House Hunters - Offer Received

Talked to the realtor... He just called to let us know that he spoke with the sellers and they have received the offer. They are 'talking it over' and hopefully we will have a counter-offer by mid-morning. Ugh... more waiting.

Overheard... St. Nicholas

E and I were on our way home from MMO today and I asked her if she remembered that St. Nicholas came yesterday. She of course said "Noooooo" because that is her response to pretty much everything! So I said St. Nicholas came yesterday and do you remember what he left you? Her response - "wash" (probably because we put all the new clothes in her wash basket).

St. Nicholas brings wash.


Awesome! Toddler = love : )

House Hunters - And now we wait... patiently...

Lies! How is it possible to wait patiently when you just put an offer in on a house!!!!!!! Hmmm... pretty sure its not possible. We signed the offer and now its in the hands of the agent and sellers. I guess they will be in town again (current owners live at the beach) tomorrow or soon so I really hope we find out something soon.

I cannot take the waiting now that it is official!!!

St. Nicholas Came!!!

Well I am pleased to report that St. Nicholas was able to find time in his busy schedule to stop by our house. He picked up the clothes and shoes we left for him to take and left us with some good stuff - even a little something for baby #2!!!

 E was not happy about St. Nik-las having to take Mama's shoe.

After we moved the basket for St. Nicholas into the chapel and E picked through the basket and got over the shoes leaving she looked out the window and said Nik-las Nik-las. I told her St. Nicholas would probably come during her night night time so she took her nap and went to bed saying Nik-las Nik-las.

Papa got home from work in the nick of time to see what St. Nik-las brought. E usually needs some snuggling when she wakes up but we told her she had to see what St. Nicholas brought and the Ni-ni was left behind. She banged on the chapel doors and this is what she found.

Everyone has their own pile. 

 Not sure what to think about the presents.

In E's stack: 1 Hanna dress, 2 pairs of tights, Christmas pajamas, slippers, Hello Kitty underwear,      St. Nik-las icon card

 Papa excited about his new boxers and Code of Canon Law of Eastern Catholic Churches 

(Come on girls - I know there are at least 2 of you whose hubbys will appreciate a book like this)

 Underwear taken out - check, stockings off the hook - check, put slippers on - working on it!

Newborn long sleeve onesies for new baby!

 Sts. Joachim and Anna icon for the family. 

Smelling the flowers that St. Nik-las left for Mama and a new shirt too!

E was 'happy' about St. Nik-las and 'like it'. I had a fun time helping St. Nicholas make his feast day special for our family!!!

Success - check!!!

House Hunters - On the Chase

We got some good news yesterday from the bank - they said we should have a problem getting approval for the house in the budget range we are looking for. Sweet!!! Kinda freaky scary too because this is becoming more and more real.

Realtor is coming over tomorrow to:

1. Give us a better idea on rental income potential on this house.
2. Write an offer for the house that we cannot stop thinking about.

My thoughts:
Not really worried about moving in and of itself. I am very concerned about getting a good deal on the house - buyers market blah blah blah. I don't want the sellers to be offended by our first offer - though we are still discussing our options. I don't want to be afraid to walk away from this house if we cannot get it for the price we want and I don't want to be super disappointed about it either - though I am sure both Lee and I will - if we cannot negotiate to something that is within reason of what the market is bearing.

Ugh!!!! I wish the realtor was coming today but he was booked up. I despise waiting. Patience is not something I'm 'good at'. I don't want to rush the process I just want to know if we will buy a house or not - there is a difference and I apologize for not articulating it very well.

I guess/hope by the end of the week we will know something. I wish I could say this heartburn was from worrying about the house - but I know its just the babe reminding me he/she is there and that ultimately there are so many other things to concern myself with than a house : )

St. Nicholas... MIA

So last night St. Nicholas did not stop at our house. Fortunately he has all day to make an appearance so I think he will during naptime today. E went to sleep for her nap saying Nik-las Nik-las. We dragged the basket of clothes and other assorted items into the chapel for St. Nicholas to take. E was super unhappy about parting with a pair of my shoes - but I told her St. Nicholas needed them. Pics of before and after to come!

Addendum to why he did not come last night... I had a doc appt yesterday afternoon which they were running insanely behind for... Left there straight for church, got there late, then vespers lasted longer than I expected. I was supposed to go see Raleigh's new MAYOR get inaugurated but I would have been late for that and I was super tired. I wish Raleigh-world and the Mount were only 30 min apart instead of 1 hr. I definitely don't remember being this tired before! I have noticed I am not sleeping as well - which is kinda scary because I still have 9.5 weeks left to go! I feel like I need a caffeine drip!

Anyways, not trying to complain. Happily and health-ily preggo. Now for St. Nicholas to have some fun!

On the Eve of St. Nicholas...

Well it looks like UPS and USPS are going to pull through for St. Nicholas to make it to the Kibbe house tonight. Besides going to church we are leaving some clothes/shoes/towels for St. Nicholas to take with him. In exchange I am sure he will leave some goodies for us. You'll have to check back tomorrow to find out what he brought!

Note - Santa Claus does not come to our house - St. Nicholas does - this is how we will explain it to the kids when their friends have Santa and they don't. St. Nicholas comes on his feast day of December 6. If you leave him some of the clothes and shoes you have outgrown or don't wear anymore then he might just bring you something in exchange. Of course E is completely clueless about this whole process this year - and probably will be next year too but St. Nicholas' helpers need a crash course on this so that in the future we know what the heck we are doing - like getting orders placed on time so the stuff actually gets here : )

Hallmark Success!

Just an update on the Christmas cards... I tried on our big Mac to order the photo cards and success! Must have been my browser afterall. Lee decided that we should schedule to have the card sent out by Hallmark on 12/15 so they'll be hot off the press and into a mailbox near you sooner than you think!

I would post a pic of the card but then getting the postcard in the mail would not be half as fun : ) 

Hiccups love at 3:30... AM

Oh the joys of pregnancy. Little baby K decided to get the hiccups last night at 3:30 in the morning. They lasted for about 20 minutes and then I guess he/she needed to exercise a bit afterwards so by 4:30 I threw in the towel on trying to get back to sleep. This free time was filled with backstitching the wise men on E's stocking so it was not completely for nought.

I guess baby is reminding me of what abbreviated and interrupted sleep is like 9.5 weeks early!

House Hunters - On the Prowl

Lee and I toured/walked through the three houses we were scheduled to see. Being a virgin to the home buying process I did not really know what to expect having someone (the realtor) who you've never met before show you some random family's house. I will admit it was not as awkward as I thought it would be. I like the realtor. He is the listing agent for one of the homes we saw. Super nice, not overly talkative, not pushy, but honest. Other points to note before delving into the homes.

1. The realtor said we would like be able to rent our house out without too much of a struggle - possibly to the point where we might might might not have to refi out of our current 15 year mortgage. And his agency oversees rentals at only 6% of the rental price! I was thinking we would be paying someone 10-20% but 6% is worth having someone else handle it.

2. I did not realize/understand that a house gave off vibes or could make you feel a certain way. Its strange because Lee and I are not the touchy feely kind of people but an experience at one of the houses very much effected our 'feelings' towards it and the other houses we saw.

Okay now for the mushy gushy good stuff:

House #1 - 1.5 story house. Brick built early 90's. TONS of storage space. Great mudroom right off the garage. Kitchen/dining room has a weird laminate to carpet thing going on. Master bedroom is not huge - but there are two separate kind of walk-in closets. Living room is a nice space with a real fireplace. Lots of open space on the second floor. All the bedrooms are on the smaller size (compared to what else we saw). All the bathrooms were decent sizes but all only had one sink!!!  The ceilings were all low especially upstairs - but totally manageable. Other small complainant was the upstairs had 4 different carpet colors which was strange.

House #2 - 2 story house. Vinyl siding built in the late 90's. This house and the layout reminded us of my parent's house. Big open entry way, living room and family room. Kitchen opened into the family room which I really liked. There was a separate dining room. Laundry was in a closet!!! which was a bummer since that is what we have now. Kitchen countertops were uncomfortably high. Garage led right into the kitchen. Very generous master bedroom and bathroom. Other bedrooms were nice sizes but the closets were not very deep. Upstairs bathroom was nice and big - downstairs bathroom was insanely small. I liked the higher ceilings. Back porch was likely not built to code because there were no railings?!?!?!

House #3 - 1.5 story brick house built in the late 80s. Okay this house was the creepy house. From the moment I walked in I wanted to leave. Other than the bad vibes the rooms were very partitioned off the the overall condition of the house was not good. Kitchen had an awkward layout. Laundry was in a closet off the hallway. Don't really remember much else about the downstairs probably because I do not want to and did not bother taking notes. We hesitated to even go upstairs. The second floor was spacious. Awkward placement of the stairs destroyed the entire layout. Very partitioned off. Lee and I quickly Bee-lined for the front door. The realtor was still inside locking up and I looked at Lee and he looked at me and we just knew. We cannot really explain what about the house it was - past the cosmetic problems there was an eerie vibe to that house. That houses needs an exorcism in a bad way! Nothing else said.

Overall, I wished we had seen House #3 first. My last impression of the house hunt for the day is that creepy vibe. House #1 and House #2 felt much more home-y and right. The realtor is going to send us info on other houses, though if we can get a decent price on one of the homes then we might just go for it. We have some other things to consider. We will be meeting with the bank this week to see what they say in terms of our spending ability. Still the one big thing that I cannot get out of my head is this is definitely a buyers market so we are in the drivers seat so we must get a good deal.

Anyone looking for good Christmas present ideas for us... We're counting pennies to add to a down payment : )

The saga continues... updates forthcoming!

Fun and Possibly Exciting Times!!!

So Lee and I have have been cooking something up over the last couple weeks/months and we're finally ready to take the plunge. We have talked about it for a while and for whatever reason decided that we should now start.... House Hunting!!! Last weekend we toured parts of Nash County and did some drive-bys on homes that are on the market - and let me tell you there are a lot! We both LOVE LOVE LOVE one house so curiosity got the best of us and we set up an appointment with the agent to take a tour! TODAY!!!

I am really excited and kind of nervous about it. We are going to see 3 homes that are all within walking distance of each other. 2500+ square feet, 1+ acre yards, garages, neighborhood, white picket fences -- the works! (okay no fences but all the other stuff is true)

I have done my share of research on home sales in the Mount and the Real NC (Nash County) and have found that the market is flooded with homes and the average purchase price is between 60% and 75% of the tax value of the homes (based on similar homes that we are looking at in terms of location and square footage).

As much as we would like to move before new baby comes Lee and I have agreed on the following:

1. If the house does not fall into our budget - even if its close, we will wait. We must be realistic
2. If everything were to work out with the bank, and we cannot negotiate to a price that is what the current real estate market is bearing (60%-75% of the tax value) THEN no matter how much we want/like/love the house, we will not buy - we must make sound financial decisions, there will always be other houses and we can revisit the housing situation in a year. Its a buyers market and we are in the drivers seat.

Back of our house

Current house love! In the kitchen that Lee reno-ed last winter!

It is exciting and nerve racking. I know we can make it in this house for another 1-3 years so moving is not absolutely necessary. We would have to move by February because moving with a newborn would be horrible so if we can get a steal on a home then great, if not then here's to our Little House Under the Oak Tree until late 2012.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes and if anything comes of our house hunt!

Dear Hallmark... You have broken button

I FINALLY had collected and entered all of the addresses into Hallmark.com so that I can get my free postage on the Christmas cards. I have been working quite dilgently on this for several nights. Enter all the info, get my free postage, and bam! review and confirm order button does not work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The purple button is not clickable!!!!!!!!!

Its a good thing that I cannot easily transfer everything and order somewhere else. I am going to retry tomorrow but still I am super annoyed that a simple programming issue is holding up my order.

~generally annoyed

Breaktime with the Girls

This afternoon/evening Papa was on E duty for a couple hours so that I could meet up with some friends for a coffee break. Yes I am 30 weeks pregnant and yes I drink coffee - about 1 cup a day - I'm pretty sure that's within the recommended limits. Anyways, not being from the Mount I do not too many people - and being a young working mother does not really allow for a huge amount of socializing so when I can take a break and not worry about work and changing a diaper I'm all over it.

Its so nice to get together and talk about girl stuff at the Mount's one and only coffee shop (Via Cappuchino). There is not a free standing Starbucks for miles (literally you would have to drive 25 minutes to get to one though there is one in Target but its not a coffee shop). Going to coffee shops reminds me of meeting friends for coffee in high school and college. Its different people but still an enjoyable and necessary break from life's many motherly calls of duty.

Fortunately we all have super great hubbies who can hold down the fort and understand the value of girl time!