Tuesday, August 14, 2012

First House Madness

I used to roll my eyes at people who missed weeks and weeks of their normal lives to buy a house. Like, how distracting can it be, really? My apologies to any of those people. I am in the process of buying my first house (we close Thursday!) and I am completely distracted.

The most recent casualty in this house buying extravaganza is my entry in the BJJ tournament a week from Saturday. Here are my excuses for dropping out:

  • I would rather put the money towards my house
  • I don't even like competing, why am I doing something I don't find fun
  • It was killing my motivation for jiu jitsu in general.
This last one is the only one that worries me. I may not have any love of competing but I do love going to class ... usually. But as soon as I signed up I dropped from 3-4 classes a week to 2 classes. I can blame that on the house if I want, but I think it had more to do with the tournament.

I don't feel bad about this. I did what I needed to do and no one will be really impacted by my decision. At least I was back in class tonight and finally happy to be there for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, back to the house.
As you can see, its green. Very green. With red shutters. I hated the outside, at first, but its already been renamed in my mind as "Christmas House" and I plan on continuing the red and green theme in the back yard (which is dead and is thus a blank slate).

Its not my dream house or anything, but it has a few things I like. It has a random pond in front, which I will fill with horrors on Halloween (and maybe other things for other holidays). The driveway actually slopes down to the road. The living room has built in shelves that are begging me to fill them with clutter. Yeah. It's my house. Or, it will be, on Thursday.

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations to you both. Hey, if you don't want to compete, don't do it. Have fun and keep it that way!! I Love You!!

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  2. It’s pretty terrorizing, right? In a sense that it is interfering with your regimen. I hope you didn’t forget to take advice from your realtor. They’ll be more than willing to assist you with the negotiation. Anyway, “Christmas House” is a nice name. They say branding something with a name can help you develop a certain attachment with it. How’s your relationship with it now? :)

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  3. So were you able to buy the house already? Your plans sound really exciting! It would really be fun to have a “Christmas House,” as it can always lift up your spirits. :) Congratulations! It looks like a good deal.

    Justin Bill

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  4. So, I guess you’re already enjoying living in your house by now. How was the negotiation of the mortgage? How many years did you choose to pay it off? Well, I hope everything went smoothly. Tip: make an extra advanced payment of the mortgage because it can save you a lot of money in the future.

    >Levi Ervin

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    Replies
    1. I learned a lot negotiating my first mortgage. I think I could've done better, but I didn't know what to ask for and I was one of those who thought interest rates would have gone back up by now. It is a standard 30 year mortgage. I am paying extra until I get rid of the mortgage insurance, but then I will go back to paying the minimum - especially if rates start to go up. I will invest the extra cash elsewhere. I should be able to get a higher return almost anywhere.

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