I’m finally back to civilization. Well, at least the electronic side that is. Internet and cable finally hooked up in the house, and I think I’ll start writing again.
Before I put a bid in on the house I bought a friend of my said it best. “Buying a house is exciting and terrifying all at the same time”. Boy was he right. Its funny how quickly life can change for someone. This time a year ago, I wasn’t even thinking about buying a house. I think I was out in Wisconsin on a weekend mounting biking trip on epic trails, worrying about how I’m going to get through the weekend before I completely drain my bank account. It was close, I needed an abundance of beer but had to go on the cheap. Mmmm Budweiser. Life was pretty good. Living in Uptown enjoying the scenery. Thats when things started changing. We got word that our landlord is gonna move into our apt. in the house that he owns and we had 6 months. Of course we procrastinated and waited probably until a couple months left to start looking. We had a 3rd person in with us at this point and our search efforts were pretty half assed. It got to the point where we all were like “Welp, looks like I’m moving back home with the rents for awhile”. My dad started throwing out the “house” word. At first I was like, yea right. Not a chance. At that time I had no idea about the first time homebuyers credit. After discussing that and how he’d help out with some finances initially I went to a Loan Officer. After finding out I was approved by myself I was getting pretty stoked about this whole thing. The hunt was on.
Lets get one thing straight, I was approved for a small sum. I was looking at foreclosed houses. For the majority of the houses one word. Sad. Houses that could have been very nice destroyed on the inside. This one house had like 5 pay phones in the garage. I didn’t look at a lot, actually my house was one I looked at on the first day. Probably just over a dozen homes. Some should have been condemned. I kept coming back to the same house. Looked at it 3 times. I remember sitting on the couch crunching numbers over and over again. Sweaty palms right before I made the call to my agent to put in the bid. I made the call, and the next day I started the process of signing my life away. Talk about a mountain of paperwork. I can’t stand signing documents. I loathe it. I remember starting that and my real estate agent looked at me funny. “Thats your signature?” I felt like an idiot. Since then I’ve gotten a little better at it, but still hate it. The offer was put in and the waiting game began.It was probably 3 weeks before I heard from the seller. Final price was settled and sale was approved. Locked in my interest rate a couple weeks later and headed to closing. Now, I’ve heard horror stories at closing including my parents first home. Thanks mom for that lovely story right before my closing. But, all in all it went very smooth. 45 minutes and the keys were mine. I like to think I had an awesome team working for me, and they made the experience very smooth.
I spent about 2 months working on the house before I moved in. Every free moment of my life was here. Mt. biking? Whats that? I think I forgot how to pedal two wheels. New windows, paint on every wall and ceiling, re-finished hardwood floors, new cabinet hardware, tiling. And thats just the upstairs!! It was a lot of work, but well worth it. Buying a house has been the best thing I’ve done with my life to date. Throw on Unce Sam basically giving me free money, why not? There were moments of uncertainty and fear. I think that goes for most people that buy their first home. But for the most part, its been great. I love my house, and love Menards. I can’t wait to expand the brewing project even more.
