3 posts tagged “home buying”
In a settlement that went as painlessly as it could get (only a couple hours), Cyndi and I walked into our new home for the first time as owners! My boss said yesterday as I was leaving yesterday to close that it always rains hard on the really important days of my life (graduation, wedding, now home-buying). And yesterday, it sure did rain.
After closing, we just sat around on the empty floors of our new place, talking about what we wanted to do with this room or that, what we wanted to do with the future and how lucky we were for the present. We decided to go grab dinner at Bua, one of our favorite Thai places in town.
On the way there, we ran into not one but two people we knew, something that instantly made it feel more like a neighborhood than where we are now. We also decided (on my sister's advice) to get the food to go and eat it on the floor. Food in hand and a quick stop at CVS to get solo cups (for the champagne, of course!) we headed back up to the new place.
We ate on the floor as the storm rolled through. The perfect ending to a really exhausting and anxiety-ridden day.
Oddly enough, this was a harder decision to make than actually deciding to buy the place. I'm not sure why that was the case, but it was. I'm afraid some of my more cynical attributes are coming out. Paperwork does that to me, I suppose.
Anyway, the flickr set has a few more photos from today's home inspection. I put together a Vox collection, too, just for kicks. We're already thinking of ways to fix it up and make it ours (you can make checks out to either me or Cyndi).
Oh, and in other news, I finally got my Tivo yesterday (note: for DHL, overnight=one week). So I guess things are looking up. Now the question is, am I going to have cable in a month to utilize the Tivo...
Bid offered, bid accepted. Cyndi and I are buying a condo! Two bedroom in Dupont Circle, just off 17th and S--just five blocks from where we are now! It's all still pretty dream-like (it became "official" last night). Neither of us (nor our realtor) thought it was possible to stay in Dupont with our budget, but I guess sometimes you get lucky. While it's not perfect, I can really see the two of us setting up a home of our own there.
Pictures
Okay, pictures. I don't have a lot right now, but you can check out the current set on my flickr account (oh, some pictures from Aven's BBQ are on there, too). The home inspection is either today or tomorrow, so either Cyndi or I will try and go armed with a camera for better documentation.
How did this happen?
I think most of you knew, but Cyndi and I have been house hunting for a couple months now (first part online, second part checking out houses). Anyway, based on that, we had a pretty good feel for how (expensive) things were, where we could afford, and in general what things were at where. We wanted to stay in DC and decided that we wanted safety over space, so that helped narrow our search down and ruled out some of the more transitional neighborhoods.
We'd basically written off Dupont Circle/Logan Circle area as out of our price range and were concentrating on Columbia Heights and parts of Capitol Hill.
Then the 17th Street place opened up. Based on the list price and the location, the three of us (Cyndi, our realtor, and I) had decided that the place must either be a dump or would get bid up out of our price range, but we decided to check it out anyway. Walking in, we immediately determined that it was the latter. It was old, but there was a lot of potential. And oh, the location! A block from all the 17th Street restaurants (and Lauriol Plaza, someone later pointed out). A few blocks from the Textile Museum. Still walking distance to work. And in a more "neighborhoody" area.
So anyway, while we were checking it out, the owner walked in. She was extremely nice, apologizing profusely for being there and assuring us she'd get out quickly. She was a little older than us, in the next I-want-to-have-a-baby stage of life, so was moving out to a U Street house. Anyway, we chatted a bit and she told us about the place: how it may be possible to add a master bath off the bedroom, or that we could knock the wall down between the kitchen and living room to open up the space, or that people were allowed to install a washer/dryer in the condo, or that a lot of the condo interior (halls, stairwell) were getting renovated shortly, or that there was a roof deck. You know, all things that we hoped to God no one else would find out about during the upcoming open house.
After we left, Mark (our realtor) was just as excited about the place as us, but also was pretty frank in that there was no way we could get it. While the price was within our reach, he was pretty certain it would be bid up (any bidding war would immediately exclude us). Still, the three of us figured we might as well take a shot in the dark, did the paper work Sunday night, got it in Monday morning. Thanks to Mark and his hard work pushing things through, we got it! There was a second bid possibility out there, but that party didn't get their paper work over and in the end, the owner decided to go with us. Apparently she really liked us after having met us, so I guess niceness sometimes pays off?
What now?
Home inspection. Closing (mid-June). Move in. We have some overlap between our current place and the new one, so we can take our time moving between the two (and paint, etc.). Oh, that reminds me, if anyone is interested in a really nice apartment at 18th and N, let me know; I'd rather see someone else get such a good deal than it to go back to strangers.
The whole process shockingly quick and very easy (although pretty stressful in that short period of time). Apparently it's easier to buy a home than it is to get your Tivo replaced. I'll keep you all posted with pictures and what not.
Still in shock, but yay!
