Homeowners

So guess what everyone! We closed on our house last Wednesday! Finally!! We first put a bid on the home in December and we hoped to close by the end of January. Obviously that didn't happen. There were many hoops to jump through because the house was a HUD home and on top of that we were doing an FHA loan. Both of them are run by the gov. so both of them have a ton of requirements and red tape. It didn't help that my bank rep couldn't seem to communicate with my real estate broker's office. I had to play the middle man in order for things to get done. But we got it done! So now we get to do the fun things that homeowners do. Part of the contract to buy this house included a repair escrow with required repairs we need to make in order to have the house pass their requirements of an FHA home or something like that. We were given some money in escrow to replace the water heater and a couple broken pipes. My dad has had a lot of experience in this area so Saturday my parents came up and my dad and Tyler got to work replacing the water heater and the broken pipes that go to it. Well that took all day. ALL DAY. We made 3 or 4 trips to home depot and I made food runs. When they finally finished all that, they turned it on and let it fill up. While they waited they decided to turn on the faucet in the bathroom which hadn't been turned on yet because it didn't have water running to it until the new water heater was hooked up. When they turned on the faucet 2 more broken pipes were discovered. All the valves were turned off and when they went to turn off the water they found that the meter was still running... which means water's still leaking out some where. We think it might be the water main in the front yard but we don't know yet. It was raining that evening so it wasn't like there was a wet area in the yard, everything was just wet. So Tyler decided to crawl under the house in the tiny crawl space and see if something was leaking down there. He couldn't find anything. So... as soon as the pipes are fixed that we can see we'll see if the meter does the same thing. I'm having the city send someone out to make sure the meter isn't broken, but if it isn't there isn't anything else to do but dig up the yard and see if there is a broken pipe between the meter and the house.

I can't wait to move in and I wish we could. It wouldn't work very well with no water though. It is annoying but you know what, I'd take this annoying over all the annoying hoops we had to go through in the buying process any day. I like that we can actually do something about the problems and not rely on everyone else to get things done. We are in control of things now and it feels great. We knew before we closed on the house that there were a couple plumbing issues, but we weren't allowed to do anything about it until we closed. Now they can't tell us when to do things (other than the fact that we have to have our required repairs done and inspected by June 1st in order to get reimbursed from the money in escrow).

Anyway, it's a small house but it is our house and I'm so excited to make it our home. We have a little bit of money in escrow to repair the kitchen cabinetry. It isn't really enough to replace them, but I'm thinking of refacing them. It isn't a very big kitchen but there is a lot of natural light and the ceiling fan provides a lot of light. I'm starting to think my mom's idea to do black cabinets might be a good idea. I would do a black and white contrast kitchen if I did that because we'd need the white on other surfaces to keep the kitchen from feeling dark. Look at these pictures I found online and let me know what you think about doing black and white.

Try to imagine the one above with tile floors and a white countertop

I really like this one! I like the use of yellow as an accent for things on the counter and window.
I'd like to add the crown molding on top of the wall cabinets like it shows here and have that space between the cabinets and the ceiling. Right now there is a board that runs between the top of the wall cabinets and the ceiling and it has this ugly material glued to it. That's gotta go.
I don't know if it would be hard, or if we'd even need to, but I was thinking if we did black we might add a few recessed lights in the ceiling closer to the cabinets. The ceiling fan is more in the middle of the room by where the kitchen table might go. I don't know. These are just ideas. What do you guys think?

Comments

Brittney said…
Congrats on the house!! Also, I love the black and white kitchen with the yellow accents, looks awesome! Totally do that.
Alisha Frost said…
I'm so happy that you finally closed on the house! And I love the black cabinets in a kitchen. The yellow looks really good with it too.
Brittany said…
I agree with the black, white, yellow combo. You would make it look amazing!
Anonymous said…
haha, I was going to suggest using yellow as an accent, when you mentioned doing black and white. I think that will look super cute and be a fun project. I want to see pics of your actual kitchen. Recessed lighting would be nice, IKEA has some alternatives to recessed that look modern and don't require as much wiring/cutting into the ceiling. Something to think about, if you ever want to go window shopping give me a call! :o)
Grandma Bushman said…
I want to see your house