Officially Closed on Our Second Home!

September 6, 2012

On Friday, August 31, 2012 we FINALLY closed on our new home!! Friday was day 87 of our (supposed) 30 day closing. It was the most stressful and agonizing experience ever, thanks to Chase bank. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of it all, but it involved underwriters, appraisals, second and third appraisals…just a mess. The whole process was one-eighty of the experience we had six and a half years ago with Chase bank when we bought our first home (before the bubble burst). In true Michelle fashion, I made Ryan get in front of the house with our for sale sign for a photo-op. I’m sure our new neighbors already think of me as the crazy lady with a camera and tripod.

I know it’s cheesy, but we did the same pose with our first home on closing day. That closing photo hung in our home for six and a half years. I would glance at in every now-and-then to remember how different our home looked the day we bought it. I like before and after’s in case you didn’t know.

I look forward to see how the outsides evolves over the next 30 years…assuming we don’t move anytime soon. After this whole closing and moving process I am never moving again. They can roll me out and bury me in the back yard, haha.

We ended up closing on both homes on the same day by some act of god. Both closings were very last minute. Not last minute like we found out on Monday we closed on Friday, try last minute as in we found out the day before. Serendipitously both closings were at the same title company as well. We came in early to sign off on the house we sold then returned at 4pm to sign our life away on our new home. We celebrated by taking the boat out for a sunset cruise (which of course included cocktails). Later that evening we popped some bubbly with friends, just as we did six years ago.

So now that we officially own our new home we are rearing and ready to go on zillions of projects. I’ve actually already started on a few. Our (very) long list includes:

Remodel of the master bath
Remodel of upstairs full guest bath
Painting all the beige trim and crown moulding white
Painting paneling in the den (I don’t want to hear it)
Painting the kitchen cabinets (I don’t want to hear it)
Resolving drainage issues
Creating a craft/sewing room for Michelle
Creating a shop for Ryan
Garage addition (make the 2 car a 4 car- for the boat)
Moving the driveway off the main road and to the side street

I know there is way more, but these are the big projects we have on tap for the next few years. We’ll see how our vision changes as we live in the house and our needs change. I’ll be back with before interior photos soon!

And a few last photos of our last day at our first home….August 30, 2012…we will forever miss you R. Hills….Especially the ever important closet photo where Ryan proposed to me on my custom built 6×8 shoe shelf about five and half years ago. If you look closely, you can still see the “will you marry me” in stain 🙂