Commander-in-Chief

No, not that kind of white house, but I suppose I am the Commander in Chief now.  I'm still getting used to not having a landlord. I'm sure none of you would want me as president.  Decision making is not my best quality.  I tend to think over things way too much.  Exhibit A: This blog.  It took me almost a week to actually think of a name for it and I'm still not completely sold on it.  But i figured I might as well start the blog while the house is still new.   As most of you know by now, I bought a house!  I wanted to start a blog so I can involve those who are very dear but not always so near. 

Let me tell you how I found the house in the first place. Most of you know my mom (and if you don't, you should), and know that she's a little crazy.  But always in a good way.  : )

 After I put an offer on a seemingly perfect house and got outbid, she just knew she could find me another one in the same area.  The neighborhood has cute, old (probably 1950's) houses, some needing more work than others. So she drove around until she saw one she liked and then wrote down the address.  No for sale sign - just a house.  When she got home, she looked online at the public tax records and found that most of the owners of these houses didn't actually live there, they were rental property. So being the go-getter that she is, she wrote letters asking if they would be interested in selling their house to me.  Crazy, right? Well, what's crazier is that several people actually got back to her.  She even had tea with a lovely elderly lady that was not able to sell me the house because her grandchildren were living there.

One of the letters happened to go to an elderly couple with several rent houses.  They had just been discussing whether to continue renting or sell the house.  They invited us to come and look at the house.  It was a cute little house - "little" being the key word.  While we were looking, my realtor was speaking to the owner and he mentioned he had one other empty house closer to downtown if I wanted to look at that one as well.  We drove right on over and it might have been love at first sight.  The red door is what sold me.  So cute! (I realized lately at least 4 out of 6 places I've lived have had a red door - I'm sensing a theme) I just knew they would be asking way over my budget, but once we started negotiations it didn't take too long to settle on a price- and now it's mine!

I'm hoping to use this blog to update friends and family on how things look. I'm always trying to find the best deal,  and rarely pay full price for anything. There's a lot of DIY around here too. I don't think I'll be featured on Extreme Couponing anytime soon, but i do love a good deal.  I think it's my Walton side coming out.  I've heard my Grandpa haggle down 50 cents down to 10 at a garage sale.  It's intense. I'm trying to make it look nice on a tight budget and that's almost more fun than a spending spree.

Also, here's Thursday, because who can resist that face?