Paint, Paint and more Paint

So the last 2 weekends have been spent doing nothing but painting the awfully white walls of our house into much more colorful choices, as you will see below in our before and after photos.

I have to say a very big THANK YOU to my mom and dad for coming to help us both weekends.  Without them we would still be painting today.

The first day was spent taping, puttying the numerous holes in the walls, and waiting for that to dry.  Lets just say the previous owners loved nails, screws and anything else they could pound into the wall, and it left quite a mess.  We also discovered that I am not the best at taping, but could maneuver into the small nooks and crannies no one else could. we did however get some painting done in the living room and the whole kitchen was finished.  Sunday was spent in the den/guestroom and our bedroom.  We were not able to get back up to the house until Friday afternoon with my schedule but I put the final coats on in our room and the "brown" wall in the den.  I had so much paint leftover from our bedroom (I had miscalculated the first time, and bought too much the second time) that I decided to also paint my closet.  I spent a good bit of time in there wiping down the walls as they had these weird yellow spots all over, and as with the rest of the house, there were several holes to be patched and left to dry.  Once it was ready to paint I got about halfway finished before Hunter said we had to go, but as we were coming right back on Saturday I figured it was ok.  Saturday, Mom and Dad came back up, and they were bearing gifts...

Mom had graciously agreed to buy and then line all the kitchen cabinet shelves with contact paper.  She also told me that if I brought up all the kitchen "stuff" she had also graciously came and packed the previous Wednesday that she and Daddy would help wash it and put it away so long as I told her where I wanted things to go.  However I don't believe she realized at the time, how many shelves there would be.  Thanks a bunch Mom they look great!!

Daddy and Hunter finished up the living room, hallway and painted Hunter's office, while I finished up painting my closet.  And after another weekend full of work the house is finally ready to move into.  YAY!!!  but then we also have 18 dogs, 8 puppies, 4 cats, and 2 huge fishtanks to move...so we will see how long lived my "YAY!!!" is tomorrow...

Before Painting:

And After:

Closing and the Fridge

Well though the day has come and gone, I am going to write this post as if it were today.

Today at 1pm we close on our new home.  Everything is in order and all we have left is to go to the bank and then drive to our lawyers office in Charlotte. After of course I evaluate my stores, that are 1.5 hours away from Lincolnton, where Hunter and our bank is. So basically I spent from 4 am Thursday morning til 11:30am driving to stores, evaluating them, and driving home, to the bank, then off to Charlotte.  Hunter drove to closing and the GPS kept telling him to go a different way, even tho his route was faster.  It was very amusing to listen to them argue back and forth about where to go, and it took us to the wrong group of buildings.  Luckily for the first time in our entire relationship, we had left the house on time and had a few minutes to spare to get to the right building.  Frazier (our lawyer) and Geoff Brown (New American Mortgage) were there to meet us, and over all the closing only took about 30 minutes.  Wow almost 2 months of work, to be finished in 30 minutes.  I wasn't sure if I was relieved or overwhelmed.  Either way I knew that we had made the right decision and I couldn't wait for us to get there.

But first we had to stop by and pick up our brand new refrigerator I found on Craigslist, for $400 less than what it would have cost at Lowes.  The only reason the guy was selling it, was it didn't fit in his kitchen (too big) and he bought it from a friend at Lowes for a huge discount so he knew he wouldn't be getting his money back that way.  We got to his house and it took Hunter and Ray (the guy) almost an hour to load this in the back of my truck, so we knew we would need re-enforcements once we got to our new house.

We had a few errands to run first and all with this huge fridge in the back of my truck, so I got the job of being the "watcher" to make sure the doors were closed, and that the straps were tight enough.  This was much easier said than done, seeing as how I hadn't slept the night before and it was now encroaching on 3pm.  But we made it none the less.

On the way I called Andy and Milan (one of my franchisee's and his District Manager) who live in the area near the house, to ask if they would mind helping us unload and get into the house.  They had previously offered to help in any way, and so graciously accepted the task.  We got to the house a little while before the guys did and discovered that the door was much smaller than the fridge, at least by 2 inches.

Luckily for us 2 things happened:
    1. Andy carries tools in his car.
    2. The doors on the fridge come off.

We also discovered that once the doors were off and all the interior shelves have been removed the fridge is much easier to move.  Because of this experience we have decided that any more appliances going in the house are going to be delivered and brought into the house by Lowes, and moved in by the really big guys with the back supports.

Please stay tuned for the next few days of painting, packing and moving....

The Appraisal Report...and the action that ensued

The appraisal was ordered and we found out that we managed to buy the house for about $10,000 under its value.  YAY!! Go us right? 

Well then we found out that while the house was in great shape there were a few minor repairs necessary by FHA to be able to fully qualify for our loan. And remember the house is being sold AS IS...meaning we get to do the work

Qualification Number 1: Absolutely NO PEELING PAINT on the outside of the house. 
          Okay, no big deal, there were only a few spots right? Heck no there were great big patches of peeling paint on every side of the house, so our quick weekend project turned into an all week adventure.  I spent 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) helping Hunter scrape and prime 2 of the walls and the front porch, but then he was on his own.  Everyday the following week we would get up, take care of the dogs, drive to the house drop Hunter off to scrape and prime, I would go to work at the stores in the area, drive back to the house around 5 or 6 to get him so we could get home and to bed.  This went on for 5 days until finally Friday we were done.

Qualification Number 2: The stairs to the basement were a huge fall hazard with out a railing...
       Now luckily for us, this was something Glen felt he and his brother in law could accomplish, and overall I think they did a very good job. 

Qualification number 3:  The outside stairs also posed a fall hazard and needed extra railing added to the existing rails.

       This is where I want to add that the stairs are not really necessary, in fact we plan on ripping them out once we get the keys.  Also we found it very amusing that the appraisor didn't comment on the fact that the stairs themselves are rickety and starting to rot.  But Hunter and Glen got the boards and put the rails up anyways.

The re-appraisal of the house occured the following Saturday, as the appraisor was leaving that Sunday for 2 weeks and no one else was willing to drive out to the property.  We passed with flying colors and we have moved right along with our process to closing.  Which is tomorrow by the way.  So I am heading off to bed as I have a very long important day tomorrow.

The One with the Waterfall

So after the long arduous search for the PERFECT house, we found it.  Or I should say, I stumbled upon it online during one of my random searches.  The house had only been on the market 2 days, and only listed on the website for 6 hours.  Talk about luck for us.  I called Tyler and asked him to arrange a showing as soon as he possibly could...he did but it was going to be 3 days before we could go. 

 That of course wasn't good enough for us, so we hopped in the car and drove the 2 hours to get to the house before dark.  When we got there we were greeted by Glen Gunter (the nephew of the property owner) who graciously showed us around the property. 

The first thing we noticed as we got out of the car was that it was quiet, except for the sounds of birds and crickets.  You could also faintly hear the sound of running water from the waterfall on the property.  That was actually the first thing Glen showed us.  It was stunning.  From there we walked the outer edge of the property closest to the road, and saw that our neighbors own and run a vineyard and a bed and breakfast type cabin. (http://www.rockhillvineyards.com/) 

 This is the view from our front porch and living room windows if we look to the road

this is our front porch and front door

this is the whole front porch from down near our really old oak tree

Just from looking at the house from the outside, we knew this place would be great for us even if the house needed a lot of work.  Lucky for us it had been kept up very well by Aunt Madge (Glen's Aunt) and the rest of the family.  There were all sorts of knick knacks and odds and end of furniture through out the house making it seem very small and cluttered at first but charming none the less. 

We decided on the way home that we would make an offer but wanted to have all of our ducks in a row and waited until the following Monday to make an offer.  We made the offer Monday and heard back on Wednesday that they accepted our offer but the house would be sold "As-Is".  Meaning that should our inspections or appraisal (required by the FHA) show any repairs they would be our responsibility.  We accepted the terms and the process began to move towards closing the deal.

The first thing we did was call Uncle Buster, to come inspect the home.  We met him and my parents at the home on that following Sunday and the fun began.  The only major repair he found was an open wire connection on the outside of the house.  He and Hunter discussed how to fix it and it will be repaired once we get the keys.  We walked down to the waterfall/creek and Mom pointed out different types of vegetation, while Daddy asked if there were fish.  There aren't but there are plenty of crayfish.

From the inspection looking so good the appraisal was ordered next.  This is where it got interesting, but you will have to wait til next time to hear that part of our tale.

The Adventure Begins: Finding and Offering on a House or 3

Around January of 2010, Hunter and I decided that the house we are currently renting just was not going to cut it.  No Heat, Leaking Basement, Faulty Electricity, and not enough room for all of the dogs, led us to start looking for a house of our own.  We started out just looking around ourselves in the local area of Lincoln County and found that we were slightly in over our heads with out a Real Estate Agent.  In comes Tyler Hines of RE/MAX Executive Realty in Charlotte (also one of Hunter's best friends), and with helpful tips from him and watching Property Virgins on HGTV we set out on our quest to find our new home.  Our requirements were slightly off than your normal everyday home buyer because not only did we need a home but we needed land for Hunter to be able to work with the dogs. (http://www.twilightretrievers.com/)

These were our requirements:
1. Atleast 3 acres of land (the bigger the better) for the dogs
2. It had to be a good location for my route at work
3. I wanted atleast 1 and a half bathrooms
4. Air Conditioning and Heat

Tyler set us up on a search engine for MLS that would send us updates everyday with houses meeting our requirements. I also spent numerous hours online doing my own searches when I felt the houses we were being told about weren't good enough.

In April we found it, the house of our dreams...it was 3 acres of land, already had fencing, 2 full bathrooms, great location for my route, and it had Central Air and Heat plus fireplaces.  The house was a 1925 farm house that had been updated and added onto to create a 2200 squarefoot home with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an office, formal living and dining rooms, kitchen, sunroom and storage.  The downside was it was a foreclosure that had left the house void of appliances, light fixtures and door knobs.  It was also a Fannie Mae property meaning we were dealing with the government not just a bank.  We were planning on using the USDA loan program and made an offer on the house, 2 days later all USDA funding was denied until the end of June, plus there was another offer on the house.  We decided maybe it was for the best and that we would save our money and keep looking.

May rolled around and we had saved up enough for the 3.5% down required by the FHA (also another government loan) and we found another home. This one was going to be a little bit more work but the house was in Move-In Condition.  Again 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, living room, kitchen, dining room, and a sun room.  This was only 2.75 acres and no fencing which meant Hunter would have to build them before we moved.  We made an offer and it was accepted, only to find out that our FHA loan would not cover a manufactured or modular home.  Great NOW WHAT?!? 

The same day we found this out, I also recieved a call that the original house was back on the market, and that since we knew we already loved it and qualified for the loan, we made an offer.  Full asking price, with sellers paying closing cost.  The sellers countered our offer with them paying most of closing but not all.  I decided that we should have the house inspected (by my uncle) before we accepted the counter offer.  The inspections went great and we accepted the counter offer, only to find out someone else had also made an offer and they had already accepted it while waiting for us to respond.  (Apparently bc this is a government owned home they could do that)  Needless to say I was not only devastated but very angry as well.

We then decided to expand our search outside of Lincoln County.  I would say we looked at over 30 houses and properties in less than 2 weeks, and came up with nothing. 

Time dragged on, and I started to look around more while I was driving to evaluate my stores in the Elkin/Mt.Airy region of the state, and asked Hunter if he would be willing to move up there if we found something.  He was resistant at first, but then we had a week of over 100 degree weather and not only were we miserable but the dogs were too.  He gave in and I began my internet search again.

Thats when we found it.  Ararat, North Carolina the most beautiful town in the state.  There are rolling hills, vineyards and tons of farms.  Its also where our new home is going to be after we close next week on the 29th of July.  There are 8.05 acres of land (including a walk up waterfall thats on our property) The house is older built in 1955 but has been well taken care of and loved.  There are 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, and basement. Finding this house when we did was the greatest feeling, and the process from then has been an adventure in itself but that is for another day...