We are crossing a huge item off the Baby Bucket List. As in HUGE.

We own a house!! I’m still in shock, and its been a week since we closed…Marmot and I still occasionally look at each other and giggle, because we own our dream house. OMG!!

Now there are some downsides to the house of dreams, most of it related to this picture below being one of the more organized rooms in the house.

But its our vintage wallpaper, and our disaster of a living room, and that’s so much better than renting!

And yeah, wallpaper stripping party at my house this weekend…no seriously, you’re invited.

I’m so over living in a 95-year-old house. Why, you ask? Because we have RODENTS in our house, and we got to spend time last weekend, on the PRECIOUS stinking weekend whose hours I value more than coffee, hunting for a damn mouse. Again.

The closing on the house is set for June 24th. That is in 16 DAYS people! I’m so excited I can actually SMELL the carpet that needs to be cleaned before we move in.

Many many ideas for once we get the house, that involve stripping wallpaper, painting (including trim and doors and ceilings), refinishing the hardwood floors, and decorating the living daylights out of it. Oh baby do I have ideas. Three and a half years of renting and I want to paint something. ANYthing.

We went over (the house is empty) and looked at the backyard- the snow camouflaged the amazing landscaping, and while it is really overgrown, its going to look amazing after a weekend or two of weeding and pruning. The thought of me with some pruning shears should scare the wits out of all plant matter in a five-mile radius. Especially knowing my issues with suddenly sprouting bangs anytime scissors are left unattended near the bathroom.

But in the meantime- because everything is still processing and isn’t 100% (honestly I won’t believe its real until they hand us the keys) could I ask for some prayers that the house stuff will go smoothly? Its been a rough road to get to this point, and we just want to sail through to the closing. The pessimistic side of me is just waiting to be told that it won’t happen and we’ll move to Plan B (the apartment) but the optimistic side of me is still hoping. Prayers would be appreciated!

Marmot, my Mom and I approached the estate sale with all the strategy of a military takeover. We were armed with lists of the things we wanted, scissors for cutting tags off if needed, reusable bags to carry the small stuff, comfortable (ugly) shoes, and a whole lot of polarfleece to withstand the Midwestern sub-zero temps while waiting in line. Marmot and I spent $250 at the estate sale, and since we had set a cap of $300, we were pretty happy with that!

Here is the haul:

*TV’s! A 30″ TV that will be awesome in the sunroom, $40. And a small TV that fits into a nook in the kitchen, $25. Cooking shows anyone?

*A desk! My Ikea desk isn’t going to make it through the move (it comes apart, but doesn’t go back together) so I bought a little white desk with drawers and a CPU ledge, $25.

*Marmot’s haul included a new weedwhacker ($60, regularly $200+), a barely used SwissGear sleeping bag for $6, a gallon of Round-Up for $2, a space heater for $6, and a DeLonghi dual zone deep fryer for $30.

*Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning products! Two liquid hand soaps, two countertop sprays, and one shower spray- in my favorite scents, lemon verbena and geranium! $4

*Candles! Two large Yankee jar candles in frosted pumpkin and peppermint cocoa, and one Woodwick candle in cotton flower. $5

*And the best of the best….thrown into a plastic bag with bandaids and qtips, about $85 worth of Lush bath products. The price tag on the bag? $2, yes, $2 as in two George’s. I used the Sakura bath bomb last night, but the best part of the amazing bath was the good price I paid for it!

****Additional haul: we went back today (Sunday) which is half-price day, and got five more candles, a book, a candle warmer, some hella expensive skincare products, and a gas grill for $25. Score!

But the biggest thing I took away from the sale? The fact that stuff really doesn’t mean much. This woman died suddenly in her mid-thirties, and left a house jam-packed of just stuff. As I survey our current house and everything we need to pack for the move, it makes me want to clean out even more. I feel like the new house is a clean slate, and I don’t want to move a single extra thing with us! More stuff doesn’t necessarily make your life better, and it can detract from the relationships that really do make your life better. Definitely food for thought as I declutter and donate getting ready for the move!

-So we got the mortgage thing figured out for now. I would say for sure but nothing in mortgage financing is for sure, so I’ll just say for now. Woo hoo right? Right. But here is the little teeny tiny problem. We’re short about $3500 for closing costs. Ho-ly crap.

-Based on the new closing cost estimates, my frugality is on overdrive….nothing new with that, but I’ve started encroaching on Marmot’s territory. I ventured into the Man Room and picked out some things that could be sold. Note to self- do that when Marmot isn’t home.

-I think organic food snobbery is the advancement of lunchroom judgment over who has the PBJ. I got judged in the grocery store, with just a look, over how much organic vs. non-organic food in my cart.

-Tuesday is my 3rd Weight Watchers weigh-in, and I’m nervous like I am for tests in school! I’ve been good, but it seems like not good enough. Paranoia I wonder, or just premonition?

-I’m trying not to get my hopes up about house things (its a deep-rooted Italian superstitious streak) but I think I’d like to paint the little bedroom in the new house as the nursery. I’m thinking blue, because I can use that for a girl or boy. Optimism, or jumping the gun?

-Stay tuned this week for a post on frugality, a Weight Watchers weigh-in, my newest baby obsession, and thoughts on homebirth!

Still waiting on the scoop from Mortgage Man about what the hell happened that made my credit score drop since November? But praying that everything is fine and just proceeding as planned until we hear otherwise. We had our housing inspection yesterday, and it all went good! The things that were found are minor (the garbage disposal doesn’t work, etc.) and are all things we’re happy to take care of. The house is an absolute disaster with the cleaning out and sorting for the estate sale (it belonged to a woman who died suddenly) but its fun to imagine what we can do with the space and how it will look. The house has a massive amount of ‘stuff’ in it and her family is on the coast, so we’ve offered the family the option to just leave whatever isn’t sold in the estate sale and we can deal with it. It will be a lot of work, but we’ve got a two month overlap with the new house and the house we’re renting, so we’ll have time to clean out and then do all the painting, removing carpet, etc. that we’re planning. Its going to be a busy spring!

…then it’s meant to be, right?

They accepted our offer on the house. No counter offer, just accepted it. We’ll have a signed purchase agreement once the snowpocalypse on the East Coast is over, they’re snowed in!

Marmot and I are in shock! And ecstatic! We have a house!! But I’m resisting crossing it off the Baby Bucket List (over there <—-) until closing day, because I’m Italian and we’re superstitious like that. We close April 30th. That is only 76 days away!!

But oh my god, we have a house!!

We have finally agreed on a house. As in 100% agreement. I repeat, my husband and I have agreed on a house. How could you miss it, did you not hear the hallelujah chorus? Its truly an act of God. I didn’t think it would ever happen! Marmot really wanted to see this house, but I didn’t want to after we agreed to walk away from the house I was in love with. And I did plan on disliking everything in the house on principle, because Marmot insisted on seeing it. Yeah, I love it. We did our second walk-through, and we made an offer on it last night.  OMG we made an offer, and my husband is in love with the house!! In the words of Clark Griswold, if I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet, I couldn’t be any more surprised than I am now. Seriously.

There is a happy dance going on at my house! Just think imagine the Hamster Dance Song, and me boogie-woogie-ing along with it….now go pour bleach in your eyes to remove that mental picture and don’t worry, Weight Watchers post coming soon!

Ok, so we’re done with the house deal.

We’re going to reconvene in two weeks and see if anything has changed and we could make it happen, but the closing date makes it a no-go.

Its KILLING me. But I refuse to borrow money over it, because moving always costs more than you think it does, and I have a major aversion to taking on more debt with what we already have.

Back to the drawing board. *sigh*

Are you all sick of hearing about house drama? I am!!

So this house deal just won’t quit. We made an offer a week ago tonight! Its been back and forth, and we finally told Realtor Man on Friday that we’re not going to negotiate anymore. I had a sad day or two, cried once, and told Marmot we were going to be renting for the rest of our natural lives.

But Realtor Man called us on Sunday because the seller’s realtor called him to say they would like to counter, and we essentially just countered the (millionth?) counter, again!

So they’re considering it, and are going to the bank tomorrow. The sticky part is that they’re trying to buy a bank-owned property, and have to meet a set of stipulations such as the closing date which is where we got hung up during negotiations.

So we’re doing what we do best….waiting! Hoping to hear from Realtor Man tonight!