How We Got Here

Wanna know a secret? We were planning to move to Montana. Or Washington state. Away from Texas. Away from 82-degree Boxing Days and 90+ degree/humidity months without end in the summer.

We'd been planning it for a year. D already had winter clothes picked out. I had looked at snow suits for Mal on Zulily. We had a mortgage officer. We were READY.

And after months, we realized something: James can't find work in quaint little towns in the Northwest. Kalispell, where we looked originally, doesn't have much tech. And if James found a job where he could telecommute, we still couldn't get internet fast enough to do what we need to do. Spokane has more tech jobs, but two things: One, pay. It's like 60% what James makes here, and housing isn't 60% cheaper (it's less, but not THAT much less... as opposed to Kalispell, where housing is as much or more than here). Two, lots of places out that way still use Microsoft in their programming, and James has zero desire to work for a MS house ever again.

We really had researched everywhere, determined not to move anywhere that the comfort index wasn't at least a little better than here, because, why else go? And after seriously 13 or so months of this stuff, after discussions about how much James actually likes Austin (when does he have time to enjoy it?!), we realized that it made sense to look here, but closer to his office.

At the same time, our apartment complex was getting more ridiculous with their stuff, including a call asking me to make sure our kid didn't come into the office (which is attached to the clubhouse, which is open to residents) in just a diaper because it WAS a place of business and he was being "distracting." Even after one of the assistant managers had told James it was no problem. We wanted out, and soon.

We found a house we really liked near where we were living. It backed up to some trails that lead to a small park, and it seemed to be within our price range. We called the mortgage company we'd been working with when we were considering Seattle, and asked if they could help us in Texas. Turned out, they could and even though we worked with a guy who is in Bellevue, WA, the local office is actually in the same building where James works! He never realized this until a visitor to his office walked him out a different way and he saw it then.

Before we looked at the house we really liked, we had a "come to Jesus" moment of sorts. We were told that, yes, we'd been approved for actually a little more than the asking price of the house. However, we are not young people. If we took out a 30-year loan and paid it off exactly as timed  (and we're REALLY hoping to pay it off earlier), we'd be in our mid-70s, still trying to come up with this giant payment. Plus, we could do it now, but it would have meant tightening the belt on some fun and maybe even some generous things.

So we recalibrated.

We dialed it back. WAY back.

And we started looking nearer James' work instead of down where we were.

The first weekend in November, we went to see two houses and really liked one. Enough to make an offer on it. It was kind of quirky, and neat, and literally right off of Mansfield Dam. It was likely the least expensive house on that street, with most in the half-million and up range. We made a super lowball offer, though, because it was obvious that it needed a bit of elbow grease to make it habitable and comfortable... And we don't do elbow grease, so we have to pay people.

The seller took offense, at first answering with a "No, thanks," then when pressed by our Realtor to make a counter offer, said, "Come back with a serious offer and we'll talk."

Which we were prepared to do. We offered much less than we were willing to pay. I don't know why we did that, but in the meantime, I'd found the house we ended up buying. We came to see this house on the following Tuesday, and... the house was fine. Adequate. Not bad. Pretty nice. But it was the yard that made me tell the Realtor, "I think we just bought this house."

After we saw the house, my older niece, who'd come to watch Mal so we could concentrate on the house (he immediately fell in love with his room, playing "peek-a-boo" in the closet the whole time), Mal, and I had a picnic lunch at Jones Brothers Park. It was raining, but we were under a pavillion. It was beautiful. Knowing how close that would be... It just added to the house's value.

The sales process was riddled with frantic hurry-ups and unbearable waits, as per usual... but buying a house in 2016 is so much easier than buying a house in 1999! Legal digital signatures save so much time and gas, it's just incredible.

Our house is on two lots, and there was a third we wanted, too. So the big hold-up in our process was the site survey. The lot is extremely wooded, and he had a difficult time getting in there and getting everything staked out. They expected the survey to be completed the day after Thanksgiving, and it didn't actually come back until about 8PM on December 14, nearly a week after our contractually-named closing date.

We'd rescheduled so many things (moving box delivery, movers, carpet stretcher, etc.) several times, and were looking at a December 27 move-in, when the planets aligned and the VA appraisal came back in like 18 hours, then the mortgage company funded and the title company scheduled everyone so that we were able to close on December 16. We moved December 22, and have been unpacked since Christmas Eve (I'm a little manic about that whole thing; I hate living out of boxes!).

James' office is closed the week between Christmas and New Year's, which is cool because it's like a paid vacation that doesn't count against his time off, so it's nice that he's able to rest so much of the week, instead of busting it like we did over the weekend!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who's been excited with and for us. It's a pretty big deal. My husband has never owned a home before, and it's seriously bringing out a side of him I didn't know he had! He has gone to the hardware store pretty much every day but today; he got a work bench; he is talking about all of this stuff he wants to do. It's darn sexy, if you asked me. Which you didn't. Moving on.

D is settled in and drawing. Mal is finding so much to explore, and asking every day for "Star Wars and slide," which is the park, where there are 2 Darth Vaders up for Christmas... and a slide. We are exploring the town and neighboring areas, and meeting our neighbors. So far, so good.

Lots of handyman visits this week. Hopefully by Friday, the money hemorrhage stops, as we'll have everything paid for and handled. Oh, one delightful (?) thing we've found is a lot of the local companies coming out only take cash or checks. Who still has those?! James has to drive in to Cedar Park in the morning to get a money order from our bank. We're going to open up an account with the local bank tomorrow or Friday, too.

So that's it. I'll shut up about it now. Maybe. :) Again, thanks for hanging in with us during this big transition! It's nice to be home.