Brian's and my weekend was uneventful. He had a 3 day weekend and I had a regular work week.
Wednesday was a roller coaster because of two things.
1) I had a form to fill out that asked one question and then a computer transfers that answer to a similar question on another form. Except the answer to the first form was No and the second forms answer was supposed to be Yes. So I had a bit of a panic attack and if I am honest I threw a temper tantrum out of panic with my Mom on the phone. Sorry Mommy :( I can't/won't tell you that was the most appropriate response but I did feel better after. I just think it was all the stress leading up to this and making sure everything was correct and there were no errors and that this discrepancy would/could ruin everything.
2) Brian's student loans came through A LOT higher then what we thought. If we did nothing our current lives would be too extravagant which is odd as we don't live extravagantly at all. At the time, we couldn't find any legitimate information on consolidation and Brian had just finished venting and got me all panicked about being poor for the rest of our lives and not knowing what we did wrong. So of course there was another crying session with Mom about how we had worked so hard to do everything the right way and yet we were in worse spots then some people I know who haven't done things (for whatever reason) in the traditional/right way. The next day Brian had found out that he could legitimately consolidate his loans so we have put through the paperwork for that. It will take 60-90 days for that to go through.
So about the house.... we are thinking about doing a provisional contract that basically says that we get the lot and the house and will buy it as long as his student loans and the change goes through the way we need them to. If for whatever reason they don't or we change our minds we can get out and get our earnest money back, otherwise we move forward. Brian is liking the house more and more which is surprising to me. I knew he liked the house but I would have thought I would be the one who would want it more after a week or two, not him. So in his eyes we are doing it. My only real hesitation is that we aren't married.
I don't know what Brian is waiting for and he wont talk to me about it seriously for the most part other then asking me if I am planning on going somewhere. He keeps saying it's my fault that I wont agree to the wedding (him being dressed as the joker and me as Harley Quinn and the groomsmen Batman, Robin, etc and bridesmaids Poison Ivy, Catwoman, etc) and that he doesn't make the rules he just enforces them. *head desk* We are basically married anyway, nothing would change other then I get my white dress and a party. Real life wouldn't change except for taxes....
Other then that, nothing has changed.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
This little lady can always make my day :)
Wednesday was my day off and it was a roller coaster! The roller coaster hasn't come to a complete stop so I will not go into detail but I will share with you what cheered me up.
She is almost 9 months! I also want to show you something very cool!
Carley is IDENTICAL to her father! SO cute! I wish I took more pictures because I swear she makes the same faces he does!
She is almost 9 months! I also want to show you something very cool!
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| Baby Chris |
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| Baby Carley |
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| Baby Chris :) |
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| Baby Carley |
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| Baby Chris! |
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| Baby Carley! |
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The meeting on Tuesday night
The meeting went well. Brian and I are more confused then ever. I wrote an email to my mom so I will copy that here. I think I wrote it out the best I can. We are still waiting on one thing to fall in place but that should be soon so I dont know.
"We still don't know what to do about the house. We have less then we thought extra (meaning after we pay all our bills and mortgage we do have some money extra just not as much) but we do have some extra. We have also guessed high in some categories like groceries, his cell phone, car insurance, etc so we will have more extra then what is showing. We have estimated $100 a month for water/natural gas and $100 a month of electric. Our heat and stove will be from natural gas and electric for the appliances and AC. We figure those two things will flip. In the summer our gas/water bill will be lower but our electric higher, in the winter electric will be lower but gas/water will be higher. We are also getting a tankless water heater (I think 2 technically) with this house so that should save on electric as well. We won't be able to buy any new furniture which is okay. We don't really need anything new at the moment and I have all the furniture that you guys are bringing down for me. There are some bits and pieces that we would like sooner like a kitchen table for the bay window (our current table would go into the dining room) but we would have time to save up and there is always xmas presents :). Brian predicts if we do it, it might be a bit tough for the first 2 years but it would only get easier after that. We still need to definitively figure out how much exactly we are paying for student loans but that is on Brian and we need to wait on one more thing. We also may not be able to do as much work around the house as early as we would like but that is okay too...Brian and I know nothing about home decorating and we will want help figuring out what to do and what to pick. That will give you time to come down (or up from Charleston) and help pick things out. Also we should probably live in a house for awhile before we start making changes.
We are still debating what the smartest thing to do with the extra money we save between now and then, if we do this. Brian is leaning towards using it to get the appliances that we want. The washer/dryer would be the cheap ones as that is less important (and replace that possibly later) but getting the fridge and dishwasher we want and maybe get my kitchen table, etc. His thinking is: If we spend 700 on a fridge now and then X on the fridge we want later we will have wasted $700 and same thing for the dishwasher. I am leaning toward either paying off some of the student loans so we have that $50 a month extra or putting it with my 10k and making us get that much closer to an accurate emergency fund. The interest on the house is tax deductible where his student loans aren't. I don't know. Though we have time to figure that out if we decide to do this.
We would definitely would have to change our lifestyle but I don't think we would have to cut out so much that we would not have fun anymore. My fun road trips would not happen as frequently but aren't out of the picture thanks to xmas/bday. Our taxes we figure go towards tiling the floors, finishing the garage, etc. We could definitely be better with food but that will be easier when we actually get a schedule and can stick to it which will happen with the upcoming change. I also can let Brian play his game more rather then watching tv or both of us looking at each other because we want to do something but we cant. I say we cant because there really isnt much we would want to do even if we had all the money in the world and the few things that we could do/want to do cost a lot due to tourists and we are cheap. Buying a home and getting the home we want is worth some sacrifice and Brian and I are willing and wanting to sacrifice for it.
We also love the house and like the lot out of our choices and don't really want to lose it if we can actually do this. We just cant decide if we can do it or not. We can...so I guess the real question is should we do this. And no one is able to tell me that and it is driving me nuts. I am still shocked putting more down hurts us and Brian is shocked they approved us. In his eyes, he thought BofA would run numbers happily but then say a quick and easy "NO" when they looked at everything in terms of approving it. Now it does have to go through an actual underwriter but Bankerman isnt concerned about that. So when they said yes he started to think that maybe we could do it. The Bankerman we have been talking to seems to be really conservative in who he recommends to buy and who he tries to steer clear from it. He kept referring to us like we would make this work easy that we weren't in the situation he sees lots of people are in where $100 will make or break the sale. It was almost as if we were making 100k a year and were concerned about making a $500 dollar a month mortgage work. Though at the same time he wasn't pushy at all. Our conversation last night was him just explaining what everything meant so we could then see if we felt we could do it.
ARG! I don't know why people chose to do this more then once!"
Basically the bank that we are looking at approved us which has shocked Brian. I kind of thought they would. What has shocked me was that putting twice the down payment than what was originally quoted hurts us. The numbers were originally worked up with 7k as a down payment. If we put 14k we would lose a lot of the lenders payments and have to pay 6k more in closing costs. So we will have "extra money" on top of what we are paying for the closing costs and we are stuck on what the smartest thing to do with it as you can see.
I just wish someone would/could tell us whether we should do this or not. We technically can but sometimes just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. If everyone did what they should do and not just what they could do we wouldn't be in this economical mess.
We don't want to miss out on this opportunity if this is what we should do. And I don't think this is a situation where if you should do it the answer is an easy "yes" and if you are having difficulty deciding then the answer is "no". I think buying a house is a hard decision where one never really knows and one only hopes and that any responsible home buyer would have doubts and worries.
And I can't stop looking at the model home pictures....
"We still don't know what to do about the house. We have less then we thought extra (meaning after we pay all our bills and mortgage we do have some money extra just not as much) but we do have some extra. We have also guessed high in some categories like groceries, his cell phone, car insurance, etc so we will have more extra then what is showing. We have estimated $100 a month for water/natural gas and $100 a month of electric. Our heat and stove will be from natural gas and electric for the appliances and AC. We figure those two things will flip. In the summer our gas/water bill will be lower but our electric higher, in the winter electric will be lower but gas/water will be higher. We are also getting a tankless water heater (I think 2 technically) with this house so that should save on electric as well. We won't be able to buy any new furniture which is okay. We don't really need anything new at the moment and I have all the furniture that you guys are bringing down for me. There are some bits and pieces that we would like sooner like a kitchen table for the bay window (our current table would go into the dining room) but we would have time to save up and there is always xmas presents :). Brian predicts if we do it, it might be a bit tough for the first 2 years but it would only get easier after that. We still need to definitively figure out how much exactly we are paying for student loans but that is on Brian and we need to wait on one more thing. We also may not be able to do as much work around the house as early as we would like but that is okay too...Brian and I know nothing about home decorating and we will want help figuring out what to do and what to pick. That will give you time to come down (or up from Charleston) and help pick things out. Also we should probably live in a house for awhile before we start making changes.
We are still debating what the smartest thing to do with the extra money we save between now and then, if we do this. Brian is leaning towards using it to get the appliances that we want. The washer/dryer would be the cheap ones as that is less important (and replace that possibly later) but getting the fridge and dishwasher we want and maybe get my kitchen table, etc. His thinking is: If we spend 700 on a fridge now and then X on the fridge we want later we will have wasted $700 and same thing for the dishwasher. I am leaning toward either paying off some of the student loans so we have that $50 a month extra or putting it with my 10k and making us get that much closer to an accurate emergency fund. The interest on the house is tax deductible where his student loans aren't. I don't know. Though we have time to figure that out if we decide to do this.
We would definitely would have to change our lifestyle but I don't think we would have to cut out so much that we would not have fun anymore. My fun road trips would not happen as frequently but aren't out of the picture thanks to xmas/bday. Our taxes we figure go towards tiling the floors, finishing the garage, etc. We could definitely be better with food but that will be easier when we actually get a schedule and can stick to it which will happen with the upcoming change. I also can let Brian play his game more rather then watching tv or both of us looking at each other because we want to do something but we cant. I say we cant because there really isnt much we would want to do even if we had all the money in the world and the few things that we could do/want to do cost a lot due to tourists and we are cheap. Buying a home and getting the home we want is worth some sacrifice and Brian and I are willing and wanting to sacrifice for it.
We also love the house and like the lot out of our choices and don't really want to lose it if we can actually do this. We just cant decide if we can do it or not. We can...so I guess the real question is should we do this. And no one is able to tell me that and it is driving me nuts. I am still shocked putting more down hurts us and Brian is shocked they approved us. In his eyes, he thought BofA would run numbers happily but then say a quick and easy "NO" when they looked at everything in terms of approving it. Now it does have to go through an actual underwriter but Bankerman isnt concerned about that. So when they said yes he started to think that maybe we could do it. The Bankerman we have been talking to seems to be really conservative in who he recommends to buy and who he tries to steer clear from it. He kept referring to us like we would make this work easy that we weren't in the situation he sees lots of people are in where $100 will make or break the sale. It was almost as if we were making 100k a year and were concerned about making a $500 dollar a month mortgage work. Though at the same time he wasn't pushy at all. Our conversation last night was him just explaining what everything meant so we could then see if we felt we could do it.
ARG! I don't know why people chose to do this more then once!"
Basically the bank that we are looking at approved us which has shocked Brian. I kind of thought they would. What has shocked me was that putting twice the down payment than what was originally quoted hurts us. The numbers were originally worked up with 7k as a down payment. If we put 14k we would lose a lot of the lenders payments and have to pay 6k more in closing costs. So we will have "extra money" on top of what we are paying for the closing costs and we are stuck on what the smartest thing to do with it as you can see.
I just wish someone would/could tell us whether we should do this or not. We technically can but sometimes just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. If everyone did what they should do and not just what they could do we wouldn't be in this economical mess.
We don't want to miss out on this opportunity if this is what we should do. And I don't think this is a situation where if you should do it the answer is an easy "yes" and if you are having difficulty deciding then the answer is "no". I think buying a house is a hard decision where one never really knows and one only hopes and that any responsible home buyer would have doubts and worries.
And I can't stop looking at the model home pictures....
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Our stance at the moment...
Several things have changed since I last posted.
On Saturday we did go see Summerlyn and that got quickly wiped off the list. Brighton may have empty lots but they are all sold. Summerlyn is so new that their model home isn't even finished yet. We don't mind it being new...we just don't want it that new. What happened if that development failed? Plus the lots in phase 1 we did not like at all.
The salesman we met with did re-introduce Glenmoor which is another one of their properties. We had originally ruled them out saying that it was too far. We priced it out and it had the best price for the same thing out of three areas. Plus the lot was HUGE! Our favorite choice so far. So Brian and I went out there. It is far! It is still half way closer to Brian's job but I am driving farther. Not only that, it is no where near anything else either. After some thought, that is out of the question too. We aren't just buying a house to buy a house. And we are not just buying a house because we can afford it. We are buying our home. Our home where we will be bringing future babies home to. We don't want that home to be in the middle of no where even though we will miss that lot.
We are still meeting with BofA, our potential mortgage lender, on Tuesday. He has been very helpful and ran our numbers. We would be doing an FHA loan and he played with 3.5% down so the numbers are high. We have at least 7% down and we have some questions on reading the paperwork so on Tuesday we are going to get more accurate numbers. So far the only one that is still in the running is Brighton. Best location in terms of activities and work and the first house we fell in love with. (Mom, we will not need flood insurance because we are in designation X but we should get it but it should only be about $356 for a year). Who knows if the numbers will work in our favor. We will find out on Tuesday. If not, we continue to save save save until next year where hopefully they will be in phase 4 and we have a better choice of lots then we do now. We have already found lots we would like in phase 4. Or maybe Summerlynn has actually been built up. And we hope the price hasn't risen a lot.
On Saturday we did go see Summerlyn and that got quickly wiped off the list. Brighton may have empty lots but they are all sold. Summerlyn is so new that their model home isn't even finished yet. We don't mind it being new...we just don't want it that new. What happened if that development failed? Plus the lots in phase 1 we did not like at all.
The salesman we met with did re-introduce Glenmoor which is another one of their properties. We had originally ruled them out saying that it was too far. We priced it out and it had the best price for the same thing out of three areas. Plus the lot was HUGE! Our favorite choice so far. So Brian and I went out there. It is far! It is still half way closer to Brian's job but I am driving farther. Not only that, it is no where near anything else either. After some thought, that is out of the question too. We aren't just buying a house to buy a house. And we are not just buying a house because we can afford it. We are buying our home. Our home where we will be bringing future babies home to. We don't want that home to be in the middle of no where even though we will miss that lot.
We are still meeting with BofA, our potential mortgage lender, on Tuesday. He has been very helpful and ran our numbers. We would be doing an FHA loan and he played with 3.5% down so the numbers are high. We have at least 7% down and we have some questions on reading the paperwork so on Tuesday we are going to get more accurate numbers. So far the only one that is still in the running is Brighton. Best location in terms of activities and work and the first house we fell in love with. (Mom, we will not need flood insurance because we are in designation X but we should get it but it should only be about $356 for a year). Who knows if the numbers will work in our favor. We will find out on Tuesday. If not, we continue to save save save until next year where hopefully they will be in phase 4 and we have a better choice of lots then we do now. We have already found lots we would like in phase 4. Or maybe Summerlynn has actually been built up. And we hope the price hasn't risen a lot.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Nora Roberts' Heart of the Sea (Irish Trilogy book 3).
This was the book I finished for May and is the last book in the Irish Trilogy. I even finished it early! I love it when there are five Sundays in a month.
I liked it and enjoyed it but I am getting tired of the same thing happening over and over again. I think that is one of the down sides of Nora Robert's Trilogies or Quartets. The first book is great and then the subsequent books are the same thing just with different characters you met in the first book.
This one was even more irritating. Two people meet, fall in love but don't want/realize it. They spend the whole book dancing around each other once they both realize they do love each other. The man proposes and fumbles his words while the woman OVER reacts, twists his words and tries to push him away. The man fights back and voila they get married and live ever after.
I just don't think I can read her trilogies or quartets anymore...or at least not the subsequent books.
I liked it and enjoyed it but I am getting tired of the same thing happening over and over again. I think that is one of the down sides of Nora Robert's Trilogies or Quartets. The first book is great and then the subsequent books are the same thing just with different characters you met in the first book.
This one was even more irritating. Two people meet, fall in love but don't want/realize it. They spend the whole book dancing around each other once they both realize they do love each other. The man proposes and fumbles his words while the woman OVER reacts, twists his words and tries to push him away. The man fights back and voila they get married and live ever after.
I just don't think I can read her trilogies or quartets anymore...or at least not the subsequent books.
Friday, May 20, 2011
The Lot at Brighton Lakes
Here is my attempt at drawing the lot at Brighton using paint.
The questionable area is between the patio and the easement. Again, we could mow and use the easement as part of our lawn but with toddlers we are going to want to stay either in the front yard or the two side yards. The river is pretty though. The kids aren't going to be toddlers forever and I know my brother and I had a blast playing in the creek by our house growing up. I can imagine lots of fun science themed adventures out there. My house will be prettier then a square...I am not that great at using paint.
The questionable area is between the patio and the easement. Again, we could mow and use the easement as part of our lawn but with toddlers we are going to want to stay either in the front yard or the two side yards. The river is pretty though. The kids aren't going to be toddlers forever and I know my brother and I had a blast playing in the creek by our house growing up. I can imagine lots of fun science themed adventures out there. My house will be prettier then a square...I am not that great at using paint.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Brighton Lakes: The Dream
Please excuse the side-wise pictures. I tried fixing them but it didn't work apparently. It is also very picture heavy and I got a bit wordy at the end. You will also see Brian in his work clothes :)
This is the outside of the house. Take away the brick and make it all the blue paneling and that's what it looks like. It may not be blue...we haven't decided on the color. The part with one window is the 2nd bedroom and the part with the two windows is the two car garage. Based on the lot, imagine those switched.
That's the upgraded front door. While yes it is pretty, we are getting the standard door. We are not sure if we like people being able to look through our front door if we are not home. The door to the right is into the 2 car garage.
View once you step into the front door. The wood is standard. The carpet is upgraded, we will get standard. Immediately to the right you have the half bath and utility room and to the right is the opening to the bottom 2 bedrooms. Ahead is the dining room to the left, stairs to 2nd floor on the right, living room straight ahead.
The above are the series of bedrooms to the left of the front door.
This is the dining room. We love it. Keeping everything the same. Even possibly the brown color on the walls.
The stairway to heaven :)
The living room. Take out the fireplace and make that wall a full 90 angle and add an extra window.
The kitchen is connected to the dining room like it should be.
Make the cabinets birch same color though, take the marble counter top away, put in a gas stove, take out that refrigerator and that is the kitchen. For now the refrigerator is going to be basic but we would upgrade that later as we save for it. Hardwood is standard. Oh, push back the left island a foot so the fridge is actually part of the room and that's what the kitchen. We may put marble in years from now (if we buy it).
View from the kitchen to front of the house.
View of the patio
View of kitchen from living room.
Master bedroom. You get to the master bedroom through the living room. Stairs to the right, living room to the left.
Master bath. We each get our own sink :) Everything is the same here except take out the tile. Tile is being done by our friend who used to do it for a living. Everything in this house that is tile will be vinyl until our friend does it for us.
The ginormous walk-in closet. Seriously...it is almost as big as the bedroom itself.
2nd floor loft option which we are doing. Brian is showing me the secret attic space we hadn't seen before
The utility room and half bath right off of the garage and to the right of where the first 2 bdrms are.
There are a lot of upgrades we have chosen not to do. The tile because we can get it a lot cheaper through our friend. The upgraded carpet because standard is just fine for now. Finishing the garage because while that would be nice it isn't necessary and can be done later relatively easy. Basic appliances except for the gas stove. This gives us time to research, save and buy what we decide is the best refrigerator or washer/dryer or dishwasher for us rather then what the builder thinks is an upgrade. This place is natural gas so we are going to go with a gas stove from the get go as we think that will just make our lives easier and we want to be able to use the natural gas immediately. Also we will be sprucing the place up and adding things and if we can live without the extras and get them put in at a lower cost then what the builder would charge we would be saving money and putting more equity into the home then we would otherwise.
The next house doesn't as many things standard. We can get them but we would have to pay more. Like the hardwood. That is all an upgrade. The siding on the house is vinyl where it is cement fiber board here. The second house is cheaper but not by much. After crunching numbers this place so far is only $7-$60, depending on which calculator you use, more then the Summerlyn one. If we bought one in Summerlyn we would be buying one of the more expensive units in that community which isn't preferred if we ever had to sell. If we bought in Brighton we would be one of the cheapest units in the community which would help us if we had to sell. Our preference is definitely Brighton but we shall see what it looks like in Summerlyn is on Saturday and I will post pictures of that as well. The sales lady for Brighton is putting on a courtesy hold on our lot as she is going out of town until Sunday and doesn't want her colleague selling it in case we wanted to purchase it over the weekend. We are meeting with the VP of Mortgage Lending at BofA on Saturday. He has been very helpful and Brian and I want to sit down and meet with him. We aren't signing anything, we still have a couple more things that need to fall into place before we do anything like that, but we need a face to face chat.
This is the lot plan of Brighton Lakes. We would be lot #82. It is hard to see but on the far left side, on top, there is a cul-de-sac in purple. Right next door there is a cul-de-sac in orange. #82 is the middle on in the cul-de-sac. It is a pie shape. 78ft at the short end, 120ft at the length. The house needs to be set back 20ft due some regulation. The house itself is 70ft. the patio adds another 10ft and so the back yard is about 10 ft wide but really long. Because it is a pie shape the corners are really big and there is a fire hydrant on our property so the garage has to be on the left rather then the right so that makes the right side yard a good size and it has a good sized front yard. There is also a drainage easement as there is a river in the back yard. There is another 10ft wide piece of land right behind ours that we wouldnt own but could mow/take care of and use that as backyard space making it 20ft back there rather then 10. We would have to be careful with little ones as we could only put up a fence at the edge of our 10ft back yard and the river would be a concern but the river might be fun as the kids get older. We are in stroller distance from the pool and community center and the front yard is pretty big so we could probably just play there. Not our dream lot but the best lot they have open. Brian would be fine with less yard. I would have liked to have less side yard and more back yard but you can't always get what you want, especially with your first house. The yard is plenty just not in the exact area I would have liked. It also has road just on the other side of the easement. This road is a very busy road 2 miles before this development but it becomes a two lane road by the time it reaches us and it isn't used as much as you would think. Anyway, you can hear some cars but it is a lot quieter then where we live now and we are further back from the road then this lot. Neither Brian or I think the noise of the cars is an issue.
I have to say the sales lady was very good and patient with me and helpful to me when I was trying to visualize the lot. I forgot to take a picture but I dont think it would do much good. I could see the space but I couldnt see the house on it and I didnt want to agree to buying it if I wasnt sure the lot would work well enough. She showed us as best she could all the lines, was able to follow my thinking and was even able to show us our house type with the garage on the left which is not the standard. She is a sales lady and she is trying to make the sale so one would think that she would do anything especially in this economy but some sales people arent that motivated. She certainly is and definitely made me feel like she was going above and beyond to make sure both of us were sure of what we were thinking about. It was definitely good we walked the lot because we did not know about that easement before.
I will post with more pictures and updates on Saturday.
This is the outside of the house. Take away the brick and make it all the blue paneling and that's what it looks like. It may not be blue...we haven't decided on the color. The part with one window is the 2nd bedroom and the part with the two windows is the two car garage. Based on the lot, imagine those switched.
That's the upgraded front door. While yes it is pretty, we are getting the standard door. We are not sure if we like people being able to look through our front door if we are not home. The door to the right is into the 2 car garage.
View once you step into the front door. The wood is standard. The carpet is upgraded, we will get standard. Immediately to the right you have the half bath and utility room and to the right is the opening to the bottom 2 bedrooms. Ahead is the dining room to the left, stairs to 2nd floor on the right, living room straight ahead.
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| 2nd bdrm with view to front yard on left, 3rd bdrm on right. Bath and closet in the middle |
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| The bedroom on the left |
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| First full bath |
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| Linen closet in First Bath |
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| Coat Closet (builder put too many shelves here) |
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| The closet which is the same in the 2nd bdrm |
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| 3rd bedroom |
The stairway to heaven :)
The kitchen is connected to the dining room like it should be.
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| The table is in a bay window which I love |
Make the cabinets birch same color though, take the marble counter top away, put in a gas stove, take out that refrigerator and that is the kitchen. For now the refrigerator is going to be basic but we would upgrade that later as we save for it. Hardwood is standard. Oh, push back the left island a foot so the fridge is actually part of the room and that's what the kitchen. We may put marble in years from now (if we buy it).
View of the patio
View of kitchen from living room.
Master bedroom. You get to the master bedroom through the living room. Stairs to the right, living room to the left.
Master bath. We each get our own sink :) Everything is the same here except take out the tile. Tile is being done by our friend who used to do it for a living. Everything in this house that is tile will be vinyl until our friend does it for us.
The ginormous walk-in closet. Seriously...it is almost as big as the bedroom itself.
2nd floor loft option which we are doing. Brian is showing me the secret attic space we hadn't seen before
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| 3rd full bath |
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| 4th bdrm which we will use as a computer room |
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| The closet to 4th bedroom |
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| View from down the stairs |
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| I figure we put a nice painting there or something |
There are a lot of upgrades we have chosen not to do. The tile because we can get it a lot cheaper through our friend. The upgraded carpet because standard is just fine for now. Finishing the garage because while that would be nice it isn't necessary and can be done later relatively easy. Basic appliances except for the gas stove. This gives us time to research, save and buy what we decide is the best refrigerator or washer/dryer or dishwasher for us rather then what the builder thinks is an upgrade. This place is natural gas so we are going to go with a gas stove from the get go as we think that will just make our lives easier and we want to be able to use the natural gas immediately. Also we will be sprucing the place up and adding things and if we can live without the extras and get them put in at a lower cost then what the builder would charge we would be saving money and putting more equity into the home then we would otherwise.
The next house doesn't as many things standard. We can get them but we would have to pay more. Like the hardwood. That is all an upgrade. The siding on the house is vinyl where it is cement fiber board here. The second house is cheaper but not by much. After crunching numbers this place so far is only $7-$60, depending on which calculator you use, more then the Summerlyn one. If we bought one in Summerlyn we would be buying one of the more expensive units in that community which isn't preferred if we ever had to sell. If we bought in Brighton we would be one of the cheapest units in the community which would help us if we had to sell. Our preference is definitely Brighton but we shall see what it looks like in Summerlyn is on Saturday and I will post pictures of that as well. The sales lady for Brighton is putting on a courtesy hold on our lot as she is going out of town until Sunday and doesn't want her colleague selling it in case we wanted to purchase it over the weekend. We are meeting with the VP of Mortgage Lending at BofA on Saturday. He has been very helpful and Brian and I want to sit down and meet with him. We aren't signing anything, we still have a couple more things that need to fall into place before we do anything like that, but we need a face to face chat.
This is the lot plan of Brighton Lakes. We would be lot #82. It is hard to see but on the far left side, on top, there is a cul-de-sac in purple. Right next door there is a cul-de-sac in orange. #82 is the middle on in the cul-de-sac. It is a pie shape. 78ft at the short end, 120ft at the length. The house needs to be set back 20ft due some regulation. The house itself is 70ft. the patio adds another 10ft and so the back yard is about 10 ft wide but really long. Because it is a pie shape the corners are really big and there is a fire hydrant on our property so the garage has to be on the left rather then the right so that makes the right side yard a good size and it has a good sized front yard. There is also a drainage easement as there is a river in the back yard. There is another 10ft wide piece of land right behind ours that we wouldnt own but could mow/take care of and use that as backyard space making it 20ft back there rather then 10. We would have to be careful with little ones as we could only put up a fence at the edge of our 10ft back yard and the river would be a concern but the river might be fun as the kids get older. We are in stroller distance from the pool and community center and the front yard is pretty big so we could probably just play there. Not our dream lot but the best lot they have open. Brian would be fine with less yard. I would have liked to have less side yard and more back yard but you can't always get what you want, especially with your first house. The yard is plenty just not in the exact area I would have liked. It also has road just on the other side of the easement. This road is a very busy road 2 miles before this development but it becomes a two lane road by the time it reaches us and it isn't used as much as you would think. Anyway, you can hear some cars but it is a lot quieter then where we live now and we are further back from the road then this lot. Neither Brian or I think the noise of the cars is an issue.
I have to say the sales lady was very good and patient with me and helpful to me when I was trying to visualize the lot. I forgot to take a picture but I dont think it would do much good. I could see the space but I couldnt see the house on it and I didnt want to agree to buying it if I wasnt sure the lot would work well enough. She showed us as best she could all the lines, was able to follow my thinking and was even able to show us our house type with the garage on the left which is not the standard. She is a sales lady and she is trying to make the sale so one would think that she would do anything especially in this economy but some sales people arent that motivated. She certainly is and definitely made me feel like she was going above and beyond to make sure both of us were sure of what we were thinking about. It was definitely good we walked the lot because we did not know about that easement before.
I will post with more pictures and updates on Saturday.
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