Ok, so, this post has been overdue for about 2 1/2 weeks but me being horrible about blogging in a timely manner, mixed with how BUSY I've been will make it so I'm just now writing this! (oh and I'm only sitting down with enough time to write bc I have a gosh awful cold right now-blah!
Back to the great news- yes, we bought a house!!!!!!!! We had been looking at areas all around the Bay for about a year, but we soon realized that our criteria did not match the price range out here. We needed to stay in the Bay because of hubby's job; in the long run it would be by far best for us to stay here then to be relocated anywhere else (like say, vegas or texas where we have family). We knew some friends who lived in the area and whenever we asked them about how they liked living here they raved about it. It is a very understated area and most who don't know about it or who are a bit "bay snobby" would NEVER move here but they are crazy, lol. It's such a nice community feel here, and we have a huge house, with a huge yard, and our kids have great schools! It's safe and beautiful and for people like hubby who would commute no matter where they lived, this area is also great because there's public trans that takes you anywhere in the bay, south bay, san fran, east bay, anywhere! Hubby takes the train into San Jose and his drive from home to the station is the same as it was when we lived in San Ramon and he drove to the Pleasanton train station. Really the only "negative" is that I no longer have stores to make "quick trips" close to me. They are all about 6 miles away, which is really not the most awful thing, I mean, people who live in mountains (tahoe and crestline and lake arrowhead) have to travel a waaaayyyys to get to the nearest store, but they love where they live and so do we!
So, here's the story of how we found our house. We had been looking at real estate websites like trulia and realtor and saw that there was an abundant amount of properties for sale that met our criteria so we felt comfortable knowing that when we were ready to take the plunge we would have plenty to choose from. Boy were we wrong! We thought this was a buyers market with all the inventory but what those sites don't tell you is that a property on their site can be "pending short sale" and won't tell you because they only show completed sales or homes in the "market." As a result, all those houses we saw on those websites were actually pending sale because most of them were short sales! We were driving around the area and noticed we saw a lot of signs of "coldwell banker" on homes that were for sale so I decided to just call them and ask them for their website so I can see what they had in their office. Now these local websites DO show you when a house is "pending short sale approval" and when it's a "regular sale" and much to our disappointment most of the houses they had listed were awaiting approval. :( I called them back and asked what we can do to set up an appointment with a broker from their office (we had a broker but she was not familiar with the area as she works in san jose and was helping us out because her husband works with my hubby) and the person who had picked up my last call was a broker and he let me in on a "secret" property. Basically his wife is also a realtor and she had clients who were about to put their house on the market and he asked his wife for pictures of the house and sent them to us to see if we would be interested in the house. As soon as we got those pictures, we FELL IN LOVE! It was everything we had wanted and didn't think we would get! We knew that in the area the houses are newer construction and as a result most have small back yards, and finding a house with enough bedrooms for guests was going to be a challenge but this house had it all! We told him that as soon as his wife had the green light to list it to please let us know and at the very first open house we would go and view it. His wife set up an open house, on a late friday morning (not exactly the best time for a house to attract traffic but that was the point!) and we were the first and only ones to see the house, as soon as we got done seeing it we drove to the office and wrote up our offer!
From there it was an ever so long, seemingly neverending two month wait before we would go through all the inspections, approvals from sellers bank, approval from our lending bank, having documents signed and sent, sending more documents and blah blah blah.... we FINALLY signed at the title company on November 1st and November 6th we got our keys!!!! From there it has been so busy with cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, painting, painting some more, buying furniture and just trying to get settled that it has just been exhausting. We are so happy to be in our new home and although I have TONS of ideas on what I want to do to make it "our own" for now, I'm just so elated to have the house and it's ours, we have the house we always dreamed of and sometimes I still can't believe we live here now. Oh, and just to make sure everyone knows, we could NOT have done this move without the help of my amazing mom and step dad! They flew out from vegas just to help us with the move AND it just so happened to be Alyssa's birthday that weekend so it was amazing to have them here with us. Thanks guys for all your help, we love you!!!!
So, here's the specs of the house: it's a 5 bedroom plus a loft, 4 full bathroom two story house, 3 car garage, it is a modern craftsman style (my absolute favorite!!!) it has a HUGE lot so we have a loooong driveway and a biiiiiigggg back yard! (swing set anyone?!?) It's almost 3000 sq. ft 2968 to be exact ;) and it has all the space we need and then some! I have a laundry room with so much counter space and cabinets and a sink! The kitchen has a gigantic island and we have all stainless steel appliances and the fridge we bought is to die for, it's a french door style with water/ice dispenser and it's just awesome. (Who knew appliances would make this girl so happy?) It has a formal living room which we have turned into a playroom! I'm probably most happy about the playroom and the back yard. My babies needed the space to play and we didn't have that in the teeny tiny condo aka matchbox. We have given our princess her own princess room and our little guy has a dinosaur bedroom. The master bedroom is huge and we will eventually get all new furniture in there because our current set looks so teeny tiny in that room (we have a queen sized bed two nightstands and a dresser; that's it. LOL)
This post is super duper long and if you've read all this, you must be bored or really love us to be interested in our journey that has made us homeowners. Enough writing and let's get to the pictures! :)))
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