I’m Baaaack! Part 1: What I’ve Been Doing for the Last 3 Months

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on August 1, 2014 | 19 Comments


Hey guys!! As most of you know, I’ve been gone for almost THREE months. It’s felt like an eternity! I seriously missed blogging and I missed all you lovely people! I’ve been going through blogging community withdrawal lately, so I’m excited to be back! So what have I been doing for the last few months, you ask? Well, the main reason I’ve been gone so long is….

New house

I know I mentioned in passing before I left that my fiance and I were looking for a house together. I even posted a picture of the one we picked at one point. Well, we got it!! It was a very long, very exhausting process, but we made it!

house

 

It’s a 4 bed, 2.5 bath with 2,280 square feet of space. It’s also a foreclosure and a modular home (which is just a fancy term for manufactured instead of stick-built), so it was only $52,000! We would have NEVER found a stick built home with that kind of space for under $100K. In fact, all of the other homes in the area ranged from $65K-$80K and nearly all of them were 800-900 square feet (that’s TINY). This was the first home we found, and while we looked at others, we knew it was the one.

While it is an amazing and beautiful place, it’s still a foreclosure. Meaning: it has problems. There’s a whole bunch of cosmetic things – which we weren’t worried about – but when we moved in our HVAC didn’t work, our hot water didn’t work, and we had leaky pipes. Not to mention that the previous owners took a bunch of things: The kitchen island, doorknobs, light fixtures, and (this REALLY pisses me off) the privacy fence. But when they took the damn fence, they freaking cut the posts off above the ground, so now there’s still concrete blocks in the ground where the fence was set. When we put our own fence in, we have to first dig out all the concrete posts. SO angry about that! I could seriously strangle them for taking that fence.

Getting the house was a nightmare! We had a bit of a scare when we put our bid in, because there had been several other people looking at it and we were afraid we wouldn’t get it before they did. Then, the FHA loan fell through because they wouldn’t back a modular home. So I had to go conventional. Then we had problems galore with our servicer, PrimeLending, and the bank that owned the house, Fannie Mae. They were both a serious thorn in my side for the whole process! My problems with PrimeLending were mostly that their communication was TERRIBLE. There were so many times I went into a situation completely blind because they didn’t bother to tell me things, or waited until the last possible minute to tell me. Not cool! If I could do it over again, I would never go back to them. The only reason I went to them in the first place is because my bank, Wright Patt, wouldn’t cover the conventional loan.

We had pretty much sealed the deal, then the freaking bank decided that we needed to fix up all of the problems with the house before we moved in. At our expense. So we had to put money into it before we even owned it! The bank refused to sell it until we fixed all of the missing light fixtures, the disconnected pipe in the crawl space, and the peeling ceiling paint in the bathrooms. Then I had issues with getting them to okay it because the floor is messed up in the master bathroom, and they fought the inspector’s report that said it was structurally sound. There were also problems with our down payment because it was a gift. Basically anything that could have gone wrong went wrong. I was ready to rip out my hair by the time we closed at the end of May!

Then, when we moved in, we had to sleep at my parents’ for almost a week because we didn’t have air conditioner and it was 90 degrees outside and it felt like a sauna inside the house. We also didn’t have hot water for 2 weeks!

Fast forward 2 months, and it was ALL worth it. We now have this beautiful house together!

I ended up buying some laminate flooring and paint and knocked out my office. I’m very happy with the end result!

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I still have to do the closet, which is going to be my library. I’m dying to get my books moved in (I miss them lol), but I haven’t had the time to do it.

New family members

In addition to getting a new house, we also adopted two new furbabies: A tabby kitten named RiverStar, and a dachshund puppy named Loki!

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We got them both the first week of July. Loki is now 9 weeks and River is 13 weeks. When we got them, she was so much bigger than he was! He was only 6 weeks (a little early to take him, I know), and he weighed a whopping 1 pound, 1 ounce!

They are CRAZY. The kitten pretty much takes care of herself, but she runs around the house and terrorizes everyone, as well as hands and feet. She has a horrible habit of chewing on fingers and toes. And pouncing on you when you’re trying to sleep. I freaking love her though!

The puppy is at a very challenging stage right now. He screams constantly when he can’t see us. He screams his head off in his crate at night, and if we leave him in another room or outside, he screams if he can’t get to us. Needless to say I get a lot of headaches these days! He’s also not potty trained, and he thinks the carpet is where he’s supposed to poop. We’ve managed to get him to pee outside, but he only poops outside about 3 out of 10 times. It’s very frustrating. We’ve kept on his training, but we’re not making much progress. The part that irritates me is that I know he can learn fast, because he picked up “sit” in about 4 days. He now sits every time! He’s good about coming, too…for now. I’m sure it won’t last, so I’m enjoying it while I can!

The other animals (I have 3 other cats and another dog) are finally warming up to them. The cats hate the puppy, but they’re getting used to the kitten. Zenith (the dog) didn’t want to have anything to do with Loki at first, but now she tries to play with him. She just plays too rough…she’s 35 lbs and he’s only 2, so it’s not really a good match just yet!

 

Other stuff

I had a birthday this past month. I’m now 26! It’s crazy to think that I’m only a few years away from 30.

My fiance and I have now set a wedding date! Our official date is November 11, 2015.

I have taken up couponing. I may have mentioned it in passing before I left. I buy 10 sets of inserts each week and have a giant binder full of coupons. Yep, I’m one of those people. I’ll have to do a post about it sometime! It’s a lot of work, but when you go to the store and get $120 worth of stuff for $12, it feels pretty damn good! I’ve got a small stockpile going, which is very helpful with new house expenses.

I’m also still working on my dragons for my Etsy shop. I take custom orders!

I’ll be posting part 2, where I’ll be talking about what this all means for the blog, tomorrow!
Jessi (Geo)

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19 responses to “I’m Baaaack! Part 1: What I’ve Been Doing for the Last 3 Months

  1. Yeay, it’s so good to hear something from you again! It looks like the house took a lot of time and stress, but I’m happy that it’s worth it. I love those blue walls :D And RiverStar (fun name) looks like such a cutie <3 Although it sounds like she is a bit of a rebel, haha. I think I would do some couponing too if we had such a thing over here. Being a student sometimes makes it hard to get food that isn't too expensive.

  2. YAY!! SO SO HAPPY to see you back again Jessi!! :D I’m glad you had a fruitful time during your looong hiatus, even though settling the house must have been so tedious! >< Nevertheless, congrats!! YOU MADE IT THROUGH!! :D That's flipping awesome! :3 And OMG your new family members are adorable!! Just looking at Loki has made me fallen in love with him! <3 But it's must be so tiring that he screams when he can't see you :( All the best with his training though! :)
    It's fantastic to see you back, Jessi! :D Welcome back and I can't wait to chat again! :D *hugs*

  3. Yikes! That sounds like hell. I couldn’t imagine what you went through with that house. I’m surprised with everything that you were only gone 3 months. I just moved 3 hours away from my last place and I was pretty much inactive for almost a month. Glad to hear you’re starting to settle in.

  4. I can’t believe the bank made you fix the problems before you even owned the property O_O That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!

    It sounds like you had an insane couple of months, but now you get to sit back and enjoy it!!

  5. The bank sucks. Basically. (According to my mom at least lol)

    WELCOME BACK THOUGHHHHHHHH!!!! Enjoy your new place :D And eeks I see you tweaked your blog. I LIKE IT.

  6. Wow! What a crazy few months, but so exciting! Foreclosures can be such a hassle, but so worth it in the end. A good friend of mine bought a house 3 years ago that was foreclosure and had to repair quite a bit before she owned it too, just to get the loan approved. But the house they bought – married with one little boy – has 4 bedrooms, two giant living areas, big kitchen, nice yard and 3 bathrooms. Perfect for their growing family and they got it for 30K less than it was valued at. And with the work they’ve done it’s worth even more. Looks like y’all are in pretty much the same situation – so hopefully it will turn out as well for you :)

    And the new additions are so adorable :) Dachshunds are so smart but so STUBBORN. They can be a pain to train, but if you manage it, they do great. Good luck with Loki ;) And welcome back!

    • Yeah! Despite all of the hassle, I’d do it all again. It was worth it!
      Yep, sounds like ours! We ended up getting ours for 1/2 of the value…we just got a letter in the mail saying it was worth $110,000! I can’t wait to see what it will be worth when we fix it up!

      Ugh, tell me about it! He’s got a hard little head. Thank you!!! <3

  7. Welcome back!! The house is beautiful..Congrats and Good Luck, The Kitten and Puppy are adorable Congrats on your new babies and Congrats on the Wedding date :) You had a fantastic 3 months!

    Happy Belated Birthday! :)

  8. Congratulations on the new house..I just went through the same process..gah the amount of paperwork they make you do..I kept joking that I am surprised they didn’t make me sign the mortgage in blood LOL

  9. Congrats for your new house! I can’t believe the bank told you to fix the house at your expens before it was yours at all. Bank sucks! But glad you get a lovely house. It’s really wide and the price is totally worth it! And yay for the wedding date!

  10. Stephanie H.

    Congrats on the house and the new family members! My parents have a dachshund and a Chiweenie. They can definitely be stubborn and theirs loves to at your side. They can also have huge Napoleon complexes too! My dog is 40-45 lbs and little bothers him, but the small dogs are another story. :) They are great dogs, though!

  11. I know I’m a tad bit late but welcome back and congratulations! It’s so cool to have bought a new house with a loved one. And omg, your kitten and puppy are absolutely adorable! Best of luck with everything. :D

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