You Get What You Pay For...

I swear I have officially learned my lesson when it comes to hairdressers... You pay for what you get! With all this talk of buying a house I was trying my best to not over pay for getting my hair trimmed and colored.  3 hours later I walked out of the hair salon with 1 highlight, a trim and a soaking wet t-shirt.  I am not going to bad mouth the place I went to, but I am so glad that for one of the first times in my life I stood up for myself and demanded the price be changed for the services that were not done correctly.

It is as if getting ready to buy a house (which may be happening sooner than we originally thought, so stay tuned!) has made me more financially bad ass.  "That's my money and I want what I deserve for it!"  This may not be a bad attitude to have when buying a house.  We are giving up a lot of hard saved cash, we should get what we want for it.

As of right now our list has not changed.  We have gotten more information on our favorite house that makes us a little more hesitant, but I think at this point we just need to see it.  Even though it is a lot of money we've worked very hard to save, short of building our own house, we will never find the perfect house for us.  We just have to make sure we're getting what we pay for.  My hair will grow back, I have lots of headbands and t-shirts for that matter.  Once you're in a house though, that's it.  No getting money back before leaving the store.

First Home: The want, the need, the this is what you'll getBe

As mentioned yesterday, at the end of March Jarrod and I will be going to the bank so that we can get pre-approved for our very first home loan so that we may begin looking at houses. Of course we have been scoping out homes online, but some houses only have a few pictures and they're usually of the front door, the bathroom and maybe the living room.  I need details people!

A lot of what will most likely end up in these blogs posts about us buying a house will be old news to people.  For me, I looking forward to seeing what we thought we knew about buying a house, versus what really ends up happening.  Jarrod and I have watch so many episodes of Property Virgins we feel as if perhaps we're less of one but none the less it's never going to be the same as on TV I am sure...

So let's begin with what we want/what we need... and based on online research, what we'll most likely end up with:

What We Want/Need:

• A small patch of grass(need).  It could be 3 feet by 3 feet, but if the dogs can pee on it, that's good enough for me.  Honestly for me (and I am sure Jarrod too) nothing will be more wonderful than simply opening a door and letting our furkids run out to use the restroom.  No more leashes, no more elevators, no more picking up poop in little bags(don't worry, we'll still pick it up!) 
• 3 bedrooms(want)/2 bedrooms(need). Ideally we'd like to have 3 bedrooms so that once our family expands by 2 legs there is still a place for guests (cough cough come visit cough cough).  Jarrod has recounted "fond" childhood memories of getting kicked to the couch when aunts and uncles came over, so it's doable, but to make the house last longer, 3 would be better.
• Hardwood floors(want). I really dislike carpet in a house.  Maybe it's the dogs, maybe it's wanting what we never really had, but either way I love me some wooden floors.  The wider the planks the better!  Wooden floors are cool in the summer, which is good here in Houston. In the winter when they're also cool, that's what awesome, brightly colored area rugs are for.  The only downside to wooden floors for me is the clicking of the dogs' nails on the floors.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
• Open floor plan(want). It seems this is on a lot of people's wish list and in a city it makes perfect sense.  If you're going to be restricted by how much space you can own in an urban area, wouldn't it be nice for all that space to be open and flowing and feeling like you have more than you do?  Jarrod and I only really use our living room and kitchen, so having them all in one space would be ideal.  Plus we love to have people over, and based on all the shows we've watched, an open floor plan is ideal for that.
• Projects(wants). Again with all the HGTV we've been watching, Jarrod and I are biting at the bit to get our hands on some ugly cabinets or some worn out tiles and make each room truly our own.  What we are not eager to do is a major renovation, or structural fix so the projects need to be small... but awesome.
• Bedrooms on the same floor(need). We would feel most comfortable if the bedrooms were all on the same level so that the family was near by.  In the future we don't want to have to go down or up flights of stairs for upset children or in the far future mischievous children.  

What We Will Most Likely Get: (based on research and homes we have visited of friends in the area):

• A yard that has no grass and only a small concrete patio.  While there are many homes with grass, the fact of the matter is there are way more homes that are inside units and so have no grassed side yard. We'd have to pull up the concrete so that the dogs had some place to pee because pee on concrete is noooooo good!
• 2 bedrooms is probably the most likely situation.  Because our area caters to young professionals there tends to not be a need for 3+ bedrooms.  Builders have capitalized on this and usually offer large master bedroom suites and while these are awesome, for Jarrod and I they seem like more wasted space than anything else.
• Hardwood floors may actually happen!  Based on what we've seen online many of the available homes have hardwood floors at least in the living areas.  We may need to eventually add it to the bedrooms, but that's a project we're confident we could do ourselves... or with Jarrod's cousin Ben's help :)
• Open floor plan is again another good possibility.  See the reason for the large master bedroom above and that would explain good areas to entertain.
• Projects may or may not happen.  We are nervous about any house in our area that is old enough to have projects because they are also old enough to need major work.  Most housing in our area is either VERY old or fairly new.  We'd feel silly pulling up counter tops that were fine and new, just not our favorite.  That seems like a waste of money.
• Bedrooms on the same floor. This may be the most difficult thing to find.  Our area is mostly townhouses and to make so many fit on one block they have made them very tall and very skinny.  What is typical is a bedroom on the first floor, living on the 2nd and the master on the 3rd.  There is no way we would be comfortable with future kids on the entry level floor, 2 flights down from us.  This may be the deal breaker for most places we look at.

Next up... How do we go about buying a house?! And other serious questions...

Time to Keep Track

Yesterday before Jarrod went off to work for hopefully one of the last night shifts of his life (I'll get there, give me a second) we took a look at the calendar and realized that though March has yet to begin we have basically filled every moment of it.  You name it, we've got it going on.  Not all bad things, just every moment being used to the max.  At the end of all of it Jarrod and I hope to take a huge, HUGE, step in our lives... but again, I'll get to that.

Allow me to explain about Jarrod's new job since that's probably all you've been thinking about since I mentioned it above.  About 2 months ago Jarrod got word that there was a job opportunity within his company that would fit him quite perfectly.  Jarrod had been working on becoming a green belt (the GE company thinking kind, not a ninja) and his mentor saw that this new job was available and suggested he apply to it.  It is project management and the way I understand it is that any time a project of any sort needs to happen at one of the MANY plants his company runs, he and his group makes it happen.  They don't complete the project, but rather find the people, resources, and time to do it.  Especially for big projects, this becomes a huge undertaking to make sure that an entire plant full of people are on board and have the time to get things done.  The best part of the job I have noticed is the fire proof jeans... No I kid.. I kid... No the best part about the job other than the promotion potential and exciting work is the normal schedule.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, my husband will be coming home every night! I am so proud that he worked so hard to move on from his initial position with Praxair and I am so glad that he was able to find something within his company so that he had a smooth transition.  Way to go Jarrod :)

Now about that crazy month of March.  This is where the keeping of track needs to begin.  Oddly enough one of the reasons March is so busy is because it is our first full month of Track.  So far we have had 1 track meet and it was absolutely freezing.  We also have a very young team who is used to being the super stars of their middle school and are only slowly adapting to second place.  Yeah, as if second place was so bad.  Last weekend's meet was canceled due to major rain and this weekend's meet is 2 days long.  Woo who doesn't love track season?!  All but one of the weekends in March is filled with either a 1, 2 or sometimes even a 3 day track meet.

Ok so that's only 5 days in the month, not that much to keep track of.  As I mentioned, the month is super busy, but not all worked related.  March in Texas means several things.  Spring break for schools, warmer weather inching in and the Rodeo! This year Jarrod and I have been told, I mean highly suggested to, that we need to go to the Rodeo since we "missed" it last year.  So during Spring Break we will be attending 1 day of the Rodeo...yeeehaw!  The rest of Spring Break will be filled with wine tasting, birthday celebrations, packing (patience still...) and most likely prepping for the last push of the school year. That's right, this year it's back to even digits for me(which I prefer much more than odd years).  I already know it will be filled with all kinds of wonderful events including another 1/2 marathon.  Yup, that's in March too... Woo!

If you're still paying attention, 1 I applaud and appreciate you, and 2 I bet you're wondering what I'll be packing for during Spring Break.  Obviously if it's happening during Spring Break it's not for Spring Break.  Nope, this year we're not going anywhere fancy.  The main reason we're not going anywhere is because we wanted to save a lot of money for when we get ready for our next HUGE step and that is to BUY A HOUSE!!! A more detailed post about our up coming search is on it's way for sure, but for now know that I am going to use Spring Break to begin packing and purging things we don't use currently.  I figure if we can be semi packed by the time a decision is made it will make for a more smooth move.  I am so excited for this event to happen, I am not however, excited to pack again.  Hopefully this will be the last time for many years.

I am planning to keep track of much of our home buying process. From what we want, to how we get it and what's it's like once we're in.  I want to "write" it all down so Jarrod and I can look back this fall and realize how (hopefully) successful we were in our 3rd major adult life decision(marriage and move being the first 2 if you were wondering).

Next up... Dream House!