 days from moving into this dream home for us, and we really spared no expense. We upgraded all the flooring throughout: Wood on the first floor, NICE carpet and padding through most of the 2nd and 3rd floors, tile in the master bath, and just plain linoleum in 2nd and 3rd floor guest bathrooms as well as the laundry room to at least create some sense of savings.
We have already arranged to have 24 of our 29 windows filled with blinds. We have upgraded our kitchen appliances to stainless steel. We have upgraded out kitchen counter tops to granite. We really spared no expense! Also, my favorite and one with which I am glad Christine is ok, is that we ran wires for speakers throughout all the floors. we will have surround sound in the living room, master, and 3rd floor theatre. Additionally we will have speakers in all other areas for house music. The system that we have chosen will allow us to switch through 4 different sources, such as tv, ipod, etc, with just a small touch of a pad available in all rooms. Suffice to say we are broke!
I am excited to be writing and telling all of you about this and I hope that I continue to share our life stories with you . ..60 days and counting!
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