TOP TEN #8 Have a Must Have List!!

Just because you shop on a budget doesn't mean you have to sacrifice what you want. (well, all of what you want). Zack and I really thought through things that we knew we wanted out of a house.

Here's an idea of what we wanted:
- community (church, friends, opportunities for ministry) where we live
- good schools, neighborhood
- NO SUBDIVISION
- a yard
- enough bedrooms for guests
- a space large enough to comfortably entertain
- a space for Zack to 'play' :)
- a home close enough to each of our jobs
- more than 1 bathroom. Ideally one with a double sink. I hate sharing sinks.

Don't get me wrong, our house is not perfect by any means, but it did meet most of the criteria we had set.We found that finding a house that meets a majority of your "wants" and is in your budget is doing pretty good :)
Our house did pass the checklist for us... (well, mostly)...
- We are in a great community and have already met some new friends. We host a small group at our houses weekly and hope for our home to continue to be a "hub" for hanging out.  
Check. 

- The house in in Johnston County, which by default means good schools. We are right across from one Elementary School and in the same district as Cleveland (where Zack teaches). We feel great about the neighborhood around us and the district for schools our house is in.  
Check.  

- We proudly DO NOT LIVE IN A SUBDIVISION. There's absolutely nothing wrong with subdivisions at all, but we just didn't picture us living in one. We thought for certain that with our budget, we'd be sort of forced to live in a cul-de-sac. But, lo and behold, we found our gem of a house outside the fences of a subdivision. Along with that, we did start off saying we wanted to have a yard. We do, indeed, have a yard. An acre of yard. Still haven't quite figured out what to do with an acre of yard yet, but it's ours.
Check. 

- When we found the listing for our house online, it said there were 3 bedrooms. Ohhhh why were they so modest?! Our house has a refinished attic that has 2 additional rooms (bedrooms). In total, we have 5 potential bedrooms in our house. These more than cover my want for enough rooms to have guests over.
Check. Check. Check. 

- Our house is perfect for entertaining- whooohooo!! It's in a great area, with a ton of potential for community and ministry (already finding it). The house was a parsonage (owned by a church for the pastor and his family to live in). This means that our house was literally built to have a lot of people in it! It's perfect for entertaining y'all. For reals, even down to the layout of the driveway, it's designed for guests. This is perfect for the Carscaddons!!
Praise Jesus this was a HUGE CHECK CHECK CHECK!!! 

-Zack needs space to roam. The apartment we lived in for a year and a half was nice, but he didn't have a space to call his. Now, he has his own little slice of heaven in his garage and workshop. This was an enormous perk to this house! Him having a yard and his own space to work on his hobbies is wonderful! Well played, Parsonage, well played.  
Check. 

- I was adamant that we move somewhere that wasn't painfully far away from either of our jobs. It's a fact that we couldn't afford to live in the city, or even in Wake County for that matter. So we cast our net towards the perimeters of the Capital County. What we found was living was considerably cheaper outside the city (and Wake Co.) limits, and we could get more bang for our buck in JoCo. So, we agreed that the location of our house was ideal. I have about a 35 minute commute. It's taking some getting used to, but I don't hate it. Anytime I feel the slightest annoyed I remember that I'm driving HOME (that we own. that's right. that is all ours. that we can do whatever we want with). That always remedies my attitude real quick.  
So, reluctantly, yes, check. 

- This last one is kind of a kicker. I did want a big, spacious bathroom, with double sinks and a perfect shower. Instead we got a small, very small, tiny, one sink bathroom. This is one of those areas that we didn't get exactly what we wanted, but the list above speaks for itself that we're more than satisfied with all we did get with our house. Re-doing the bathroom is in our 15-20 year plan.
So, semi-check.

All this to say, that it's totally possible to get what you want out of buying a house, while staying in a realistic budget :) The Lord was SO GOOD to us in blessing us with a wonderful home that really is what we both dreamed of (for the most part)! Be encouraged that it's worth hunting for the perfect house and that there is one out there that's perfect for you!

TOP TEN #9: Shop Smart

9. Shop well- have a budget, an idea of what you want, and be on the same page with your spouse!!

There are ways to be a thrifty shopper even when buying a house.  After going to the bank and getting pre-approved for a loan, we decided that it was best for us not to shop for what we were pre-approved for. NOTE: Just because you're pre-approved for a certain amount DOES NOT mean you have to spend that much on a house. All that means is you CAN get a loan worth $x amount. We knew that didn't want to be house poor (i.e. buy a house but then not have any money to buy furniture, groceries, pay the bills, etc.). So, with that, we chose to shop a little lower than our pre-approval amount. Doing this really helped us be realistic about what we could afford.
**Please note: I hate hate hate to be such a stiff neck over money, but for real, aside from Jesus, it's the MOST IMPORTANT piece to thinking about buying.**

Another key that really helped us through what was a turbulent process at times was being on the same page with each other. Zack and I made sure we talked about any unsaid or unmet expectations for our first home together. We were on the same page from day 1 of the process (back to #10 in going to the bank first)!

Despite this post being short, I think it packs a good punch of VITAL information for moving forward in purchasing a home. We did not live above our means buying our house (we had a budget that we stuck to) and we were (and still are) on the same page when making decisions about our future/home/finances.

It's really a lot of fun to dream with each other about what you'd like to have in a home. We had a good time deciding what we wanted in a house and how to proceed forward in finding the home that'd be perfect for us :)

Stay tuned for next week's post about having a MUST HAVE LIST and a CAN LIVE WITHOUT LIST!

Until then,
the cleanaholic housewife (all I want to these days is clean our house!)

Top 10 Things You NEED to Know About Buying a House (#10)

Like I promised, I'm going to follow through and write a "Top 10 List of Things You NEED To Know To Buy a House". I'm really excited to share our ups and downs, our advice, our shortcomings, our successes, and just basic things to hopefully help someone else who's in the process or considering taking the plunge into buying a house. Buying our first home was a HUGE learning experience and test for us and we feel like we passed and came out more informed about how the world works.

I hope this blog and list can serve as some solid truth and advice for you :)

"The Top 10 Things You NEED 

to Know About Buying a House"

10. Get a Realtor.

This was foundational for us. We got our Realtor's information from friends and this was the groundwork for deciding to buy a house. Even before we knew that we wanted to buy a house, we contacted Judy, our Realtor, to get an idea of how the whole process works. Just and FYI- Realtors get paid off the seller's side's closing money, so having one to buy a house is FREE to the buyers. They make commission off the purchase of the home and get paid from the closing, so it's of no expense to you to get a Realtor :) (don't quote me on every bit of this, but it was definitely our experience!)

My first phonecall to Judy was a shot in the dark. I called her and asked her for instructions on what to do every. step. of. the. way. My controlling, Type A personality wanted to know EXACTLY what to do to get the process going. 

Judy instructed us to set up a meeting with the bank/lender to get Pre-Qualified for a housing loan. From there, we knew what our budget was, so looking at homes was realistic for what we could afford. She also told us some of the upfront costs we could expect (I'll talk more on that later) and gave us a thorough timeline of what the process of purchasing looks like.
Judy was a key piece of our home-buying process and I'm so thankful we chose to have a realtor to work on our behalf to make our house ours!

Stay tuned for #9 (SHOP SMART)...

A New Normal!

Since our last blog post, we've entered into the world of home ownership. Holy Moly it's a whole new world!

December 2013 was a complete whirlwind that began with a call on December 5 saying our loan was approved and we were set to close. So, we rushed rushed rushed to pack up the Tryon Village and prepare for a big move to JoCo...

Zack and I closed on our very first home on December 10, 2013. What a glorious and terrifying feeling, knowing that you're selling your soul for a home!!

We were aptly warned about how hectic moving at Christmas can be, and boy were those folks right! We were so happy to be "Home for Christmas" but it really was stressful, hard, and chaotic. So so so glad to be through the moving part!!

Just hours after signing the papers over into our names, I began cleaning. This process started December 10 and is still going. Now that I have ownership of something I really care about, cleaning has become my hobby. I can't get enough cleaning. With the help of several close friends and family, were were able to get a ton of work done within a couple of weeks and close up our time at our apartment in Raleigh. Here are pictures from turning in our keys and telling the Tryon Village "goodbye".

After we had our  moment and moved on (literally), we came home to this chaos...

 This right here, folks, is what makes a Type A, OCD, organized person C-R-A-Z-Y!!! The  days weeks of our new home looking like this mess above about put me over the edge. Plus the time ticking on Christmas coming made for a nutty Nat!! Ohhhh but it does get better, my friends!!

By Christmas Eve, Zack and I had worked hard enough to have our ENTIRE home set up and feeling like home. Talk about feeling accomplished and empowered?! We were so happy to spend our first Christmas in our new home resting, watching movies, eating, and spending quality time together.

From the end of July to December we waited for this home. We got it and are now loving being there and working together to make it perfect for us. What a blessing!

(From a previous post a while back, I had mentioned doing a "Top 10 List of Things to Know for New Homebuyers". I still feel very called to share our experiences. Stay tuned... I'll get going on that once I slow down cleaning and planning times to have family and friends over to cook for them and welcome them "home"!!

Until then,
New Homeowner Nataleigh