:) We bought a house! :)

[Jayna78]

...just posting it here in case you don't see it in General.

I just wanted to tell you all the good news - we have been house hunting for the last few weeks, and after a bad experience last weekend offering on a house we liked and getting jerks for sellers who were totally unreasonable, this weekend, we found a wonderful house and it's now under contract for us! The closing date is April 29, which works out well because our lease is up June 30, but our landlady is so nice that she's letting us out a bit early - we'll take the month of May to move and get everything switched over, and we'll be in our new home by June 1.

It's in St. Charles (west of St. Louis County), which is a little farther out than we initially were going to look, but out there, you can get so much more house and so much better house for your money. Our house is a pretty 1.5-story with finished basement. As you walk in, the ceiling is so high - it's very pretty and inviting. It has 3 bathrooms (a 4th is in the basement, if it won't be an office - we're not sure yet), 2 full baths, and 2 half baths. It also has a screened in back porch with hot tub, as well as a patio, and a decent amount of yard left after that (it even slopes so I can sled in the winter if I want to - I've gotten used to doing that at our rental house). The master bedroom is huge, and the basement has been finished professionally - it has so much space - it also comes with the pool table! The sellers were really great, and they're paying most of the closing costs and throwing in that pool table with its accessories, which is awesome because we were planning to eventually buy a pool table, but it would've been a while before we could afford to do that. Oh, and with 2 flights of stairs (instead of the 1 flight of stairs we have now), our cats will have a great time getting even more exercise as they chase each other. :p

The only drawback here is that we won't have enough furniture to fill it for a while, so it's going to be a little-by-little process, so if any of you come to visit any time soon, you'll see a house that needs some furnishing. The house is 19 years old, but you wouldn't know it - it looks just as modern as new homes being built today. The subdivision is the "Waterford Estates," which sounds fancier than it is (it is nice, though). We're on a cul-de-sac, and we do live a little farther out than now, but we're actually much closer to some of the major interstates to the city, so hopefully it won't be too bad. Many people in our Metro area have a longer commute b/c of the nice neighborhoods in which they chose to live.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the good news. We're really excited because this house is move-in ready - there are a few things we might change in a little while, but nothing needs to be painted or anything right away. Wish us luck as we move toward closing day! We saw 8 houses on Saturday (we had seen lots of others up to that point), and there wasn't a single one that was bad (we had a top 3 out of those 8), but we really feel like we found the house that was meant for us in the home we bought.
:) :)

[krazyaboutkatz]

How exciting! This is wonderful news!!!!:D It sure sounds like it was meant to be and the house sounds beautiful and very spacious. Good luck with moving.:)

[Jayna78]

Thanks - we'll need it! :) We have a lot of stuff, but just not enough furniture yet, since we're still young and all.

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention - when we visited the house both times on Saturday, there were 4 animals - 2 cats inside - Persians - very beautiful and well-groomed - one of them was giving us a tour himself (we think it was a he, but not sure) - it was so cute! There were 2 labrador retrievers outside - they were black and tan - a cute set - very friendly - they got to run in and out of the screened in porch as they pleased b/c it was a fenced backyard. The current owners must love animals - they let their dogs in the house to sleep with them at night too. I know they probably take good care of the animals/house too, b/c it didn't smell animal-ly at all. :) Our friends and our realtor said to me, "Now you realize the house doesn't come with the animals, right?" :) I just got a kick out of seeing them.

It's the perfect setup for a dog, so someday, we may add to our animal family, but maybe not...we do look forward to letting our cats sit in the screened in room and really feel like they're outside without actually being out there. :) That's something we've been talking about since we began house-hunting. :)

[Jayna78]

...just bumping this up so everybody can see the details on our home purchase, since my last "We bought a house!" thread was just a general note about it from Saturday when it happened. :)

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

How exciting Jayna!! I know ST.Charles very well! It's true that it is a bit further away from the city. But when you are close by the highway (it's the I-40, right?), then you're downtown before you know it! That house sounds "purfect", he he! You didn't get any pics of the house, and eh... of the cats??;) ;)
One more question: what is "closing day"? Does it mean that others can still buy the house before that day :eek: ??

[Jayna78]

I haven't gotten any pics of the house yet, but I might snap some when we go for inspection next week or for the final walk-thru, which happens just before closing. Closing is actually the day when the house becomes ours. Right now, it is under contract, which means that it is illegal for the sellers to not sell us the house - we're all locked in - we just set the closing date for kind of far ahead because we need the time to still be in our rental house without breaking the lease by too much. Closing date basically means that as soon as we sign the final paperwork, we get the keys to the house, and it is ours. At that point, we can begin moving in.

Yes, you're correct on the highway! :) However, now there is also the Page Extension, which extends into St. Charles (it connects with Highway 94 out there) - it will eventually extend all the way through St. Charles County, which we're hoping happens sooner, rather than later, b/c it will increase the value of our property exponentially. It's already in a rapidly developing area. So, there should be plenty of different routes we can take.

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

Thanks for explaining!! So closing day is the same as we call "the day we get ALL the keys", and nobody else is allowed inside anymore! Wow, I hadn't heard of that highway 94 yet; sounds really super for St.Charles County! I remember that region as very beautiful :)
Good luck with moving in, Jayna!

ps. How far it about from Lindbergh Avenue? We have stayed at a hotel at the intersection with the I-40 there when we arrived in St.Louis: Breckenridge Hotel)

[jenluckenbach]

Sounds like a ot of fun. I remember the excitement we had when we finally bought our own home. :D:D


And don't forget....more room = more kitties! (forget the D*O*G)

[christa]

I'm jealous!!! :eek:

No, really, I'm very happy for you. We are looking for a house also, but everything around here so so old, we don't want to have to do any major updates . . . just hoping and praying that something will come along eventually.

How long did you look??? Did you go through a realtor???

[sirrahbed]

It sounds wonderful, Jayna!! I am happy for you as I still remember how exciting it was to buy our first (and only!) home. I also had that feeling that is was just the RIGHT one:) We also had so much room to fill, but it happened pretty quickly:D

Oh and the screened in patio - we have this too and my cats LOVE it. We installed a lockable cat door so they can come and go during the day - YES they will think they are outside watching bugs and birds!!:D

[Poo]

It sounds just 'purrfect' I am so happy for you. I hope it all goes to plan.

Nicki x

[Jayna78]

Lut - We're kind of far from Lindbergh - not too bad, but we're quite a bit west of Lindbergh in our new house, whereas where we're renting right now, we're right near it. I will miss Lindbergh as far as a way to get around quickly.

Christa - We have been talking about it and looking online since January. We didn't start looking for real (with our realtor - going into houses and seeing open houses on our own) until late February - we wanted to find something probably in March or so, so we could do closing in late April or early May, and not break our lease by too much. Our realtor was recommended to us through a friend, and she was just fantastic! She made the ups and downs of the process that much better. She never tried to sway us on anything - always told us what she REALLY thought about a house or about something we asked about, etc. In fact, St. Charles County and Northwest St. Louis County weren't even her areas of expertise, but now that we've had her driving all around up there, she's really happy b/c now she can help more people looking up in that area. She is sweet - she gave us hugs when it was all signed, etc. :) Good luck with your house hunt!

Yes, we've got to think about that cat door idea for our screened in porch - we loved the pictures of your cats - Debbie - looking outside from your screened in back porch. :) We definitely will need another tall cat tree to put out there. Ah, more furniture that we have to buy...oh well - that's a fun purchase - if possible, my husband can probably make a simple tall one if he gets any spare time during the move and the arranging of our house, etc. :)

Jen - I'll have to think about the more cats stuff - my husband is more a cat person, but he has always liked my family's dogs - I am a cat person, but would possibly like a dog at some point. We'll see. They are super high maintenance, compared to cats, although I wouldn't say cats are low maintenance either. I wouldn't mind more cats, but more $ in vet bills is not part of the plan right now. :)

Thanks everybody for your kind wishes!