I have to admit, I am the best at playing the "What If...?" game, especially when monumentally huge decisions lie on the horizon. I have hypothesized about every negative outcome possible regarding the new house.

"What if the appraisal comes back low?"
"What if the seller won't make repairs?"
"What if the seller's decide to take the house off the market?"

I think I am to the point where I have driven myself everyone crazy within a three mile radius with decent hearing. Heaven forbid I actually think positive and get what I want...that's crazy talk!

This week, I applied for the home loan and ran into a bit of a snafu regarding my closing costs. Everyone and their mom has been telling me I can borrow my closing costs, turns out that is not true according to my loan officer, Paula. Paula decided to tell me this as I was signing my loan application where I immediately had a minor meltdown...there were tears. I have been prepared to pay my down payment this whole time, but another $3600 on top of that, not so much. In the midst of my breakdown, Paula came up with the idea to raise the price of the house and then ask for help with closing costs from the seller which thankfully they accepted.

If you every want to feel unintelligent, try buying a house...it really makes your brain hurt. Overwhelming can't even begin to describe how I feel when contemplating the financials of getting this house locked up.

Hopefully this week I can stop Googling information about FHA appraisals and just relax. I should hear something by the second week of March if everything is going the way it should.

Chris and I have mapped out the next couple of weekends to prepare for the March 21st closing date...this coming weekend we are going to go to the Home and Garden Show at America's Center, then the next two weekends are going to be spent furniture shopping for the living room and bedroom. My parents are gifting us a washer and dryer (thank jeebus!) so we really don't need any appliances just yet. I almost bought some dishes today but I felt like I might jinx myself if I did. I plan on making a post later about what I am thinking design wise for the living, dining, bath, and bedrooms.  I think I have some good ideas brewing..back with more.

Gotta love three day weekends! I slept in this morning, went and browsed for some appliances, ate lunch with Chris, and made a leisurely Target run....my kinda day! I definitely have to think about work tomorrow since I neglected to think about it last week in the midst of signing a house contract, a tech conference, and parent teacher conferences. Hopefully I will be able to knock out my 4 days of plans in no time at all tonight...or tomorrow.

My Target run was very successful...I bought these cute platform sandals, I just couldn't resist, with the 70 degree weather today and the fact that they were only $9.98! I practically skipped to the checkout counter. These shoes are getting me excited to dress up for work again. The winter really makes my work clothes turn into more of a uniform..khaki pants, long sleeve shirt, Northface, tennis shoes, rinse and repeat. During the fall and spring I love dressing up for school, planning my outfits out for the week. Hopefully by spring break I will be sporting these puppies as well as some capris or maybe even a dress or two, which Target had some very cute ones as well. P.S. I really want to go shopping!

Chris and I went had our home inspection yesterday and things went well. Nothing is majorly wrong except for a leaky kitchen faucet and garbage disposal that needs to be replaced. The home inspector said he was even impressed with all the updates that had been made to the house. However, the AC, heat, and water heater were all over the age of 18, yikes! Hopefully, we can get some kind of home protection plan thrown back in to the agreement because it sounds like we're going to need it. Tomorrow I am meeting with the mortgage people to get that ball rolling. It's all happening!

My day off tomorrow is going to consist of organizing and cleaning my heart out...I pretty much neglected everything last week because it was so crazy. Thank you Mr. George Washington for this little slice of heaven I call a 4-day work week, hope you enjoy yours!

I have been a homeowner for about 48 hours now and already I've got enough DIY projects scheduled 'til 2020. I keep pouring over the online pictures of our house trying to scope out every detail. Since I have only actually seen the house once I am going a little crazy thinking about all the details I can't see or remember completely.

My new favorite blog is Young House Love. The couple who runs this site are an inspiration and it is one of the most well organized blogs I have ever seen. They have an awesome list of all their home projects even a room-by-room list of all their furniture, paint, and knick-knacks. If you have some time definitely take a look.

I don't want to post any pictures yet because I only have the ones from Zillow which still have the seller's furniture and stuff in them. My preference would be to take pics once they move out but I just don't know if I can wait. Our inspection is on Saturday at 10am, I plan on doing some measuring for a new refrigerator and furniture. I am pining over this beauty...stainless steel, french doors, roah, roah, roah (that's my Tim Allen grunt, I have been doing it quite a bit.)

And I have been scouting out a dining room table, I am definitely thinking counter height, but can't decide on how tall, hopefully my measuring spree will help me get some more plans together. I have the day off on Monday and I can just see it now...Lowe's, Weekend's Only, Bed Bath & Beyond...I just don't know if we'll have enough time.

I'm really excited for Chris to see the house...oh, I didn't mention that I bought a  house without my mate seeing it? Oh well I totally did! He saw the pictures of course and I am sure he will like it but I think he is a little nervous.

And the craft projects running through my mind....holy moly, my Cricut is going to be working overtime. I whipped up another monogrammed wine bottle, that's actually two for the week...my first paying customers! The one I did tonight turned out well, I used a pretty Blue Fish Riesling bottle, which was blue glass instead of green.

So much exciting stuff...I'm glad tomorrow's Friday so I can finally unwind from the whirlwind of a week. Back with more!

When I started this blog, I struggled to come up with a title (I was never a very creative person). I had just moved home to my parents' house, fresh out of college, and looking for a job. When searching for a name I kept thinking about my favorite songs or more particularly my favorite singer/songwriter, John Mayer. Then entered my mind, his song "Home Life". Today I am proud to say that the title I chose almost 3 years ago is now even more suiting because....



I BOUGHT A HOUSE!

I officially hate the expression above. I don't like to leave things to chance..I am a leave no rock unturned, no question unanswered, no messing around type of gal. Especially when big decisions are at hand. My post from last week about house hunting definitely jumped up a notch this past weekend...I put a freakin' offer on a house! The fact that I put in writing that I am willing to take out a loan for a number that has far too many zeros still quite hasn't hit me yet. And I had no idea on how fast everything would move...my seller's counter offered and now I have until tomorrow to accept/counter again. I could potentially be closing by March 21st! I am waiting to hear back from my potential lenders on closing costs and other financials but things seem promising.

 Today is also Valentine's Day, did you do anything special? Chris and I celebrated Friday night with dinner and seeing Just Go With It..which was surprisingly good. Some lovely flowers were also waiting for me once I got home from work today... my camera was too fuzzy to make them look nice so here the stock picture from the website. They were beautiful! I am off to a two day conference as well as parent teacher conferences as well...such a long week ahead, with many decisions!

This past weekend I spent some more time with one of my new favorite people, my realtor! We hit the pavement hard down in the city, looking at 10 potential houses. A couple I knew right away would not be for me...like the one with a room the size of a closet and bathroom in the middle of the basement, no doors, no walls, just a toilet, sink, and shower...no thank you!

I have really learned how to interpret the real estate ads as well, for instance: "charming" means so small gnomes can't even live there, "meticulously maintained" means someone older than Methuselah lived here and kept all the original furnishings from 1954.

So far, I am really enjoying the house hunt, this weekend definitely improved my spirits about what I will be able afford and find in the city. My mom and I plan on going out again this Sunday to see a few more, while I am in no rush I feel like I could be a home owner sooner rather than later. It's all so very exciting...I keep dreaming about decorating my new house, picking paint colors, buying little knick-knacks, but then I almost give myself a panic attack thinking about a mortgage payment and what if the water heater breaks and how will I pay for it and my master's classes? AHH...ok not a homeowner yet. I have issued a challenge to myself to try and live like I have already bought my new house, it will be hard but it should allow me to save more money and give me a good dose of reality. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Back with more!

After being hyped up for the past 4 days, the "Storm of the Century" came and is now on its way out. The 12-15 inches of snow we were supposed to have turned out to be way more sleet than expected which lessened our snow totals down to about 3-5 inches...it is still snowing now (about midnight) so who knows what it will be like when I wake up. I feel a little let down, I wasn't alive for the '82 snowstorm in St. Louis so after hearing about how massive it was I thought it would have been neat to see a record amount of snow. Oh well...

Another day off lead to some productive activity around the house, mostly of the organizational kind. Hell must be about ready to freeze over because Chris finally let me organize his bills electronically! I am completely paper free when it comes to organizing and paying my bills, I receive one paper bill a month for my car payment and that is because they don't offer paperless statements. Chris on the other hand receives about a tree's worth of paper every week in the mail, it is insane. And watching him pay bills is another headache, writing out checks, addressing envelopes, PAYING to pay your bills...the sight is maddening. While he isn't paper free by a long shot, he did make some gigantic strides today.

Hopefully we will be seeing less of these...

Speaking of bills...did I mention I have started to look for a house? Oh yes, I have begun the search. Over my last snow day, I decided that I needed to figure out if I was "loan worthy" and get pre-approved for home loan. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I...little ol' teacher me, would be approved for a home loan. But apparently this gal has amazing credit and lending companies would be delighted to loan me money for my own patch of land. So now that I realize that it is way more doable than previously thought I have found a realtor and visited some houses in South City. Nothing has struck my fancy yet, (pictures online are VERY deceiving) but I have a feeling once I find a house I will have a hard time not pursuing it. When I want something, I want it...NOW.