My House

So You Want to Buy a House...


Thanks to Uncle Sam, a lot of adoption expenses, a change in tax laws, and a good accountant that knew or could figure out everything much easier and with a lot less screaming and pulling of hair than I could, Kent and I ended up with a VERY large tax return. Large enough that it was like try to answer if you won amount x on a game show or a lottery what would you do with it. (okay maybe not that much but it was a good amount). With a huge student loan debt, two dying cars, and a desire to buy a house what would you have done? Well we put some if it toward our student loan (the private loan that wont get paid off if Kent stays with his public interest job for 10 years). And then we decided to put the rest into a down payment on a home.

So began the process of buying a home. At first I was so excited I was giddy. Then we actually started looking at homes, and I went from frustrated to confused and back to frustrated. I we didn't even look that long. There was so much more to think about. What about the schools, are they good, how do you really know. Could we get them into a school outside the boundaries, what about charter schools. Is it a good neighborhood, and mostly how much could we really afford? Every spare moment we had was used to search and search the internet for houses, or to drive through neighborhoods. And then one day I'm talking with our realtor (who is awesome) we go to see a house that night and the next thing I know we are under contract. The excitement is still there but so is a lot of anxiety and a lot of work.

We closed on Thursday morning.  Monday we began scrubbing walls.