So not that long ago when Justin reenlisted and we discussed you know things, I said perhaps we should revisit the house issue. I didn’t think our existing rental would last us another few years. It’s very small (sub 1000 sq ft) and when I was pregnant one of the most stressful aspects to me was where the heck was I going to put the kid. I know people have done it in 1 bedroom apartments but I really didn’t know where I put her. I had always looked because I love houses the way I love well lets say sushi to keep it clean and there was a house I was oh so very interested in. It was inexpensive, had all the upgrades one could want, and large. I did nothing to go see it. I wanted to wait till they were more desperate and would drop the price. Of course it sold. Anyway…In the midst of looking I decided to broaden my horizons a bit and found a nice looking prospect. I went out that day to see it with Claire. So we met out there on the way to knitting and fortune smiled upon us and one of them had an unlocked back door. For the first time I really liked what I saw. It was *not* a ranch with a bonus room. It had tile and wood floors and an actual laundry room. So I went to knitting and then came home and told Justin about it. That weekend he was kind enough to give up some of his gaming time so we could go out there.

Unfortunately for us to see any of them meant we had to spend time with a shark real estate agent who was out there. So we saw a bunch of them (oddly not the floor plan we ended up choosing) and there was one that both of us really liked. It had the most fantastic upstairs and just tons of closet space. So at the end of the day the shark was supposed to email us. Of course she didn’t. Probably because we hadn’t done anything besides say hey lets go look. Let’s just say I was not terribly impressed. Besides really I couldn’t stand her utter phoniness. Our bank has a real estate program where they help you find an agent and if you go through them the agent gives up a percentage of the commission and you get it back after you close so I knew I wanted to go through them anyway. I thought it was a good way of buying window treatments. Anyway so I’m all jazzed up so I get pre-approved and reopen my file with the bank. They ask if I want to use the same agent as from our previous search but I decided not to. I wasn’t totally thrilled with her and since we flaked out last time I was worried there would be lingering animosity. Anyway so Agent #1 calls us. I was hoping to get everything in motion before Justin left since I knew he would be gone for a long time and I was pretty sure we wanted to build and that takes 60-90 days. However she was really busy. So I let it slide for about a week before I felt that I was getting ignored. In the meantime I had spoken to my builder and made some comment and he gave me the name of someone he had used a lot. However I had weird issues with using someone so closely aligned to the builder so I called the program up and asked for someone else.

So I met with him and that week we met with the builder. Justin was unable to go since he had worked all night the night before. By this time I had been out there looking several times sometimes with Justin and sometimes by myself. We had it narrowed down to two different floor plans. The one we both liked initially and the one I ended up choosing. So they answered all my questions and the agent had some very good ideas I wouldn’t have thought of. Then we get a call saying the VA can’t find him in the system so we have to fill out some paperwork (this is still pending) So Justin was then leaving so things went to a standstill. Which was ok because we still hadn’t chosen. One of them was very contemporary and had this open 2 story living room it also had a main floor master with 2 walk-in closets. The upstairs was fantastic too. Two decent bedrooms, an open lofted office/sitting area and a huge huge rec room. Lots of closets everywhere. However, it didn’t have an entry way and the kitchen/dining area was just too small. We would either have had to steal room from the living room and master or poured more foundation. Also I’m just not really a contemporary sort of girl. The other one is much more traditional but it would have meant essentially losing two rooms. It had an entry way and a living room, dining room, kitchen on the main floor with all bedrooms upstairs. However it did not have any sort of bonus/rec room. I was really torn but I kept thinking about that small kitchen and how the heck would I decorate using one color throughout most of the house. Anyway I went back and forth.

So while Justin was gone my mom came up for a week before I was supposed to go down there for a family party. We went out there and spent about an hour or so in each house going over them. She agreed with me that the more traditional one was the better floor plan but also that we needed to add a bonus room. So Justin gets home and we talk about it and finally he says just to pick the one I like. As long as it has more storage space he’ll be happy. So I chose the more traditional. It had a couple of things going for it. 1) I think it would show better 2) there weren’t already a bunch of them out there. So I email the agent and give him the list of upgrades and we wait to hear back from builder John for the final price. And we get it and I get sticker shock. However I went back to the bank and amended our application to the higher price and it passed. So then at the last minute Justin decides he wants a jetted tub which I had wanted anyway but hadn’t asked for since I already had added a bunch of upgrades. I also was talked out the lot I initially wanted because of noise since they would then have to construct the house on the other side. So Friday after everything was checked and signed he came by for our check and they’ll start Monday. Anyway…if you want to see the photo tour of the house that I took click on the picture below.