Spreading Holiday Cheer with Shutterfly

Well, M&J are getting ready to do what everyone else is out doing...

No, not Christmas shopping (although that needs to be done - thanks for the reminder). Actually, we need to order our Christmas Cards. We really struggled with a location this year, which is uncommon for us. We knew we wanted to feature our first place in some way, but that is easier said than done, especially when lots of your home is UNFINISHED. Don't think an incomplete room does much for a beautiful Christmas Card.

After multiple attempts to try to get "the right photo", then J went looking for the right card. She searched site after site, and then found multiple (I know, this never happens) cards that she LOVED on Shutterfly's website! AND to make it even better, Shutterfly is having a promotion right now for bloggers and they are giving them 50 free holiday cards if they share their favorite cards. If you'd like to learn more about it, go here and if not AT LEAST check out Shutterfly's website and pick out some Christmas cards if you haven't already ordered yours.

These are just a few of my favorites from their site and why I love them -

J loves this one for its simplicity and for the monogram:

And this one for its unique vertical design with two photos:

As well as this one for its unique fonts:

Not sure what we'll choose yet, but with so many options, J is hoping to pick something that is NOT red (the last two years have been red and M&J should really branch out and try something different) and M is hoping for something that isn't too girly. We'll see how successful we are...

Also, if you're looking for a good Christmas gift idea, I heard these make great gifts:

Home Inspection

Our counter-offer was accepted, and now it was time for the home inspection. We lined up an inspector for March 24th, and had family ready to come with us to help us talk through our plans after this home would (hopefully) be ours. We were on a deadline, after all...

Our (Possible) Future Home on Inspection Day

M & J were armed and prepared for this inspection. J had her camera, M had his tape measure and both were carrying pen and paper. The goal was to get photos of all the rooms, dimensions of all the rooms and get an idea of what would (or should) be our priorities. After all, J was picking out which photos would be hung on which wall, while M was talking logistics and priorities. M & J were clearly on different paths. Oops. Not good.

Getting Dimensions of the Full Bathroom

At the end of the inspection, it was all good news. Anything that was found was a very minimal issue, (so minimal that we can't remember what they were), so we were glad to have a positive report. Because of the outdoor temperature, our air conditioner could not be started and checked. We were feeling great and were ready to finalize all the paperwork and OFFICIALLY be homeowners.

House #3 - St. John

At this point, we were hoping that third time would be a charm. However, we didn't know which house would be lucky number 3...

We waited about a month to see if anything else was going to come on the market, and during this time, M's father passed away. We continued to look, but realized that time was moving fast and we were going to be wanting a place of our own pretty soon. J had accepted a position in Central KS, but M & J were still living in their house in Manhattan at the time. This led to J (and occasionally M) living with J's parents (and occasionally M's mother). Although this worked out just fine, and M & J were VERY thankful to have a place to stay, we were ready to have our own place. We had to be out of our home in two months, and we needed to get the buying process started.

After waiting for more options that it seemed were never coming, we decided to re-evaluate the homes we had already seen to see if there was something that could work for us, whether on a temporary basis or a situation where we could flip the house and get something else in the future if we didn't love the house we purchased. There were no quality options for renting, so this led us to re-evaluate past options.

We narrowed it down to two places we thought might work - both homes we had already seen at least once. One was located on Clark St, and was a former veterinarian's home. It was very custom-built - picture a weird layout, carpet in the master bath, walking through an open master bath to get to the bedroom, etc. To top it off, an awkward red and black checkerboard carpeted wet bar area and a linoleum tiled rec room were not at the top of our list. This home had large rooms, a main floor laundry room and the most updated kitchen we had seen, but these things did not make up for other things we would have to fix, much less the price. Given its need for remodeling and its age, we felt it was way overpriced and didn't think we stood a chance to buy it at the price we were willing to pay.

Clark Street

Our second option was the house we never really considered the first time around. We were so taken by the interior blemishes that we hadn't really looked at potential - all we saw was what was there. The price was below what we were willing to pay, but it still had issues. An awful 18" back door. Lots of holes and scrapes down doors and woodwork that was scattered with multiple colors of paint. The basement was finished, which was great, but it seemed that the kitchen and bathrooms would have to go immediately, and this entire home was going to need lots of TLC to get back to what it should be and even more to improve it. It was in a great neighborhood, with a large back yard and had lots of potential to become a great home. We just had to decide if we were willing to put in the work, the time and the money to make this home a great home and our home.

St. John

After visiting both homes again, taking family to have them share their opinions, we decided to put in an offer. (Hopefully) considering all things and weighing all the pros and cons, we chose to put in an offer on the house on St. John. We called our realtor, and after talking through our options, we put in our offer and waited. We received a counter-offer, and then chose to counter-offer one time. If our offer wasn't accepted at this point, we were willing to walk away. We had done it twice before, and the third time would be no different. Now all we had to do was wait...

House #2 - Truesdell Street

After recovering from the loss of house #1, we were on to Plan B.

While visiting our hometown over the weekend, we happened to see a yard sign advertising an upcoming house auction. Although we weren't expecting a great house to be up for auction, we thought it couldn't hurt to drive by and look. We were pleasantly surprised - brick home, good neighborhood, large fenced in back yard - and rushed home to see what we could find out about this house online. We could see pictures, and we weren't totally turned off from what we saw. Only one bathroom, but it was large. Main floor laundry, large master bedroom (could be two rooms) and an open living, dining and kitchen space. The home had an unfinished basement, but there were possibilities for extra bedrooms, bathroom(s) and family room. It needed some work, but yet again, lots of potential.

Auction House - Truesdell Street

We slept on the thought of bidding on this home for a few nights, and in the end decided to go to the auction and bid on what might be our first home. One problem. M was going to be out of state for work on the day of the auction. GREAT. This left J to suffer bid on the house by herself. Luckily, her dad was willing to come to the auction and work through it with her. M & J thought through all the possibilities so (hopefully) J wouldn't have to do much deciding on her own the day of the auction - it's hard to think of all possibilities that could come up during an auction! You've been to 'em - people start throwing up their arms or just stick up one finger (not that one) to bid and you're left guessing "Was that me? Did someone behind me bid? I don't want to turn around and look to see who did it - you don't do that during auctions! No, I didn't want to bid that much!"

After talking through tons of situations that might arise, and finally determining a price we were willing to bid up to, M left on his trip and J headed back to Central KS to bid on what might be their first place. Long story short, after J thinking she might be buying their first place, she was outbid (by much more than M & J were willing to pay knowing the amount of money it was going to take to fix it up). J was by far the youngest bidder there, and thought was hoping that the others would give up in and let her buy it, seeing as they knew it would be their first place. But, wasn't going to happen. She sucked it up and held in her tears and then called M to tell him that yet again, someone else won what was supposed to be their house. Hopefully the third time would be the charm...

House #1 - Arnold Drive

After looking at a few more houses during January and early February, we thought we found "the one." It needed some work, but after walking through it with our families, we were told the work could easily be done. The upstairs was finished and just needed some updating. Laundry was on the main floor, formal living room and family room, formal dining room, space for an eat-in kitchen AND a sun room that J already had re-done and decorated (in her mind, not literally). The basement had two workspaces - a workshop for M and a craft room for J - and room to finish off the other half and add lots of square footage to the home. Yay for potential!

Front of House

Back of House - Doesn't that sun room just scream potential?!?

We pictured our stuff in this house, pictured our (future) children in the backyard and had already been to Home Depot and Lowes fifty thousand times to pick out our new paint, cabinets and countertops. (We have never been ones to jump the gun or get ahead of ourselves – if you know us, you know we are lying here – but by this point, we had a large bag worth of samples, brochures and examples of anything and everything that we might need or want when re-designing our future home. Just being honest here - don't judge.)

We finally agreed that we should just call and start the process of putting in an offer. After crunching the numbers, we made an informed decision on what we wanted to offer and M called the realty company. The worst they could say was it sold, right? WRONG. Think “I’m sorry, sir, but that house just went under contract earlier this morning,” didn’t hurt to hear? Ouch.

On to plan B.