Home Buying 101

Hi folks! So onto the other news in our lives. We are now getting all settled into the idea of starting our family. So what’s next? Of course my wheels start turning on the next big thing right?! Lol

We have always rented homes; we never thought we could afford to buy one especially since we didn’t have a large down payment saved. But I started doing some research and found out we were waaay over paying on our rent. For what we were paying we could easily have owned that home and then some. So I did some research on FHA loans and realized we only needed 3.5% down. We had that! So I called our bank and got pre-approved for way more than I thought we would…now to find a realtor. I emailed my realtor friend that works on a lake a few hours from us (Hi Keri!) and asked if she knew anyone closer that she could refer us to.

Enter Paula! She and I hit it off from the very first phone call. Not a shocker since Keri and I hit it off the first time we met too and Keri said I’d love her. So I told Paula our criteria and she sent us a listing of houses that night. Brett and I decided to go do some driving around on our own first to check out some of them and then schedule viewings if we found any we liked.

The very first house we looked at was a brand new, never been lived in home on a GIANT lot, which we really wanted. Some of the neighbors saw us peeking in the window and let us in through the garage door. So we snuck around the house and fell in love. We looked the rest of the day and just didn’t find much that compared that was is in our price range.

So we scheduled a few viewings with Paula one day that next week, one of them being the house we loved. Brett got stuck at work and missed the first house we looked at, which was nice and had a great lot on a golf course. The problem was it was at the top of our price range and being built in the 70’s it needed a lot of work on the bathrooms. Avocado green tub and vanity in the master?! No thank you! Next we went to the house we had already seen to do a viewing with the builder. We didn’t tell them we had already snuck around in it  Brett was able to meet up with us there and we asked our questions and got all kinds of info about the house. It had a lot of upgrades and a lot of perks. Brett was SOLD! I loved it but we hadn’t looked at very many homes and what are the chances that we would buy the FIRST house we looked at?! I was not ok with making a big decision like that without seeing all the homes that we could.

Brett kept saying “I REALLLY want that first house we looked at” but I pressed on with the search. We looked at about 100 more homes online, Paula sent like 10 different listings with like 10 homes on each listing. We narrowed it down to a few more and we scheduled a viewing on one and a second viewing with the home that we loved. This time we brought my dad, who is Mr. Hard-Hitter with the questions. The other house we looked at sucked. The floor plan was no good, and the carpet was in bad shape and the houses were really close together. We went to the second viewing on the dream home and dad asked all his questions. Making the builder and Paula work hard to get them all answered. We left there totally in love still. My dad on the other hand was skeptical because it was at the top of our price range. He wanted us to get a foreclosure so we would have built in equity from the beginning. There were just no decent ones in our area with the lot size we wanted.

So we decided to put in an offer. Brett and I had tickets to a NBA game that night so we were hoping to be distracted and not waiting by the phone for an answer. Well halfway through the first period Paula called with an answer. Here I am pregnant running up and down the stairs taking her calls! Lol Our offer was rejected and the battling began! After what seemed like an eternity (2 days I think) we finally came to an agreement.

We move fast apparently because 3 weeks from the day I talked to Paula on the phone for the first time we were signing a contract on our VERY FIRST HOME! WOW! Can this be real?! Are we under contract? I swear just a few weeks ago we had just casually started talking about buying a house! Closing was set for just 3 weeks after that. So 6 weeks total… from start to finish we bought our dream house! Well not 100% dream house, that’ll come later in life when we move to a lakefront house  But this is by far and away way more than we ever dreamed we would be able to buy. So I’d say its our dream house for our first home. 4 bedroom, 2.5 baths, game room, soccer field size backyard and 2500 square feet. It was all ours!

Our little baby now had a place to come home from the hospital to that we owned. We have a place to raise our children in. It still amazes me sometimes. It feels like a fairytale! Here are some pics of the new crib! Next post, is little Peanut a boy or a girl?!

Our Story- Part 4

Well here we are again! Continuing with Our Story. So I just found out I was pregnant, and I had to leave to go to work and pretend like it was a normal day. I really wanted to wait and tell Brett in person in some super cool way. So off to work I go, just beaming sunshine! I made my normal call to Brett on the way to work, but I was so afraid I'd slip or he'd be able to tell something was going on by the sound of my voice so I kept the call really short.

I honestly have no clue how I got through that day. It was all I could think about! And since I didn't want to tell anyone before Brett I kept it my secret all day... but I would say it out loud in my office by myself just so I could say it. "I'm pregnant!!" hahaha! "Holy Crap! I am PREGNANT!!!" I started googling "Cool ways to tell your husband you are pregnant". I came up with like 100 different things I could do, but none of them really sounded good. I get off work at 6:00, but if you know me you know I never leave work on time...I am doing good to get out by like 6:30-6:45. Not that day!! I was shutting off the computer at 5:59! lol

On my way home I was going through all the options of how to tell Brett. Cook a meal of everything "baby" size, write it on my belly with lipstick, all the silly things I read online. But since it was eating me alive I decided to just keep it simple.

I got home, gave him a quick kiss and went to change. Put on my lounging pants and slid the positive test in the waist band and covered it with my shirt. Brett was busy playing PlayStation so he wasn't paying too much attention. I went and sat next to him and asked him to pause it. He did. I said, "I have something for you" and he said "Oh yeah?". With my hands shaking like a leaf I pulled the positive test out and handed it to him. For a second he took it and was like, what am I supposed to do with this? He hadn't looked down at it to see the word "PREGNANT" on the test. So I said, "IM PREGNANT!!". He said with a huge smile "NO WAY!!!" and he looked down at the test. I turned on the bright overhead light so he could see it better and said yes I am!! Of course I was bawling, and he was just smiling from ear to ear...oh and there was lots and lots of hugging! I told him about my morning and how the first cheap test showed a faint line and all that jazz. He was so proud that I went all day long without telling anyone. I am not known for keeping exciting secrets! It was a wonderful night of smiles, hugs, and celebration! We were finally going to have our little family!

We had always talked about how we would tell our family. I really wanted to tell our families together. We wanted to wait until we had a doctor appt to get confirmation, and my appt was the next day. Well Thanksgiving was coming up in a few weeks so we decided to wait and tell everyone on Thanksgiving. Damn, how are we going to go a few weeks without telling our moms??? Thats going to be impossible!

I went to the doctor the next day and did the blood test, and then scheduled an appointment for a few days later to go see the Dr. In between those 2 appointments I took several more at home test just to make sure! lol I finally got to my Dr appt where they would tell me if in fact I was pregnant... man I was so excited! Brett couldn't get off work so I went alone. As soon as I signed in the receptionist told me to go pee in a cup before my appointment, and to continue to do so for every appointment from here on out. So does that mean the blood test came back positive?? The nurse came in and did the blood pressure thing, and asked if this was my first baby? I said "Yes, and does that mean the test was positive?" She said "OH, you haven't gotten your results yet?" I told her no, and asked if they were positive? She said, "Well I'll let the doctor go over all that with you." UGGGHH!! Just someone tell me yes! Even though I was like 99.9% sure, I needed to hear someone say it! lol So the Dr comes in with a huge smile on her face and says "HI Leila!! You're pregnant!!" and gives me a giant hug!! We went over all the stuff I needed to know and scheduled my next appointment for a month.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving... Yep that means we made it through the few weeks without telling our parents!! Now we did tell a few friends before then, we just couldn't hold it in! But we kept it as quiet as possible. So I charged my video camera the day before Thanksgiving and had a plan on how we were going to do it. Brett's mom, dad, sister and uncle were there and then my mom showed up. I wanted to tell all of them before the rest of the family got there. I wanted it to be a small intimate group of people and not aunts, cousins etc. So there we were all standing around in the kitchen talking, cooking and all that. I got the video camera out and started taping. I said "Here we are at Thanksgiving 2009 at Brett and Leila's. Say Hi everyone!" they all said hi to the camera. The I asked my mom "Mom, what are you thankful for this year?" She said "I am thankful for my daughter's happiness!" Wow, she doesn't even know how good of an answer that was! lol Then once again with my hand shaking like a leaf, I panned back to try to get everyone in the shot and said, "Y'all know what I am thankful for?" they replied, what? "I am thankful that I am PREGNANT!!". The look on their faces was so priceless!! No one had expected me to say that! My mom didn't move a muscle, just stood there speechless. And if you know my mom she is NEVER speechless! (that's where I get it from I guess)My sister-in-law just stood there with her mouth hanging open and my mother-in-law ran towards me to hug me with excitement! I was so glad I captured it all on film, our baby will be so glad to be able to watch it someday.

It was the most amazing Thanksgiving that any of us have ever had. We had so much fun telling family members as they came over that day. Later that evening we went to Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunts on my dad's side and told my dad. I swear he kinda knew already. I guess I am too easy to read! We then made all our phone calls to friends to share the news...all in all it was just the most perfect day.

Well that concludes today's post! Next time I will finish catching y'all up to speed (hopefully). We have had a few more major things happen in our life since the baby came in the picture. I'll also get to the belly pics, and the sonogram pics soon too! Promise!