Okay, so for picky people who don't already know what's happening, Ben and I have a contract in on a house on South King's Highway in Alexandria, VA. It's really in Fairfax County, but it's called Alexandria. It's the one mentioned below as Creme Puff Manor. It is closer to both Ben's and my jobs, therefore it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully we will close on it before the end of February (well, we have to considering that we just gave 30 day notice to our apartment complex that we're leaving).

Anyway, my mom is going to be in the hospital probably for at least another day. Turns out she has three blood clots. Two are in her lungs and another is in her leg. I went and visited her for like five hours today and almost threw up/passed out only once! This is a big improvement over the last time I visited her in the hospital and threw up. No, wait, last time I took her to the hospital everything stayed down and I did not lose conciousness. Go me!

I've taken off work tomorrow and am going to spend the day entertaining my mom in her little hospital room. I'm thinking word search puzzles and knitting. I am also going to bring her a latte so she won't be super crabby. My dad was nice and snuck her in a bottle of wine for her dinner tonight.

Holy Shit

Most frightening thing ever.

I call my mom to tell her about the house. This guy answers the phone saying something like "Montgomery County" something or other. I say, I'm sorry I must have the wrong number. He says I probably don't and asks who I'm calling for. I say that I'm trying to reach my parents. He says here, I'll let you talk to your mom.

I talk to Mom. He was the paramedics. She's being taken to the hospital for heart stuff, again. She says to call my dad to make sure he knows because she's left him a message. I call the number I have for his work cell phone and it says it's been disconnected. I call his personal cell phone and he's not answering. I call his office and they've already left. I call Karel to see if she has his updated work cell phone. She must be at practice or something.

So, I have no idea where they took my mom, if my dad knows that she's in the hospital, or if I need to go home or anything.

I think I'm just going to sit here and freak out until we go drop of the contract at our realtors.

My life is never dull.

So, Anna, what did you do today?

Bought a house.

Even though people may have gotten engaged and married before us, Ben and I can win by buying a house first. We wrote up a contract last night, and after one round of negotiations this morning between my classes, we've come to an agreement. Now all we have to do is finish signing the contract and get it back to our real estate agents. Well, then we have to like find the money to finance it and all that jazz, but we're pretty close. YAY!

I want to go by the place and get a picture of Ben and me in front of the SOLD sign on the property.

So, in my quest to be a real grown up I've:
1. Gotten engaged and will be married before I'm 25
2. Will buy a house when I'm 24
3. Became a team leader when I'm 22
4. Probably become department chair before I'm 26

I feel I will have a nice midlife crisis when I'm 40.

Housing Search

Ben and I want to buy a place before we get married. In order to have time to rebuild cash reserves to pay for the wedding stuff that will be due in May, and since this is the winter and a better time to buy houses, we're looking now. We've gone out on three different days so far and seen more houses than we can remember. However, I've blogged about the ones that I have pictures of (there are about two I don't have pictures of for various reasons). You might want to go down to the bottom and start at the beginning or read backwards -- but I definetly write in a chronoically important way starting with the older stuff and moving forward.

Creme Puff Manor

Okay, so when Ben heard I was bringing him to this place I saw that was $15,000 more than I was told to look for, he was pretty peeved. This was the last place we took our parents to yesterday and I think it was everyone's favorite. It is an end unit town house in a nice neighborhood conveniently located near my work and very near the beltway for Ben. In fact, this place is even closer to both of our workplaces than where we currently live. It has a bay window, which I like, that in fact is a bay dining room. This is the living room with a fire place.
The kitchen is small, but all the other things make up for it.
The upstairs has a master bedroom with bathroom and a small loft. I love lofts. This makes the living room has a super tall lofted ceiling.
There is also a small bedroom on the first level and a full bath. The basement is unfinished, but when we finish it it'll add like 700 more square feet. The dryer is busted -- the owner put a door latch on it to keep it closed. But, honestly, it's my favorite place we've seen and it would cut down on both of our commutes. The real estate agent just called Peggy and basically said they'd be willing to throw in $10,000 to finish the basement, so I guess we could negotiate. I'm trying to convince Ben to get a move on it so we can call and like start the process, but I think he's not ready yet (or lazy and doesn't want to do anything today). 

1950's Duplex

Okay, so Ben didn't come to this one which is why it doesn't have an awesome name. Here's the 1950's redon kitchen. Yes, those are normal height cabinets, and yes, they are installed at the ceiling. I can only reach the bottom shelf comfortably.

Also, they have no dishwasher. WTF? Who doesn't have a dishwasher now a days.
These are the ancient washer and dryer in the basement. The basement has a seperate efficiency kitchen and full bath, along with a nice sized room. Peggy thought this tree was cool in the backyard (the yard was good size).

I know this looks like the kitchen is small, that's because it really was. That is the door to the basement right next to the fridge. 

Nice Vanity

This was the nicest vanity house we went to. The railings on the left of the photo is where the vanity is. The closet, unfortunately, has a heating duct going through the middle of it, so there's like three feet of closet space in there. The second bedroom is light and has basketball nobs on the closet. It also has a football light switch cover.
Notice the toilet seat. It overhangs the toilet.

It also has a large basement. Ben's parents are considering giving us one of their children to live with us next year when they go to community college. They would sleep in the basement. If their grades were bad, then they would sleep under the stairs like Harry Potter. 

Crack House # 2

3. It smelled funny.

4. They kindof just left a whole bunch of stuff when they left -- like they had been kicked out.
For example, this dresser would match nicely from the desk in the golden door house. And 5th, what's that on the right of the door? Catty corner to the porch light?
A security camera. Yeah, that's normal.
This place was nice in that it had a beautiful lake view and a nice sized back yard and porch. 

Crack House

So, this place was out of our price range, but in a closer neighborhood and touted many upgrades like new flooring. However, that's where the new stuff ended. Here are the crappy stairs. Here is the origional kitchen with the lovely 70's butcher block counters.

Now, here's the evidence that makes me think this place used to sell drugs.

1. Crappyily cared for house, but the owners needed a safe in the bedroom that they didn't take when they left?

2. There's a peephole in the outside shed's door? 

Crappy Upgrades

This house is the same as the one before. However, the owners decided to put in new stuff, but they picked crappy stuff. Crappy counters, appliances, tile, etc. This woody kitchen is the first area that would have to be redone. Notice the lack of stripping on the edge of the counter by Ben. They also picked the cheapest bathroom vanities. And yes, they look slanty, don't they?
But, Ben said, we'd buy this house over the last one because this one had fan remotes with digital screens. I guess we all have priorities.

Talk about lovely chandeliers! This one is plasticriffic! 

Interesting Color Choice House - Part 2

The master bathroom is also full of interesting details. For example, the green and gold sponge painting on the wall and the fountain in the recess above the toilet. Also, what would possibly make that bedroom better? A security view thingy into the hall way. Do you not know who would be knocking on your bedroom door?There were also some impressively ugly ceiling fans in the house. This was in one of the three bedrooms.

The bedroom was also baby blue and had really gross carpet that needed to be replaced. 

Interesting Color Choice House

This was another looker from the street. It has a contemporary design. Contemporary apparently means "Ugly funky house from the 60's and 70's.

So, this paint color is actually pretty nice and the moulding makes the house look very classy. However, the picked the cheapest, ugliest carpet to put in this room. They also laid down new floors. Instead of staggering the planks like you are supposed to, they laid them right next to each other. So, basically, you'd have to pull up the entire new floor and put a new, correctly installed one in.
The bedroom has mint green walls with awesome shelves in the wall.
It also has a mysterious burgendy wall in the bedroom and crown molding spray painted with the flecky spray paint with both dark green and dark red specs. The carpet is also quite lovely.
And then, in the master closet, there is this lovely border.
 

Funky House

These owners have lived in their home since it was built in the 1970's. They have not done any upgrading. We looked at this place because it was large -- four bedrooms. However, the pictures peak for themselves. Well, really, you can't see the condition of the house due to all the stuff that's in it.

Here is the formal dining room that they've changed into a playroom for their grandchildren.
Here is part of the living room.
Here is the kitchen.

 

Upstairsian # 2 - Cat Lady

This was another of the lived in houses that made me feel inadequate with my cleaning. This is the same model as before, but without the redone kitchen. This is the dining room, it's larger and more squarish.

The kitchen is smaller, but it's still remodeled and fairly large. The living room does not have the messed up bulk head and the whole has has a really nice paint job.
For example, the master bedroom is a lovely green color.

So, Ben and I also seriously considered this place.

Pros: really well maintained, nice neighborhood, three bedrooms, upgraded kitchen, really nice paint job all through the house.

Cons: seller not really in a rush to move, $210 a month condo fees, and same stupid walkout to tiny lawn, also, people living below. 

Upstairsian 1

This is a cute little development up in Burke. It turns out that my mentor lived here for a year with her husband when they first moved to the area. What a weird coincidence.
This place is nice because the kitchen is totally redone. Those are awsome brand new cabinets and appliances and lovely Corian counter tops. The kitchen is large and airy. However, in order to do this to the kitchen, they left an interesting bulkhead in the living room behind this kitchen. There are nice "woodlike" floors on the first floor, but it would be fairly difficult to decorate and place furniture in the living room due to the remodel.

However, they did also redo the master bathroom. Here is a picture of the nice shower head and part of the tile in the shower.
This has a lovelier chandelier than Pohick, but there was no mention of it in the listing information. Ben and I were seriously considering buying this place, but here's a list of the pros and cons:

Pros: very nice neighborhood, brand new amazing kitchen, three bedrooms, fireplace (which I don't care about, but seems to help with resale value), and a long stay on the market to help us negotiate.

Cons: no basement (well, there's a stairwell down to the teeny tiny back yard), there are people who live below you, and there are like $210 a month in condo fees.