Like father...

like son.

I caught Carter playing with Brian's guitar equipment after his nap. Luckily, Brian has learned the importance of latching his guitars into their stand (Cater's pushed them over on more than one occasion).

We are about to be...

homeowners!

Our offer was accepted by the sellers, we have our contingent home inspecition scheduled for Monday afternoon and we should close on or around April 6th. Its a great house and we're very excited. Our heads are still spinning just a little over how fast this happened (and how much money homes cost, even in Syracuse's very affordable housing market), but we are thrilled.

What are we up to?

Just...

playing dress up.

Highs and Lows

We found a house. 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, full, unfinished basement, 2100 square feet of living space. Good neighboorhood, less than 15 minutes to work. Not a lot of land, but a great backyard with a pool and a playstructure (swings, slide, fort kind of thing). We were all set to draw up paper work and make an offer tomorrow.

Our agent called us today after church.

The owner accepted an offer last night.

That was the 4th house that we've really liked that has sold before we've had a chance to make an offer. And we've only been in the market a week.

So, now its back to square one. And I'm sad now.

Lesson learned: don't wait if you want to make an offer. Good houses in our price range go fast.

House Hunting

We are officially in the market for a home of our own. It happened way sooner than we were expecting it too, but we are so ready to be done renting. Once we figured out that we could scrape together a good down payment in 8 weeks, we were all in.

So we're looking. Don't love anything yet. We thought we were going to love one. It was bank owned and looked so great in the pictures. The upstairs was GORGEOUS, but the kitchen was cheaply redone by the bank and it needed to have closet rods and shelves put in every closet and pantry, and the basement gave us come concerns too. I wanted to love it, but I was more concerned than in love.

Where do you make the compromise between a home thats the right price vs thats the right size, one that needs updating vs one that only needs personalization? I realize that with our budget and buying our first home I'm not going to get a perfect dream home that needs nothing and we'll stay there our whole lives. But can I get something that I like in my budget? I suppose its not fair to judge yet... we've only seen 4 homes so far. But is our house out there? Will it come along soon enough for my liking? And how much am I going to have to compromise?