The First of Many!

So much can happen in a week!

On Sunday we decided to drive by some houses to get a feel if we would be interested in looking at them or not. We did pretty well, crossed a few off the list because of location, and put a few in the we-want-to-see pile. There was one in particular that we really liked just from the outside so we decided to start scheduling showings right away.

Blake had the day off on Monday so he got in touch with his uncle and set up some times for us to look at houses. Unfortunately the house that we really liked had an offer accepted over the weekend. First lesson of house hunting: Don’t get attached. It was a bit disappointing but I know that it will all work out the way it should in the end. We did end up looking at two houses though, one in DeWitt and another in Bath. The DeWitt house is on 7 acres but needs a lot of work. Definitely not move in ready, but still a really nice house with good potential. The house in Bath was not so impressive. Just a weird layout and weird spaces and… well, weird. Plus it was in town which isn’t ideal, but we’re keeping our options open. I had a dream about the DeWitt house that night… kinda scary considering the amount of work we would have to put in, but I still haven’t figured out how to control my dreams…

Tuesday we had two more showings scheduled for houses in Perry. The first one wasn’t too impressive from the outside but had a great layout and a pretty big yard for being in town. It became a possibility, but not the most ideal choice, due to location and distance away from family. The second house looked really cute from the outside but the layout was weird, appliances were old, and it wasn’t nearly as nice as the first house. That one was pretty much out before we got back into the car.

Thursday night we went out to look at one more house. It’s in Shaftsburg which is a teeny town to the west of Perry which is a bit closer to family and only gives Blake a 15 minute drive to work. We drove by it on Sunday, even though it didn’t show up on MapQuest, and it’s a cute little house. Surprisingly it’s equally as cute on the inside! Very open layout, great kitchen, garage connected to the house with a breezeway, and a pretty large yard even though it’s not completely isolated from other houses. Drawbacks? Well… the bedrooms are a little on the small side which also means small closets and it is close to the Railroad tracks. Regardless of all of that though, it definitely moved to the top of our list. We were only left to wonder why it had been on the market for almost a year and a half…

This house hunting thing is not so easy. Not that we thought it would be, but there’s so much to think about! Trying to figure out how many houses to look at before we make an offer and when to make an offer so that we don’t pass up a house that we like and making sure that we don’t take on more than we can handle… I know that we’ll figure it out and find a house and I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason, but that doesn’t mean the journey won’t be complicated!

And So It Begins....

Last night Blake and I went to his Uncle’s house to start looking for houses. Luckily for us his Uncle is an appraiser and also has his realtor’s license, so we are thrilled to have his help!

After a great dinner and some chitchat we sat down at the computer. At first, we were content to look at houses in a radius of the East Lansing area, since that’s where Blake’s work is. Even just a 10 mile radius gave us a listing of over 500 houses for sale. Sweet. So after a quick discussion we eliminated a few areas where we would prefer not to buy - Lansing mainly - and narrowed it down by school district. Granted, it will hopefully be at least 7 years before we have to worry about schools so it’s not a deciding factor, but at least it’s easier to narrow down the areas that we’re interested in.

After narrowing it down we had about 180 homes to look at and narrowed it down even further by using the “garage” criteria - If it doesn’t have a garage, we aren’t interested. Yeah, yeah, it’s probably not the best thing to use to help us narrow the search, but we’re really really really tired of scraping snow and ice in the winter. That gave us a pool of about 130 houses which we felt we could handle.

When looking at house info we checked off houses we might be interested in based on… well, anything. Square footage made us pass up some houses. Others didn’t show well on camera - especially kitchens - and were eliminated. Some were even too far away from Blake’s work and he wasn’t willing to drive that far. After a while we had a list of 80 and we decided that we would go from there.

So now begins the laborious process of sorting through the listings that we have and deciding what we’re still interested in. Then we group by location and go see some houses! We’re really in no rush but it would be nice to be eligible for that tax credit - though there have been rumors of it being extended too, so I guess we’ll see. I’m planning on taking a notebook and camera with me to keep track of everything that we look at, so updates will be posted as time allows. Hopefully we’ll find at least one that we like!!

Marriage: The Final Frontier (at least until divorce)

This is something that has been driving me crazy and I just can’t hold my tongue any longer.  When I tell people I just got married, two out of three will say something congratulatory and the conversation will continue.  But the one always launches into how even though nothing has changed yet it will soon, and how their 28 marriages all started out ok too, and how horrible divorce is, blah, blah, blah.  SERIOUSLY?!?  I mean I realize that not everyone takes their vows to heart.  I also realize that very many marriages end in divorce.  But can’t you keep your big mouth shut?  Just say, “Congratulations” and move on!! 

Now, I admit that perhaps the one in three estimation may be a bit of an exaggeration.  But even if it’s one out of five or ten, it still happens far too often.  First off, sorry if you’re not happy but I am.  I’ve been happy for the past three and a half years and even happier for the last year.  I understand that marriage takes work and not every moment will be wonderful, but happy is happy.  Secondly, advice is fine, but why does it have to be so negative?  If you’re divorced and really want to tell me why it happened go ahead, but is it really hard to say it in such a way that sounds encouraging?  Like, “Whatever you do, make sure you communicate.  It’ll really help you out in the long run.”  Awesome!  Thank you!  Blake and I communicate just fine, but good to know we should keep doing that. 

And while I’m discussing divorce, I understand that it can’t always be avoided and is sometimes very much justified.  That being said, I really don’t think that people today take marriage seriously enough.  They marry quickly without much thought of the real implications of marriage and then often aren’t willing to put in the time to make the marriage work.  Then when things get a little too difficult they decide that it isn’t worth the effort and take the easy way out by getting a divorce. 

I think the thing that frustrates me the most about all of this business is that some people who are committed to each other, have been for years, and will be until they die, can’t get married.  Apparently a happy, stable, and committed relationship just isn’t enough of a justification to allow anyone who wants to marry to do so.  I know that rant was a bit off topic, but I think it all ties in to the idea of how society today views marriage.

All of that being said, Blake and I are glad to be married.  As of yet, not a whole lot has changed for us in our everyday life and honestly it probably won’t until we have children.  Since that will be a few years off still, I think we’re good. 

So if all you want to do is talk about how it won’t work, keep it to yourself.  But if you have any helpful positive advice, bring iton!!

More Storage!!

So one of the other things that we got from the registry event was a space saver for over the toilet.  We have a medicine cabinet but it's not nearly big enough to store anything and the other little cabinet we have is hardly big enough for my hairdryer and curling iron.

Now, since our apartment has a both a full and half bath you would think that we would each have our own bathroom and that space wouldn't really be an issue.  Well... six months ago you would have been right.  However, our wonderful five year old kitty has been having allergy issues and we've had to keep her in one of the two bathrooms on and off so that she actually uses her litter box.  It's definitely not her fault, she's just been really uncomfy and we were trying to help her.

Anyway..... the space saver came today (since it had to be shipped from another store) and I put it together this afternoon.  I only screwed up once, but I fixed it, and now we have more storage!!  And our bathroom counter won't be cluttered with all of my morning get-ready stuff!!  Here it is.....

A Place to Eat!!

This past Sunday we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy the final things on our registry.  They offered 20% off not only our registry items, but anything else in the store or online that we wanted.  To top it off they also offered free shipping!

We had a list of things that we wanted, including a rug cleaner which will come in handy with pets over the years.  On that list was a small pub table with stools that I thought would be perfect for our small dining area.  For the last year, we had a big oval table there, but took it down this summer to make the space feel more open.  Plus, we didn't really use it to eat on - more for piling things when we came in the door.  We had to order it from another store because it was on clearance, but with no shipping charge it was definitely worth it.

They told us it would take about a week to get to us, but it came today!!  It was exciting, but a little crazy at the same time because I hadn't made space for it quite yet.  I was also in a rush because I wanted to have it up by the time Blake got home from work.  I had about 2 hours to clean, assemble, and store some things but I got it done!!  And now we can actually eat in our dining room!! Hooray!

Here's the finished product...

Yeah, I know I need candles for the candlesticks, but other than that it's a great table for the two of us.  We just have to convince the cats that it's not an extension of their cat tree and then we'll be all set!

The Journey Begins...

I decided to start this blog to keep track of events in our life especially as we begin our adventure into marriage.  It's just meant to keep track of major happenings and the feelings we have about them.  Hopefully in years to come we can use it to reflect on our experiences and see how far we've come together!