Before I explain why I’m feeling giddy, I’d like to thank one of my readers by the name of Robin. Yes, you Robin. I didn’t reply to your email before now as it got accidentally caught by my spam filters. Sorry about that. When I read your offer to advise my wife & I; I was totally flabbergasted that a total stranger would offer to do that for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t see your offer until after things have been settled upon. So thank you very much for the incredibly generous offer of your time and expertise!
Which brings me back to why I’m feeling so giddy today. Ariesna & I made an offer on the house we’ve been looking at and the offer was accepted! We take possession next month1 and begin our journey as first-time home buyers. The house is a charming, older home in a great neighborhood. Hardwood floors, central air, a basement (pretty much required if you live in Iowa), ceiling fans in most of the rooms2 and the neighborhood is loaded with mature trees. We were at the house today taking a final look through before putting in the offer. The a/c was off but with the windows open and all the trees in neighborhood; it was perfectly comfortable. Compare that to the apartment we’ve been living in for 8 years with a window a/c unit stuck into the wall of our living room and with all of our windows facing to WEST. It’s going to be heaven once we’re moved into the house. As an added bonus to the house, my daily commute to work will drop down to about 15 minutes. Sure that’s not as good the 5 minute commute I used to have with the old job, but it’s massively better than the 30-45 minute commute I’ve got now. Did I mention how the neighborhood is loaded with trees? I just love that part. 😀
1 Technically, we’re setting up an appointment with a house inspector for next weekend to check over the entire house for problems. However the house has been very well maintained, so we do not expect him to find any problems that would kill the deal.
2 1 in the living room, 1 in a sitting area on the top floor, 1 in the kitchen and 1 in each bedroom. Though the one in the master bedroom will have to go, as the ceilings are a little low in there and I can look directly at the blades of the fan without standing on tippy-toes. Sometimes being tall can really suck. :p
Very cool. First a job, now a house … congratulations very much!
Even sight-unseen, I envy you the old-growth you say is in your neighborhood. What, no pictures on your site?
Let us know when you need help moving boxes-o-stuff, though big heavies could be a problem as my back has been twitchy for several months.
As much as I like the readers of my site, Michelle & I have twitchy privacy concerns about putting photos of house up here. I do have some posted up on my Flickr account. To see those, you’ll have to be a registered Flickr user that I’ve marked as either a friend or a family member.
Also, never fear I’ll definitely be asking for help to move stuff once we get closer to that point in the game. Fortunately, I have at least a couple of people who owe me for helping them to move; so you won’t necessarily need to be lifting the really heavy stuff.
I tried to get on at the flickr account to look at the photos.
I’m glad you tried dear, but why leave me a comment the blog about it?
Because this way, you’d know that I was having problems.
Actually since you didn’t say you were having a problem; I didn’t realize that. You should treat this issue like any other computer question you have for me…. Which is to say ask me when we are both at home and you are at your computer.
That’s great. Make sure you budget for a new AC or Furnace if the units are more than 10 years old. I recommend a new Amana furnace. My parents got one and it is a freaking WWII tank, but it saves them like $200 on gas bills per month come January. For the AC, you usually need to replace the coil too, so don’t be cheap replace the unit and coil if needed.
We went through the house with an inspector yesterday and…
The AC is from 2002 and in good condition.
The furance is older but I don’t remember this morning how much older.
The inspector did find a couple of problems, so we’ll be talking to the realtor/seller about having those fixed or maybe the price reduced a bit more, but it still looks like a go. 🙂