A LOT is happening all at once. Miles and I have been looking for a home for a long time. Years, even. We've had a lot of ups and downs in our search, and been so close to buying/building on multiple occasions. After our last fiasco, we were kind of unenthusiastic about looking. Every so often, we'd scan the MLS and see if anything popped up that interested us. But it felt as though we were looking at the same homes over and over and over. Too small of a yard. Too much work needed. Too expensive. Not a good location.
Then one day, Miles sent a few links to me. I told him I was interested in checking one out and called to set up a walk-through appointment. The realtor told me that they were under contract, but they had countered and were waiting to hear back from the buyers. He said we could still come and look at it if we wanted. We went out a couple days later. Upon the first inspection, I really liked it. It definitely needed some paint and a few "fixes" here or there, but seemed to be a really nice home and was offered at a good price. We talked to the realtor about the offer that was in and asked him how good it was. He said it was decent, but that if we wanted to make an offer, they would consider it. Miles and I talked about and later that day called him with an offer. Within 24 hours, he told us that the sellers had withdrawn their counter offer to the other buyers and had accepted our offer. And just like that, we were on our way to buying our first, real home. It was so crazy how everything happened so fast. I couldn't believe it!
Unfortunately, due to changes in loan ownership, we weren't able to close as quickly as we had hoped. Once we got that all taken care of, we quickly got painters in to start work completely revamping the look of the home. The family that had lived there had been renting for 10 years and had chosen some "interesting" paint colors and designs. We ended up having them paint the entire home minus the kitchen and two bathrooms. Since it was such a big job, they didn't have it finished before we were ready to move in. My mom came out to help us pack and move, so we wanted to make sure and utilize the time she was around. We ended up moving in on the last Saturday of March, the Sunday before Easter. We also moved in while the painters were still finishing up. They didn't finish everything up for another 9 days. It was a little crazy, but well worth getting it done right away! (Before and after pictures will follow in another post)
Another big change for us has been Miles's job. In January he applied with a company called Instructure. Within a couple weeks, they gave him a good job offer that greatly increased his salary. However, they stated that they would not have a job for him until the first of July due to a hiring freeze. He gave a general acceptance to the job, with the understanding that a lot could happen in six months and we weren't sure where we would be.
After finding and signing on our home, Miles gave notice to his employer at SSI. We decided it would be a good opportunity for him to quit a regular 8-5 job in lieu of working for himself. He has wanted to do this for some time, but we had concerns of how well he would do financially, as well as whether or not we would be able to purchase a new home without full-time employment. Since we had signed on our home and he had a "backup" job waiting for him, it was perfect timing to try it out. However, SSI came back with an interesting offer. They were in the middle of a big deadline that no one else could do. It would set them back tremendously to have to hire someone new and train them to complete the job in time. So they asked Miles to stay on as a "contract" worker earning the same salary with opportunities for bonuses when deadlines were met. He could also work from home, on his own hours, and would be able to officially quit mid-June. This was awesome, as much of the work did not require a full 40-hours and he could work from home, while also doing work for himself and his own personal company. Win, win, win!
We'll have to see how it all goes, but for now, that is the plan. :) In the meantime, we are adjusting to our new life in Lehi, and enjoying the large amount of extra space we have. :)
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