August 9, 2011

we bought a house!

We are so excited to share the news about our new home! Michael and I went to settlement on our house last week. It's been a very exciting 3 months leading up to this. We weren't looking to buy a house right now, but this little beauty fell into our laps and we knew it was the house for us. Here's why:

1. It was cheap. We got a great deal on the home because it was a foreclosure and owned by Fannie Mae (which is government owned). There were several incentives with Fannie Mae. We got a few thousand dollars worth of closing cost help and no transfer tax on the property. It's also been vacant for about 8-10 months and they were eager to get rid of it.

2. It has a big kitchen/living room space. Obviously the kitchen is important to me. I can't wait to bake goodies and cook dinners after we get married! We also love having people over and are looking forward to entertaining someday. The space this house has will be perfect for that.

3. It has 3 bedrooms. We wanted to have 2 extra bedrooms... one for an office and one for a guest bedroom.

4. The most expensive things to renovate have already been done. The roof, siding and windows were all re-done about 5-8 years ago. Our septic inspection came back with great results. All of those things would have been $40,000+ to fix, so the fact that we don't have to worry about them made this house an even better deal.

5. It has character. There are beautiful, original hardwood floors underneath the horrid blue and mauve carpeting. There is a lovely, huge built-in hutch in the kitchen. The windows are very wide and let a lot of natural light in. The bathroom has cool vintage tile and a porcelin tub.



It took a few weeks for us to decide. We sat down with my parents to discuss the purchase, and poured over our finances again and again. We thought of every possible scenario that we could come up and tried to figure out if we could afford it. Turns out, we can!

We made an offer. It was accepted 3 days later. 5 weeks later, we bought it.





It was so much fun using the key and walking into our new house together for the first time. That was the beginning of a very long project for us...

Michael worked in home construction, framing and renovation for about 5 years in his early twenties. He is the reason we could buy a house like this - because we can fix it up ourselves! He's been working out our renovation plan over the last few weeks and we started last night.

I will be blogging about our project. I think Jenna Laughs will become a bit of a "home and garden" blog for the next 6-8 months, since that's the stage in life I find myself now. Hopefully I will find time to cook and bake and share those things with you too!

I'm excited to start this journey, and have the pleasure of sharing it with all of you.

9 comments:

  1. So excited for you both! It is going to become such a beautiful home! :)

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  2. What's better than following a couple that I don't know as they renovate their home?? Why, following a couple that I DO know, of course! Can't wait to follow along on the fun! Congrats again!!

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  3. So happy for both of you! That is so exciting. I'm excited to see all the exciting renovations that you do. It's nice that you bought it now so you have some time to fix it up before moving in.

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  4. whoohoo for new house! and i see you got new blog tabs :). welcome back jenna! missed u!

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  5. AWESOME! Congrats. I love house modeling posts, so I'm psyched for what your blog will become in these next few months :)

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  6. Finally catching up on my Jenna Laughs after being gone for three weeks. Also, I thought you needed two extra bedrooms for the children...

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  7. That's awesome. Buying a home is a big move. It's a new point in one's life, a new chapter. I hope you guys enjoy your new abode!

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