Big News!

Pin It No dad, we aren't having a baby! But we are doing something pretty exciting... buying a house! We've run the numbers about a 1000 times and have finally jumped into making an offer on a home! (We'll give more details further in the post.)

We got a great deal on a loan from the USDA (read: perfect for a couple living on 1 modest teacher income). This is great because we need a project to work on together... something other than choosing our next movie on Netflix. We are also pretty certain living in a house will be about the same cost as apartment living plus we'll hopefully recoup some of that money.

So here are the juicy details I know you've been waiting for. The house is currently listed at $25,100 less than the appraised value because it has been on the market a year and is an estate sale. Sweet, right? Well, we happen to be looking at the top of our budget even with that schnazzy discount, so we offered $16,900 less than the listing price. That is a full $42,000 under appraisal value. Yep, that's right, we low-balled 'em stayed comfortably in budget. We also wrote a "seller love letter" saying how much we loved the house and how we could imagine ourselves and our future children (that's right dad, but focus on future). Then we waited...

We waited a full and agonizing 2 hours. They countered us... at only $1,500 more than we asked. HOLY COW! We obviously accepted and locked in the deal at $40,500 less than the appraised value. That number is huge, especially in this community where real estate is relatively inexpensive already. And the real estate agent told us our love letter to the seller was very effective. Yep - I'm that good.

We still have a slew of inspections and loan things to go through, but right now we are riding high on the fact that we are going to be homeowners on July 6! We've been told that the mixture of excitement and terror is completely normal - we hope so!

Can you see the terror in our eyes? The terrifying dreams of houses falling apart and negative balances in checking accounts? The excitement of learning new skills together and building something lasting?

I'll give details on the house itself in a later post - for now... YAY!

Fancy and Shiny

Pin It Today was our first day here that we really did nothing on the apartment! Four of Zach's high school friends came to visit and I spent most of the day cooking. It really was a lot of fun and I know the guys had fun at the local waterpark - apparently they have slides and diving boards (emphasis added by the 22 year old men) ha! :) So today I'll post a picture of a project that was recently completed.

Two projects in one picture - more for your reading!

I  messed up by not taking a before picture. The only picture I have of the apartment was when I first saw it and took pictures on my phone to send to Zach - needless to say, they're poor quality! Anyway, if you look hard you can get an idea of what it looked like before (with the previous tenants' stuff).

As I mentioned before, we painted - so that definitely helps change it up. I really wanted to jazz up the accent wall, but didn't want to spend a ton of money on it (think wall decals, wallpaper, etc). I made a wall stamp from a wood block and foam, but that failed. So as a last ditch effort I tried to make a stencil. I went on Google images (strict filters on! lol) and searched for stencil patterns. I printed off one I liked, taped it onto a left over piece of contact paper, and cut it out with an exacto knife. Peeled it off, stuck it to the wall and painted. We really like it!

As you may have noticed, that light fixture is really painfully outdated! A light wood, white metal, gold chain, and frosted white shades just aren't our style. I picked up a can of spray paint (Zach painted!), ditched the shades and bought new light bulbs. I think Zach did a great job on it, but you can judge for yourself! (We still don't have pictures hung up, so forgive that... maybe by tomorrow!)

Pretty proud of our very low cost projects!

Stencil Cost:
Left over paint: basically free
Left over contact paper: basically free

Light Fixture Cost:
Spray Paint: $3.42
Light Bulbs: $2.12 for a pack of 6

Definitely fits a teacher's budget! :)

Paint Stained

Pin It I started a blog to update everyone on life! We're further away, we're starting new chapters (job & school), I'm bad at updating people, and I'd like to remember this time in our lives, so I thought this might be easiest. I also feel like I'm annoying on Facebook, so at least this way I can post what I want and you only have to read it if you want to!

For those of you who don't know, we just moved across the state! We are in a nice apartment that doesn't care if we paint or update, which makes us feel like we actually have a home. We also have a garage with this new place, so Zach is happy that he has a place to store things. And we have a dishwasher which makes us both happy!

We moved in on August 1 and spent Tuesday-Friday painting... we're finally done! It was definitely a lot more work than we thought it would be, but we are really happy with the results... and tired and paint stained.

(The bedroom color is actually a bit darker)

My parents came up to visit this weekend and to deliver two couches to us (much cheaper than a moving truck). They were an awesome deal and they look really nice (the couches, not my parents, although they look nice too)! Much better than sitting on the floor all week or any other couches we could've afforded on our budget - think sketchy-basement-Craigslist-style budget. Plus they match and we don't have to use slip covers... pretty new territory for us :)

 We  just need to hang up pictures and finish putting away our (read: my) clothes and we'll be ready! My grandparents are coming up on Tuesday, so our goal is to be all done by then! Planning to post some of our projects we've been working on soon!