Busy, Busy, Busy

Andy informed me last night that it's been a week since my last post..."so get on it!" he tells me.

Why the blogging pseudo-hiatus?

Well, life at the Gibson's has been pretty crazy busy lately. Why you ask? Well, because...WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!!

Huge. Seriously. We're actually in escrow, and apparently have been since the 22nd of February. Although we didn't know because the listing agent is the biggest flake in the history of mankind. Luckily, our realtor is absolutely amazing, otherwise, we'd really be in trouble. Anyway, that's a whole different topic...

We've spent pretty much every free moment perusing the web, going to open houses, reading through the classifieds, walking through model homes, and dragging our poor realtor all over town to show us places. Not to mention meeting with banks, going over Andy's 800 excel spreadsheets to see what we could afford, praying, praying, praying, and living life in general. Funny how laundry and dishes still pile up regardless of how busy you are! Hello! We're house shopping here! A little respect! But no, there they are, sitting on the counter dirty just waiting. Bums.

I haven't blogged about our home buying process because...well...I didn't want to jinx it. I know, it's silly, but I just didn't want to tell the whole world and then for whatever reason have lending fall through or something and having to re-explain it all. We figured we'd wait until we were in escrow and basically have a house "officially" (save the mountains of paperwork we'll have to sign between now and the end of closing).

We had really wanted to buy in the 5 Cities area. And I want to be clear: not because we don't like Santa Maria...because, actually, we do. I think Santa Maria gets a really bad rap...because people immediately think of the ghetto places (which certainly exist), but there are really nice parts too. In fact, I think there are more nice places than not...they just don't get as much attention I guess. I think I might do a post defending Santa Maria's honor someday...Anyway, we really wanted to move a little north because between church, Andy's work, and the fact that with the exception of the Heldt's, all of our friends live in SLO, it'd be nice to be a little closer. I knew that it would be more expensive than Santa Maria, but I had no idea it was THAT much more! For the same price, I would get a shanty in a scary part of town that was barely habitable and maybe 800 s.f. if we were lucky. I told Andy that I didn't really love him enough to live in such a small place. I'd probably kill him. Not to mention that we wouldn't have any money after making the mortgage to actually do any kind of repairs...making his murder all but guaranteed. (Boy, that sounds morbid! In case you weren't sure, I am totally kidding!)

So, what did we get?

• Built in 2004
• 2,035 s.f.
• Oversized 2 car garage
• On a cul de sac
• 3 bedroom/2.5 bath
• Pretty big backyard (by California standards)
  
• Giant kitchen
  
• 1 mile from where we live now

The house was a foreclosure (which is really sad...that's another post altogether). It is in perfect condition...it just needs some color and a little TLC. Every wall is white. No color anywhere. The original owners never did the backyard landscaping so it's pretty much just weeds. I'd really like to re-do the kitchen countertops (although that is probably a ways out)...they're that brand-new-tennis-shoe white high gloss ceramic tile with white grout...not really my style, but better than dusty rose (which is what I have now). Andy wants to build a deck in the backyard and put in some sod. The outside of the house is okay...all the houses in the development seriously look exactly the same, which kind of stinks, but of all my concerns, that's a silly one.

Escrow should be closing by March 22nd...which means I have a lot of packing to do! Yikes!