Life

After getting back from Ohio for Christmas, we had a low key New Years where we just met some friends for dinner and played games until about 10pm when we decided to get home and avoid any crazies that might be out. We then had 7 days to get an inspector out to look at our house. We got one scheduled who was very highly recommended, and he did a great thorough job in most inside areas of our house. We didn’t feel like he did a good job in the crawl space or in the attic/roof. We suspect he didn’t really inspect those areas well. We would verbally and physically point out things, and he would agree with us,but then write contradicting statements in his reports that he printed out for us. For instance, he kept claiming we had a new or 1-2 year old roof when we had been specifically told by the seller that it was at least 10-12 years old. There were spots in the attic that had insulation that was wet to the touch, where we could blot up water with a piece of paper. He would see it, verbally confirm, and then in his report write dry to the touch, and would claim that he saw some newer plywood there, so that meant any issues had been fixed previously.

On Friday of last week, January 30th, Grant and I bought our first house. Grant and I have been renting apartments and condos for the last six and a half years, and we both feel very ready to be in a home of our own. Since getting married, it took us a while to pay off our only debt – our student loans, save up 20% to put down on our house, and to find an actual house we wanted. We understand that there are pros and cons to renting versus buying. So to say buying is a need, is untrue. However, we see it as a lifestyle choice and are very, very excited about it. We searched for a home in a very specific area for the last 6-7 months, and are so glad that we found something we wanted. The biggest things we wanted on our list were for the house to be in our price range, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a space we can use for an office, a two car garage, a two car driveway, a ranch style(all on one level) house, and a layout that we can live with now and update later to be even more of what we are wanting. Most of the homes in the area we were looking to buy are older homes, and so the layouts weren’t always exactly what we were wanting. The biggest compromise we made is that this house doesn’t have gas, but we did find out that we can pay a fee, and the city will run the line to the house from the street, and we just have to pay a contractor to hook it up to whatever appliances we want to be gas. We would love to eventually have our heat, cooktop/stove, and water heater be gas run,but we know this will be WAY farther down the line,but at least we have the option so that is wonderful.

Grant and I were lucky enough to be able to ride in a plane around the Huntsville Area. One of Grant’s coworkers has his own Mooney plane, and he offered to give us a ride. We of course took him up on it right away.

So many great things happened this year to Grant and I. We celebrated two wedding one with my little sister, Raya, and one with Grant’s Cousin Jesse. We celebrated our 6 year anniversary, announced our pregnancy, and got to go to Ohio to see family for Christmas. There are still a few events I’m running late on posting about,but I will catch up in the end. Below are the top 10 viewed posts in 2014.