The Story of our House

This is the timeline/run down of how it all went down:

Monday, March 7th- Cody found a house that showed up on Zillow. After work we met our Realtor Garth Jones there so we could look at it. We both really liked it, but decided to sleep on it but both of us pretty much knew that it was the one. 

Tuesday, March 8th- We went to Garth's office and put an offer on the house. It was a bank owned foreclosure and found out that they weren't accepting offers until it showed up on the MLS which happened to be today, how perfect is that? 

Wednesday, March 9th- They (Fannie Mae, the bank that owns the house) accepted our offer, but did counter offer. We offered them less than asking price and they came back with a price in the middle of our offer and asking price so we accepted : ) The house is ours or so we thought.

Thursday, March 10th-  Fannie Mae got another offer and even though they already accepted our offer it didn't matter. To keep from losing the house we offered them their full asking price (which is still a steal) and increased our earnest money to show them that we were really serious. 

Friday, March 11- We didn't hear back from the bank today like we were suppose to which typically means they didn't accept our offer. We lost the house...

Saturday, March 12- The Realtor for the house contacted our realtor and told him we would have a decision by Monday. Whew!! At least we were still contenders, but all this yes and no and waiting was killing us in the meantime.

Monday, March 14th- I was literally checking my phone and my email every 10 seconds at work today waiting to hear back. I got off work around 4 sad and discouraged thinking that we didn't get the house because we should have heard by now. About 20 minutes later I got a call from Garth and he asked me to come sign papers on OUR house!!!!!

As soon as we were done we headed straight to the house and took these pictures:

March 14th- offer ACCEPTANCE day

Doesn't Chloe have the cutest smile? LOL! It was our first time using a selfie stick and I accidentally cut her head off

 

We are on a little over an acre with a field behind us so we have so much room. 

The traffic is minimal in the neighborhood, the stars are so bright our here and the best part? My sister lives just through the field from me!!

Friday, March 25- Met Dan from Pillar to Post for our house inspection. Nothing major, thank goodness. We were worried where it was a foreclosure that there would be something big wrong, but the house passed with flying colors : )

Tuesday, March 29- Made three different trips to drop stuff off to the bank.

Saturday, April 2nd- Meeting with Debbie to make sure everything is in order. Fannie Mae is ridiculous with foreclosure paperwork and requirements. We were there for over an hour getting everything done and ready.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016- Jeff Bundy (our previous neighbor and a plumber) sent Cody a picture of a house and told him that he found a really cute house in a nice area for a really good deal and we should look into buying it...it was our house! So funny. He was there replacing the sand filter.

Sunday, April 10th- We got an email from Garth. In order to finance the house the stairs and deck had to have a railing. Fannie Mae hired the people who clean and check on the house once a week to install the railings and they obviously had no idea what they were doing or how to do it.

 

This is the "railing". I was so furious I was crying. We are about to sign on our house this week and people are going inside and practically wrecking it! I couldn't believe what a crappy job they did. It looks terrible, it's wobbly and that's not even a real hand rail, it's a closet rod. Not only did they put all kinds of holes in my walls, but they also drilled 2 huge screws into the woodwork. 

Here's another example. First of all they have a truck parked on my patio and then they used 1x2's as deck railing and they didn't even take the labels off. I couldn't believe they could do such a crappy job and get away with it!!
Cody had to leave to go back to Boise for work and I was a furious hot mess after seeing what they did to my house. I couldn't wait to get this all over with and be done with them.

Tuesday, April 12th- We did the final walk through of the house and I got to see the crappy carpentry job up close and personal. The kids in the meantime were having a dance party in my bedroom.

Wednesday, April 13th- We were suppose to sign on the house on Thursday, but they told us Tuesday afternoon that it needed to be done today. Cody came home from Boise a day early so we could sign. I took Thursday off of work so was working Wednesday. I had to shift things all around, find a backup nurse etc so I could get out of work at 2:30. I'm so done with Fannie Mae

Thursday, April 14th- Even though we signed on the house yesterday we weren't allowed to go into it until everything cleared and we had the ok. They even had someone outside of the house to make sure we didn't go in!! It was so frustrating because we both had the day off and there is so much we wanted to get done before we move in next week, but instead we are just sitting in our apartment waiting for permission to get into our own house. 

 4:56pm the house is OFFICIALLY OURS and we can go in!!!

Our new home!

Cody carrying me over the threshold

We are inside and no one can stop us!

Karen and Chet were our first visitors

Paul and Erin brought us dinner.

Brigham- "Their house just does not taste yucky it just tastes yummy"

Mom and dad came over as well to check it out : )

Gavin was such a good help. He was cleaning, painting, getting supplies with his daddy etc. He was such a great helper.

He helped me paint his room. It ended up being about an 8 hour paint project turning it from pink and black to gray and white.

I got a little carried away and "accidentally" painted his nose

The original plan was to put Choe's trim up against the ceiling until we put the trim up there and realized the ceiling wasn't straight. Oops! Someone messed up. We just finished painting up to the ceiling, moved the trim down and unless your looking you can't even tell. I like it better the "plan B" way anyway, so it all worked out.

I only had Cody home for the weekend to help get everything ready for the move in so we pulled some really long days and late nights. The kids fell asleep in the most random places! Chloe even fell asleep in our closet one night.

I put a ton of miles on my van making multiple trips a day to Idaho Falls.

We rolled over to 100,000 miles. The warranty is up and the van is paid off so I'm expecting it to breakdown any day now. ;)

The view every night on the way back to the apartment

My mom has some serious taping skills! Seriously, if you are painting, call her!!

Cody painted the garage walls, ceiling and he and my dad painted the floor as well.

The boys room BEFORE

The boys room AFTER

Also if you are painting, call my sister. She didn't even use tape to paint the edges! It would look terrible if I did that. They should start their own painting business.

The kids mistook the mantle for a bed

They watched movies in our room while we were painting away in the other rooms

Chloe's room BEFORE

Chloe's room AFTER

I have had the same painting pants for over a decade and they finally gave out. My brother was coming over to help and I asked him to bring me some duct tape and told him to not look at my butt. He was a little hesitant to come over after that, but he did anyway, brought me some tape and viola!! My pants were fixed!

Update: I sewed them back up so they are in good working order again : )

Cody was back in Boise working so I randomly sent him updates of the progress. Here are a few:

 

Perfect lines....aren't they dreamy?

My laundry room after. The walls use to be white and the shelves were unpainted. I wish I would have taken a before picture because there is such a difference!!

We are as ready for move in day as we are going to get.
April 14-April 22, 2016