About a month ago we found out our neighbors a few houses down were going to be selling their home. Their house is beautiful and would be perfect for us so we thought that it wouldn't hurt to see if we could afford it and what we could sell our own house for.
Well, we found out that no, we cannot afford that specific house but it wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade right now. We bought our house 3 years ago for $144,900 and could list it within the next couple of months for $199,900.
But in order to list our house for sale here are the updates needed:
Painting the exterior of the house/garage
New kitchen floor
Updated light fixtures (DONE)
Finish basement
Replace some windows
I'm all about getting feedback from others and so during our backyard bonfire this weekend we were talking about all of this with our family and friends. Well, it got our wheels turning a little bit. What if we were to remodel our home instead of move?
If we were to stay, here's what would need to happen:
Kitchen addition to allow for more counter space and room for an 8ft+ table
1/2 bath in basement
2+ car garage
Dormer on upper level with 3/4 bath (this is if I dream BIG)
*In order of priority
We enjoy our neighborhood. It's close to everything (shops, restaurants, downtown, our family), it's on a quiet street, we can walk to two parks as well as the library and grocery store, we have great neighbors, etc. etc. But it's really important for us to have a space ideal for entertaining our family and friends. If we move we would stay in our school district and go 10 minutes from where we currently are.
We could really use the Love It or List It team in our lives right now..
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Monday, April 3, 2017
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
The transition to our home
The first night in our home was kind of chaotic. We had family over until after 10:30pm. They were such a huge help in us putting things together and at one point I realized they had completely taken over my kitchen putting contact paper on all of the shelves and I was sitting at the dining room table relaxing! Yes, they really are that amazing! Not to mention my mom came by unannounced with all of the fixings to make pancakes in the morning and had even gotten us our favorite beer and a bottle of champagne to celebrate. My aunt and my grandma also made a run to the store for us to get last minute supplies and brought pizza for dinner. We are so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives and for them to take such wonderful care of us!
Levi went to bed just fine that first night. It took me 4+ attempts to get Rex to sleep though. I was finally able to rock him to sleep and put him in his crib without him waking up at 10:30pm. After that I got Levi down for bed and I had no energy to do anything so I went to bed myself.
Rex got up in the middle of the night every night for the first several days. I always put him in bed with us when he woke up to comfort him. He was so content this way but I do not sleep well with him in bed with us. It was rough. He also went from breastfeeding 1-2x/day down to not wanting any interest in it at all. It was very sudden. I wasn't going to force it on him. I had made it to my goal of breastfeeding for 12 months and told myself that we would be done when he wanted to be done. This was it. He breastfed for 16.5 months and I'm thrilled about that but it was really hard on me at the same time. This baby making phase of my life has officially ended.
There have been a few times (even today) when Levi gets upset about the house and says he doesn't like it here. He misses our apartment a lot. It breaks my heart that he feels this way and that there's really nothing I can do to make it all better. I try to list all of the good things about the house and I tell him that I miss things about our apartment too. We are going there tonight to say our final goodbye and turn in our keys. I'm preparing myself for many tears from him. I thought of sending him to grandma's when we go and do this because I know it will be hard but I think it's best for him to get the chance to say goodbye. To get closure. I hope that eventually it will help him in knowing that we really can't go back there, it isn't ours anymore and someone else is living there. It might be harder for him right now knowing that it is still ours and we still have the keys.
All in all it's been a rough few weeks. Moving, getting settled, our long to-do list, finding our routine, the end to breastfeeding, getting fired and not to mention the awful frigid winter we're having. Things are getting better though. Rex is sleeping through the night (knock on wood), we have a pretty solid routine to our days and Levi is making friends in the neighborhood and playing outside as much as possible.
The fog is lifting and I'm starting to get really excited about our future and all of the memories we'll make here!
Levi went to bed just fine that first night. It took me 4+ attempts to get Rex to sleep though. I was finally able to rock him to sleep and put him in his crib without him waking up at 10:30pm. After that I got Levi down for bed and I had no energy to do anything so I went to bed myself.
Rex got up in the middle of the night every night for the first several days. I always put him in bed with us when he woke up to comfort him. He was so content this way but I do not sleep well with him in bed with us. It was rough. He also went from breastfeeding 1-2x/day down to not wanting any interest in it at all. It was very sudden. I wasn't going to force it on him. I had made it to my goal of breastfeeding for 12 months and told myself that we would be done when he wanted to be done. This was it. He breastfed for 16.5 months and I'm thrilled about that but it was really hard on me at the same time. This baby making phase of my life has officially ended.
There have been a few times (even today) when Levi gets upset about the house and says he doesn't like it here. He misses our apartment a lot. It breaks my heart that he feels this way and that there's really nothing I can do to make it all better. I try to list all of the good things about the house and I tell him that I miss things about our apartment too. We are going there tonight to say our final goodbye and turn in our keys. I'm preparing myself for many tears from him. I thought of sending him to grandma's when we go and do this because I know it will be hard but I think it's best for him to get the chance to say goodbye. To get closure. I hope that eventually it will help him in knowing that we really can't go back there, it isn't ours anymore and someone else is living there. It might be harder for him right now knowing that it is still ours and we still have the keys.
All in all it's been a rough few weeks. Moving, getting settled, our long to-do list, finding our routine, the end to breastfeeding, getting fired and not to mention the awful frigid winter we're having. Things are getting better though. Rex is sleeping through the night (knock on wood), we have a pretty solid routine to our days and Levi is making friends in the neighborhood and playing outside as much as possible.
The fog is lifting and I'm starting to get really excited about our future and all of the memories we'll make here!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
We're homeowners!
After 2.5 years of working on credit and getting our life in order we were finally pre-approved for a mortgage as of October 2013. We had been "looking" for months because we knew it was near but when we got approved we only had two outings with our realtor before we found THE ONE! I'll be honest though. Andy fell in love with the house before I did. It was pretty much instant for him. I didn't completely fall in love until we had painted and it started feeling like ours.
The cons: I really had my heart set on a house in Robbinsdale. I also really wanted a formal dining room for extra space to entertain, a 2nd bathroom and a 2 car garage. This house doesn't have any of those things. But, we can put in a 2nd bathroom and build a bigger garage. And it's a block away from Robbinsdale. I can live with that. Especially because our house is closer to downtown Robbinsdale than the Robbinsdale house I grew up in.
The pros: It's a 1.5 story. I love the layout of these homes. There's a partially finished basement and room to add another bedroom/bathroom. The backyard is the best! It's fenced in, spacious for the area, has a beautiful deck and came with a swing set. All of the light switches except for the kitchen and the laundry room have dimmers on them. I don't know how I ever lived without this feature! It's so great and especially when you have kids. 6:30pm is now dim the lights time. It makes getting through bedtime routine so much easier! And how could I almost forget about the hardwood floors?! Love, love, love!
We closed on Friday December 20th (my grandma's birthday) and it was officially ours on Friday December 27th when the sellers had all of their things out. We went that weekend to pick out paint and all day Sunday I prepped for painting while Andy was at the Vikings game with his mom. That evening we had a painting "party" with my mom, grandma, grandpa and Andy's mom. We got quite a bit done but didn't actually finish painting until 3 days later. And even then, we still stopped with a coat to go on most of the trim and we didn't paint stripes in Rex's room like we had intended. We were so over painting and figured we could easily do that once we were moved in. So, moving day came on Saturday January 4th! We had a bunch of family and friends to help us and it took pretty much all day (and that's with us already bringing 3 van loads ourselves in the days before). I worked that afternoon so I wasn't around for the final unloading. I was bummed to miss out on things but then it was great at the same time to be able to come to the house after work and have beds put together and family hanging out.
The first few nights were not easy. Now that I think about it more like the first couple of weeks.. but I'll save that for another post!
The cons: I really had my heart set on a house in Robbinsdale. I also really wanted a formal dining room for extra space to entertain, a 2nd bathroom and a 2 car garage. This house doesn't have any of those things. But, we can put in a 2nd bathroom and build a bigger garage. And it's a block away from Robbinsdale. I can live with that. Especially because our house is closer to downtown Robbinsdale than the Robbinsdale house I grew up in.
The pros: It's a 1.5 story. I love the layout of these homes. There's a partially finished basement and room to add another bedroom/bathroom. The backyard is the best! It's fenced in, spacious for the area, has a beautiful deck and came with a swing set. All of the light switches except for the kitchen and the laundry room have dimmers on them. I don't know how I ever lived without this feature! It's so great and especially when you have kids. 6:30pm is now dim the lights time. It makes getting through bedtime routine so much easier! And how could I almost forget about the hardwood floors?! Love, love, love!
We closed on Friday December 20th (my grandma's birthday) and it was officially ours on Friday December 27th when the sellers had all of their things out. We went that weekend to pick out paint and all day Sunday I prepped for painting while Andy was at the Vikings game with his mom. That evening we had a painting "party" with my mom, grandma, grandpa and Andy's mom. We got quite a bit done but didn't actually finish painting until 3 days later. And even then, we still stopped with a coat to go on most of the trim and we didn't paint stripes in Rex's room like we had intended. We were so over painting and figured we could easily do that once we were moved in. So, moving day came on Saturday January 4th! We had a bunch of family and friends to help us and it took pretty much all day (and that's with us already bringing 3 van loads ourselves in the days before). I worked that afternoon so I wasn't around for the final unloading. I was bummed to miss out on things but then it was great at the same time to be able to come to the house after work and have beds put together and family hanging out.
The first few nights were not easy. Now that I think about it more like the first couple of weeks.. but I'll save that for another post!
