Let's see... where to start?
HOUSE #1
Saturday-Sunday, November 8-9
We went looking with our realtor for the first time. We saw some real nasty places (a function of having a low budget in an expensive city), but eventually found an adorable cape cod foreclosure that was old with real character right in the heart of Falls Church, VA. It was a steal of a deal (less than $300K when the other places in the neighborhood were going for $400-$500K!), so we told our realtor we wanted to put in an offer. She quickly found out by talking to the listing agent that there had already been multiple offers put in on the place and it was about to go under contract. Big bummer, but we just kept trusting God that He would close and open the right doors for the right place for us.
THE END OF AN ERA
Monday, November 10
I went to work as usual, sat through a scheduling meeting in the morning and then got working. At about 11:00 am, I was called into my big boss' office, with my immediate boss also. I knew it wasn't good news, and it wasn't... I was laid off. I actually wasn't that surprised, because there had already been 2 other rounds of layoffs and I knew my company was hurting big time. The work had all but stopped altogether, and every month was a fight to get paid, since our clients are mostly developers and there isn't exactly much development going on right now. They let myself and the three remaining youngest designers go. In some ways, I was relieved because the job quality was seriously degraded from when I started there. The kind of work I was doing was desperately tedious, and everyone was so stressed about finances it was a depressing place to w
ork. I guess that helped me be glad to be rid of it, in a way. Of course, no job means no paycheck, which also means a serious change in our financial situation... so praise God we hadn't put the offer in on the house! Also praise God that back when Joel and I got married He really laid it on our hearts to try to live as much as possible on Joel's income, and pay off our student loans with mine, so that way when we had kids I could stay home and we would be free from debt and not used to an inflated standard of living. So, all in all, financially we will be okay. And I can't lie... the break has been great so far!
BROADENING OUR HORIZONS
Tuesday, Nov. 11
We looked at our budget and determined that with a slightly reduced mortgage from what we were originally thinking we could still afford to get the house. Luckily our monthly mortgage payment budget was just a small amount more than our rent right now, so with a little bit less we could still afford it, and also build some equity... assuming we found the right place that didn't require we dump a ton of money in to make it livable. With a little online searching, we quickly came to the conclusion that we might not find what we were looking for inside the DC beltway, and that a small town about 25 miles outside of the city had a lot of affordable places. Luckily the town isn't just a suburb (gag!) but actually a small town that used to have the railroad going through it. Now the railroad is a trail, but they've maintained the old town and it's quite adorable. Check out the town of Herndon's website here.
LOOKING AND HOPING
Wednesday, Nov. 12
We contacted our realtor so that she could add another search to our existing search to include a few towns outside the beltway- Fairfax, Herndon and Leesburg. We got the revised search which had some 290 listings under $300K- all outside the beltway! This is in addition to the search we simultaneously had going for the DC area! So late into the night I sorted through them all, making multiple lists of "tier 1" and "tier 2" for our "closer in" and "further out" searches. It was quite a job, but helped pass my idle hours.
SYMPHONY AND SEARCHING
Thursday, Nov. 13
After going to the open rehearsal of the National Symphony Orchestra with my former boss (who was laid off in March), I went out with the realtor while Joel was at work. We went to the "closer in" places to see if maybe, just maybe, there was something nice that we could afford in the city. Joel was able to meet up with us half way through. We did find one townhouse that looked okay, but we wanted to wait until the following Saturday to see what we found out in the 'burbs.
LIKING HERNDON
Friday, Nov. 14
Mostly uneventful but we did go out to Herndon and drove around. We determined that Herndon is adorable and Fairfax is not so much, and we were waiting on Leesburg cuz it's even farther out. We let Ann (our realtor) know so we could focus our Saturday search on Herndon.
AN OFFER
Today, Saturday, Nov. 15
We went out this morning with Ann to Herndon and saw a bunch of places. Some of them had so many people in them and we so dirty we just turned around and left. But there a couple that were pretty good, definitely more than around the city, and one in particular that was incredible. It's a townhouse that has been completely remodeled in a pretty nice neighborhood, connected one mile from downtown Herndon via the bike path (old railway line). It has a garage, all new appliances, carpet, etc. It is beautiful. And, as a plus, it's a "regular sale" so it doesn't have the drama and waiting of a short sale or a foreclosure. Here's a picture (not great since it's off the website... my camera battery was dead) and the link to the trulia site.
After we looked at the places, we went back to Ann's office and did some price research to determine what we should offer. She started working on the contract while we headed back home to get our checkbook for the earnest money. Oh yeah, did I mention that Joel was catching a flight tonight to go out of the country?!? So we also rushed around and finished packing his bags so that we could go from the realtor's office to the airport! It was a bit stressful, but it all worked out. We signed all the papers, put in a strong offer and are hoping and praying for the best. Hopefully I will have good news to report soon.
Until then, I will be keeping myself busy around the house, and most likely will be spending a lot of time at the gym. Hopefully soon I will be able to start packing!
Thanks for your prayers, and for reading this incredibly long post. I promise to keep more up-to-date, and right the moment I have all the time in the world!
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