Last Thursday Chris & I signed papers for our first place! Let’s share some details:

• 3 bedrooms
• 3 full bathrooms 1 half bathroom
• 2 car garage
• 2200 square feet
• Finished basement w/ study

Floor plans:

2nd Floor

The only thing I’m super bummed we weren’t able to get was the upgraded bathroom. That damn soaking tub is all I really wanted but because the house was considered a spec house we couldn’t make any structural changes to it. We came to a compromise with the builder that I could get the oversize tub though. Down the road Chris & I plan on changing it to look like the upgraded owner’s bath. He’ll lose his walk-in closet but mines big enough for the both of us (for now). We do have the his & hers sink (yay) and the tray ceiling.

1st Floor

We didn’t get the fireplace, but we did get the powder room. We picked out our flooring on Monday. I’m not too crazy about it ,but it didn’t make sense to spend a ton of money that would be built into our mortgage. Since Chris is the one on the mortgage (since I’m unemployed at the moment) we had to be conscientious about the cost. If we upgraded too much he wouldn’t be approved and then we wouldn’t get the house. So for now, there will be carpeting & vinyl (gag) in the first floor. Eventually we will put hardwood throughout. We also plan on upgrading the countertops to granite down the road. Again, just not in the budget right now.

Basement

The main selling point of this house for us was the fact that we got the finished basement with the optional study & full bath. Had we wanted to do it ourselves, it would’ve been close to a $30,000 upgrade.

I realize that no house is perfect. Is this my dream house? Not quite. But once we make the changes we want to, it will be. We have plenty of space to grow in this house.

Our house is still being built, but it will be complete in June. We close June 14th so we’ll be eligible for the $8000 first time buyers tax credit too! I’m so excited.

I took some pictures of the model home and put them up on flickr so check them out. (Keep in mind ours won’t look exactly like that) Or if you’re more into the interactive thing, they have a pretty cool Virtual Tour you can check out as well.

So what do you think?

I can’t believe how fast this weekend flew by. Seriously. Is there a way to slow time down just a fraction? Because I’m still not ready to get on a plane and head back to Chicago.

Wednesday was a blur-I spent most of the day packing, but I managed to squeeze in Mass so I could get ashes. (Did I mention I decided to give up sweets for Lent? More on that later) Our flight actually left Chicago on time (shocking, I know) and after a rather uneventful flight we landed safe & sound in Pittsburgh. And we were stunned by the amount of snow. Stunned.

Thursday afternoon we met with our florist and finalized wedding flowers. My florist is awesome-she’s a family friend, so she would honestly tell me if any of my ideas sucked/wouldn’t work/whatever but she was really excited about my ideas. Of course we threw in some gossip in there too. Chris was bored out of his mind. Poor guy. Later we went to our food tasting. We semi-finalized the menu (Filet Mignon or Chicken Piccata) and came up with the Big Day timeline.

Friday was House Hunting round #2. Let me start off by saying Friday did not start well. We arrived at the first place and were walking up to the property to meet with our realtor and I FELL ON A PATCH OF ICE. RIGHT ON MY ASS. I guess falling isn’t enough of an embarrassment because I spilled my starbucks all over myself, AND ripped my new North Face  jacket. Luckily no one saw me fall, but I had reminders of my klutziness all day long in the form of down feathers escaping from the hole in my coat and my ass hurting so bad I could barely sit down. We managed to check out a few more properties after that, none we were totally jazzed about.

We threw in a quick cake consultation and tasting at Creations by Carlini before taking a break.

The fact that I got to enjoy Mad Mex with some of my favourite ladies made my night a million times better.

We talked about pretty much everything-Lent, jobs, buying houses, and BOYS. I’m sad I’m leaving a lot of my friends back in Chicago but having these ladies here in Pittsburgh make me feel a lot better about it.

Saturday morning I got to have cake for breakfast! I set up a cake tasting at Bethel Bakery for 10am. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I was probably pumped about being allowed to have cake that early. And the cake was delicious. We decided to go with them for our wedding and we’re thrilled about it. We made a quick trip to Shadyside so Chris could meet some of his new coworkers and I popped into J Crew and bought a sweater & necklace (I couldn’t help myself!!). My family came over Saturday night so we could finally share the big moving news with them. I also found out my future husband and father to my future child(ren) has no idea how to pick up a baby. While it was slightly terrifying, it was mostly hilarious to see a toddler ask Chris to pick him up and Chris going “What do I do?”

Yesterday was pretty chill. Finally a day where we didn’t really have anything to do! Chris flew back to Chicago last night so sleeping alone was lonely. My brother & I went to see Shutter Island together and his friend gave us the Senior Citizen discount-sweet! I thought the movie was great even though the actual plot was kind of predictable. I would be the worst movie reviewer because I thought the movie was awesome but I don’t really know why. It may or may not have something to do with my childhood crush on Leo (I’m talking pre-titanic/Romeo & Juliet days).

Tonight I fly back to Chicago but not before I do some more house hunting. With my Dad. God help me.

So how was your weekend??

Over our Thanksgiving holiday Chris and I got the chance to do some house hunting*. We took the early flight into Pittsburgh and arrived around 930am and by 1030 we were meeting with the realtor. There were 7 (yes, SEVEN!!) properties on the itinerary and only about 2 hours to cram them all in.

Remember the house I posted about a few weeks ago? It was the second house we got to see and I pretty much fell in love immediately. It had a pretty open floor plan, 3 HUGE bedrooms, and tons of closets and storage space. I was pretty much ready to call off the hunt right then and there. Luckily my dad was along to be my voice of reason and we kept moving along.

The second to last one was the other one that left an impression on me. It also had a fairly open floor plan, an attached garage, and an ENORMOUS finished basement. Right now though the house is a total bachelor pad. We would probably have to dump quite a bit of money into getting the carpets cleaned up or even replaced (more than one guy living in a house=total slobbery). And it was the most expensive out of the seven we saw. Still, it’s a high contender for us.

Since my mom wasn’t able to go along with us the first time around, we met with the realtor again on Saturday to look at the 2 we liked a second time. Except the people who are living in place #2 are a bunch of assholes and refused to show the house so we couldn’t see it again. It gave me second thoughts regarding the place. The people who are currently living there are renters, and the owners are in Peru. I have a feeling the renters are kind of being kicked out and I could see some legal drama surrounding the whole thing. Yikes.

We also stopped at another place between House 1 and House 2. It’s pretty much exactly the same layout as House 2, but it’s still under construction. Which means if we were to purchase it we would get to pick out everything from the floors, to the cabinets, to the door handles and bathroom fixtures. Suddenly House 3 is the highest contender. Although it would lead to loads more bickering down the road, for the time being Chris and I agreed that we both liked the idea of a brand new house best.

We were very excited to get back to Chicago and get started on the pre-approval process until: SETBACK. The realtor emailed Chris and said she had spoke to their pre-approval department and informed us it would be virtually impossible to get a pre-approval for a loan in Pennsylvania while we were still employed in Chicago. Obviously our salaries in Pittsburgh would be slightly less than they would be here in Chicago and until we have jobs there’s no way to really determine how much we could afford loan wise.

I have been researching about first time home buying though and did discover there is a difference between Pre-qualification and Pre-approval. I’m wondering if I could still get a pre-qualification just to give us a ballpark estimate just to make sure we’re definitely seeing houses in our price range. Honestly though, the whole process with interest rates and the tax credit thing has my head spinning. I hate numbers. I have a really bad habit of not caring how much things cost if I really want it and I have to get out of that mindset. Fortunately my dad has a knack for finances so I’m sure we’ll be relying on his help a lot in the upcoming months.

So right now we’re kind of at a standstill. We need jobs before we can move forward. We need somewhere to live if we get jobs, and we also need cars to get us there. Sigh. I’m sure everything will fall into place as it should but when I want something, I want it right now.

Patience is not a virtue I possess.

*I brought my G10 to take pictures of all the places but I’m a schmuck who also forgot to put a memory card in it. Whoops.
**I also have something I’m dying to share with you all but I don’t want to jinx anything. Until I actually know anything, I’m remaining mum.

PS. BIG thanks to Matt from Life Without Pants for guest posting yesterday. If you have any thoughts, please jump on in to the discussion. We’d love to hear it!