Closing Time

Tomorrow is our closing date for our house here in Michigan and next Monday, March 26th, will be our closing on our new home in Cincinnati.

I'm sad to be saying goodbye to our home here, but happy to finally be at the end of this long process and looking forward to starting a new chapter for our family in Cincinnati. To back track a little, we did end up with Plan B from my last post. The potential major problems turned out to be one minor problem that will be fixed soon - something about flashing with the deck to prevent water from coming into the basement. I am very happy with Plan B - as one dear friend said, the B must be for better :)

Everything has been moving ahead steadily. We have mentally been deciding where everything will go and what we can bring and what we can leave behind. I have become intimate friends with Craigslist in an attempt to sell some of the things we won't need anymore. The biggest hurdle seems to be finding a new home for our pool table, so if you know anyone interested PLEASE let me know!

We have our movers scheduled to arrive here on April 4th and unload in Cincinnati the morning of April 6th. We aren't able to take possession of our house until April 5th so we will have one night in Michigan on the floor and one night in Cincinnati on the floor, it should be interesting with the kids! At least we have the Pack n' Play for Rylan to sleep in, I can't imagine trying to get her to sleep on the floor!

And here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for....Pictures of  Plan B! 

The Front

Basement

Pool Table will stay - why we need to get rid of the one we already have!

        

 Family Room 

Planning to take out the wall behind the love seat that separates the family room from the Kitchen

 Kitchen

Living Room and Dining Room 

For the time being, the Living Room will be Chris's office, there are sliding french doors that we will close to separate the rooms until Chris gets an office in Cincinnati

Master Bedroom and Bathroom

 Decks

Walk out to the lower deck from  Basement

Upper decks walk out from Kitchen and Mudroom

So that's we have so far. Obviously these are pictures from the previous owners, when we get our stuff in and more settled I'm sure I'll add more. We are very excited and can't wait to be there!

The New Home Update

So Chris and I went down to Cincinnati two weekends ago to find our perfect house. We had 13 houses scheduled to look at and saw 10 of them in one day. Luckily, that was all we needed to see. We found not one, but two houses we would be very happy with.

This was choice #1. It is PERFECT. It has 4 bedrooms upstairs, a completely remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, and finished basement. The yard is tiered and surrounded by woods. The owners accepted our offer on the contingency that their Short Sale they were trying to buy got its final bank approval. It was a done deal...until it wasn't. 

The sellers were doing everything they could to get the bank's final signature, they had their dream home in their grasp and so did we. After 3 days of getting the run around we finally got the word that the owner's of the short sale had completely stripped the house - cabinets, appliances, doors, etc. had all been taken. And then the bank had the nerve to ask for more money than they had originally approved. So the buyer's (our sellers) walked. And I can't blame them. But since they were only moving because their dream opportunity had arisen they decided to take their house off the market and we were on to plan b.

Plan B is on the same street, just off on a private drive with 2 other houses behind the main street. It is the EXACT same floor plan as the first house, but with obvious differences in what has been updated and how it has been updated. The main differences are that kitchen has been updated, but not fully remodeled, the only bathroom that has been updated is the master (nice new tub for me - YAY!) And although the basement has been updated and finished, it does not have a spare bedroom like the first house had.

We are very happy that this house was still available and we know it has a lot of potential after seeing what our first choice looked like. We just know that it'll take a bit longer, and some money, before it'll be just the way we want it. But some of the fun of buying a new house is putting your own stamp on it.

Chris, the kids, and I all went down today for the inspection. It was quite a long day, but I think very worthwhile in the end. The kids got a chance to see where were moving so now they have a picture in their minds when we talk about the move. I got a chance to refresh my memory and get a better feel for what we could leave behind in the move and see just what we want to get done in the future. We also had a few contractors out to go through the house to give us bids on a few projects we want done soon. We don't think we'll be able to do all three projects we had bid, but it'll be good to know how close or far off it'll be to do them all. 

The inspection wasn't perfect so this still isn't a done deal. There were 2 possible major issues that we need to get more information about and then negotiate with the owners. If they agree to whatever needs to be done then we should be fine and we're hoping to know more and have it all settled by the end of the week or early next week at the very latest.

It has all been very crazy and stressful, but Chris and I are confident that no matter what happens it'll all be as it's supposed to be whether its with this house or another house. Fingers crossed that it will be this house though ;)