Home Buying Drama

Here's the run down on our recent home buying shenanigans:

We went out with our realtor on Saturday, October 22nd to look for houses.  We knew we needed to find something fairly quickly since the owners of the house we're living in now decided to come home from their mission 6 months early, but we weren't expecting to find THE house that same day.  As soon as we saw it, we pretty much both knew that it was "the one."  Both the front and back yards were enormous, the outside of the house was charming, and the floor plan inside was totally livable.  It was an old house (1956) and had a cool retro feel to it.  We loved the neighborhood and the location of the house in proximity to pretty much everything.  The house definitely needed work, but it looked like it was mostly cosmetic, so we decided to make an offer.

When our realtor called the seller's realtor to tell her, she told us that there had been a ton of interest on the house (7 showings on that same day!) and there was rumored to be another offer coming in later that evening.  The house had only been on the market a few days, so it was a good thing we made an offer when we did.  The sellers came back 2 days later with a counter offer.  They hadn't gone down in their asking price at all, but agreed to pay closing costs.  We had also asked for a "floor allowance" to rip up the yucky carpet, refinish the hardwood floors that were underneath, and replace the carpet downstairs.  They also said no to that and didn't want to give us anything.  Adam and I were pretty bummed that they were playing hard ball, but after a lot of discussion, we decided to accept their counter offer anyway.

The inspection of the house happened this past Thursday.  It went really well, especially for such an old house.  The roof was new in 2008, central air had been installed in 2005, the water heater and furnace were new in 2010.  The inspector only found a few issues in the house, and we felt really excited and encouraged after it was over.  The house had good bones and just like we thought, most of the work that needed to be done was just cosmetic.  During the inspection on the same day, we had a carpet guy come and look at the condition of the carpet, measure the rooms, and give us an estimate of how much it would cost to replace the carpet in the basement and refinish the hardwood upstairs.

The next day, we got the official inspection report and the carpet estimate.  Both the carpet guy and the inspector told us that the carpet was "unsalvageable" in certain areas of the house, even with professional cleaning.  It was too old and had seen its last day. According to the estimate, it looked like it was going to cost about $5,000 to rip up the upstairs carpet and refinish the hardwood underneath and put a really inexpensive carpet in the basement.  Yikes.

So we went back to the sellers and asked them again to give us a flooring allowance, but this time we only asked for $2,000.  We were willing to pay the difference ourselves or even try to refinish the hardwood on our own.  We also asked them to repair a few of the basic things that the inspector had found.  The large window in the front of the house was broken and would need to be replaced.  Also, there was no hot water in the basement bathroom and was therefore unusable.  Pretty basic stuff, if you ask me.  There were a lot of other little things that we could have nitpicked, but we didn't.  We were willing to fix things ourselves.  We just wanted the basics done.

Anyway, the sellers came back the next day and told us that they were unwilling to fix ANYTHING.  They were selling the house "as is."  WHAT?!  I sure wish they'd told us that before we paid to get their house inspected!  Our realtor told us that in all the years she's been doing this, she's never had a seller be unwilling to fix such basic things as a broken window and no hot water in the bathroom.

By this point, Adam and I were starting to get pretty ticked off.  These sellers were being totally and completely inflexible, and we were sick of getting pushed around.  We looked over our budget a million times, trying to estimate what things would cost to repair/remodel/furnish, etc.  But what it came down to was that we started to get really nervous that we couldn't afford this house.  We're not rich people, you know, and the mortgage payment alone would have stretched us pretty thin.  And then you figure that we would have to fix quite a few things before we could even move in.  And then we'd have to buy furniture for the house (all we've acquired in our 5 years of marriage is a couch from the D.I., a small kitchen table, and our beds).  And then by the time we did a little cosmetic updating and decorating, our savings would be long gone.

So we walked away.  And you know what?  It wasn't even that hard.  We aren't going to be dumb and buy something we can't afford, and we're not going to get pushed around by some seller that is being completely unreasonable.  The economy is really bad and it's supposed to be a buyer's market right now, not a seller's.  So good luck to them.  I hope they sell it and get what they want for it without having to fix anything.  But they're not going to get it from us!  There are other houses out there, and we know we'll find the perfect one.  So we're back at square one.  Wish us better luck the second time around!

Mattie "Chasing" Eli

One of Eli's favorite activities when he goes to Grandma's house is to have Mattie "chase" him. The funniest thing is that most of the time, she isn't really chasing him, but he just thinks she is. He just runs away from her anyway.  Hey, whatever keeps him entertained, right?

This video is a few months old, and I keep forgetting to put it up.

I can't get enough of his excitement that starts at second 25.

16 Months Old

Dear Eli,

If this month had a theme, it would have been teething.  You poor kid!  You started the month with 4 teeth, and today you have 10.  To make matters worse, you cut 4 teeth just in a week and a half!  I can't imagine what it must feel like to have all of those sharp little teeth cutting through your gums at once. I gave you lots of Ibuprofen this month, but some days, it didn't even seem to help you much.  During your bad teething days, you were whiny, clingly, and very emotional.  Let's just say it's been a hard month on both of us.  I haven't been able to get much done this month because you've been so needy, but I'm glad that I can be there for you when you need me.

Your naps have been all over the place this month.  It seems like you're trying to transition from two naps a day down to one, but it's been pretty rough.  I'll put you down for a nap in the morning because you're starting to act crabby, but then you won't ever fall asleep.  After letting you talk and play in your crib for an hour or so, I finally just give up and go get you.  But shortly after I get you up, you start acting really fussy and tired like you need a nap.  So I'll put you down again a few hours later.  Sometimes you fall asleep, sometimes you don't.  By the time late afternoon/evening rolls around, you are a disaster.  You walk around the house crying and making messes everywhere you go.  It's really sad to watch!  Two naps seem like too much for you, but one nap is too little.

Your talking has really taken off this month.  For better or worse, you love imitating words that we say.  Just the other day, your Guelito taught you to say "no."  He was watching you, and to stop you from getting into trouble, he said, "Eli!  No, no, no, no, no!  Don't touch that!"  And then you smiled up and him and said, "No, no, no, no, no!"  You walked around the room repeating the word for a few minutes.  You thought it was so funny.  Some of the words you can say are: hi, bye, mommy, daddy, doggie, Mickey, Minnie, thank you, no, Zach, mac & cheese.

No matter how much time you spend playing outside during the day, it's never enough for you. You would seriously live outside if you could. You cry every time we bring you inside the house after we've played outside, even if we were out there for hours.  I love that you love the outdoors so much.  I'm starting to get a little worried about what we're going to do all winter, but I've decided that we're just going to have to go outside anyway, even if it's blizzarding.  I am going to buy you some seriously warm winter clothes, bundle you up, and let you enjoy the great outdoors no matter the weather.

We've started doing eskimo kisses with you, and you absolutely love it.  You run up to us, scrunch up your nose, and press it to ours.  You shriek and squeal with happiness when we rub our noses together.  It is the cutest thing ever.  You've also become quite fond of kisses this month, but you're very particular about when and how they're given.  You only like to kiss at night right before bed and you only like to kiss on the mouth.  You'll turn your face towards ours with a big, drool-covered, open mouth, and lean in.  It's hilarious!

Your eating isn't going much better this month, and my frustration continues.  Here are some of the foods you'll eat (some consistently, others not): baby food, yogurt, mac & cheese, crackers, cookies, brownies, peaches, strawberries, apples, grapes, cheese, fiber one bars, and cereal.  That's pretty much it.  Anything else I try to give you makes you gag and sometimes even throw up.  Good times....

You love to read, but the only books you'll really sit still for are picture books.  You are getting pretty good at pointing to the different objects in the books.  You'll sit on my lap, point your chubby little finger to the object when I ask you to find it, and gasp with excitement.  We read a book together when you wake up in the morning and after every nap.  I love our snuggle time together.

Eli, you are the light of my life.  Even on days that are particularly hard with you, I am grateful that we get to spend all of our time together.  I love watching you learn and grow, and can't wait to see the man you're going to become.

With all my love,
Mama

16 month stats: 
Weight: 26.0 lbs (62nd percentile) 

Height: 32 3/4 inches (80th percentile) 
Head Circumference: 19 inches (72nd percentile)

Nacho Eli

On Wednesday night, we dressed Eli in his Nacho Libre Halloween costume and took him trunk-or-treating at Viewmont High School's "Best Buddies" activity.  Eli's uncle Zach helps with the handicapped kids in the program, and he asked us to come along.

I saw a picture of this costume online somewhere and thought it was adorable.  It was super easy to make: a pair of blue leggings and red socks from the little girls department at Kohl's, a pair of red sweatpants from Walmart that I cut to look like underwear, and a cape that I sewed with a yard of fabric from JoAnn's. I drew his mustache on with brown eyeliner. Luckily, it was a really warm evening and Eli was able to go bare chested in his costume.  Initially, I was worried that it would be too cold on Halloween for him to go out like that, so I was glad for this excuse to dress him up when it was warm.

Eli had no concept of trick-or-treating and was totally clueless the whole time.  I tried to show him how to take a piece of candy out of the bowl and put it in his bag, but he didn't get it.  I tried to get him to say "thank you" after he took the candy, but didn't really get that either.  He sure did love eating candy though! :)
 

Change of Plans

We have been house sitting for a older couple that is on a mission since January.  They weren't supposed to be home from their mission until the end of May 2012, but we just got news yesterday that they have been released from their mission early and will be coming home mid-December of this year!  We were pretty surprised by this news, to say the least, and our carefully laid plans will have to change.

Since we moved in here, we have been trying to save money for a down payment on a house, but we thought we still had 8 more months to save.  Now that we only have 2 months until we need to be out of this house, there is no way that we can reach our savings goal.  So we're scrambling!  We contacted our realtor and told her that we need to start seriously looking at houses and start making offers within the next few weeks.

We talked to our lender again and had her recalculate some numbers now that we don't have as much for a down payment as we thought we would.  It turns out that in order to keep our monthly mortgage payments to where they are affordable for us, we don't qualify for as much house as we thought.  Bummer.  So we're going to have to make sacrifices somewhere, whether it's buying a house that is smaller, older, or in less ideal neighborhood.

We've also looked into renting, but because the economy is so bad right now, a lot of people can't afford to buy houses right now and the demand for rentals way up.  We've figured out that paying a mortgage on a home is actually cheaper than renting a home.

This is a perfect example of how no matter how carefully you plan your life out, circumstances can change in an instant and you're forced to come up with a new plan!

If They Mated (Again)

Before Adam and I got pregnant with Eli, we always talked about what our future children would look like.  Back in 2009, Adam worked a little magic on the computer and digitally combined our faces to predict what our child would look like as an adult.  He came up with this:

Thankfully, his prediction was WAY off, and our child actually looks like this:

(Insert huge sigh of relief here).

Now, a frequent topic of conversation is what our next child might look like.  Will he or she look like Eli or completely different?  Will he or she have Adam's dark features or my light ones? Because we were so curious about what other combinations of us there are out there, Adam worked his magic again and came up with a different, and surprisingly, even more frightening result:

We're praying this isn't an accurate prediction, but thankfully, we won't have to wait too much longer to find out how close it is.

WE'RE PREGNANT AGAIN!!!

We'll get to see our new little one on or around May 10, 2012!  We can't wait!!!

This is what our baby looks like as of yesterday morning.  Cute, right?

Becoming an Aunt

On Friday, October 7th at 5:45 p.m., I became an aunt! My beautiful sister Jessica gave birth to a perfect baby boy that was 7 lbs, 3 oz and 19 inches long. As of right now, he is still nameless. Not because Jessica and Scooter and trying to be dramatic and make everyone wait for his super-cool name, but because they honestly don't know what to name him yet. Jessica is super indecisive and I should have known that she would be especially indecisive about the all-important decision of naming her first-born child!  Hopefully they can come up with something before they leave the hospital tomorrow.

Jessica was induced on the 6th because she was 6 days past her due date. Despite the cervix softening medicine and the pitocin that they gave her, she was only dilated to a 4 nearly 20 hours later, and the baby's heart rate began to drop with each contraction. Jessica's doctor decided that because the baby was in distress, it was too risky to let her try to labor on her own any longer.

She was taken in for an emergency c-section 5 minutes after she'd been given her epidural (it wasn't even working yet!) and they yanked that baby right out of her within just a few short minutes. It all happened so fast that my mom, dad, and I didn't even make it to the hospital in time to see her go into surgery. We arrived after the baby was born.

For the past 9 months, I had been so excited because Jessica had told me that I could be in the birthing room when her little guy was born. I couldn't wait to witness my nephew's entrance into the world. So when I heard the news that the c-section was going to happen and I couldn't be there, I was totally bummed. It definitely wasn't how I expected everything to happen, but I am so grateful that Jessica and the baby are both safe and healthy.

Meeting that little baby was one of the highlights of my life so far. The feeling of love that I have for him actually kind of surprised me. I knew I'd love him and think he was cute and all, but I didn't realize how much I'd love him until he was actually in my arms. He is so tiny and perfect! I'm kind of obsessed with him. When I woke up at 4:00 a.m. last night to go to the bathroom, I actually pulled out my phone to look at pictures of him before I could go back to sleep. Ridiculous, right?

I love that little bundle of baby!  He smells so good!

Here is my dad holding him for the first time.  Could he look like a prouder grandpa?  I think not!

My mom was pretty thrilled too.  She is the world's best grandma, and I can't wait to see her dote over this little guy the way she dotes over Eli.

This was the first time Jessica got to hold her baby. That's the hardest part about having a c-section. You don't get to hold your baby right away. They show him to you in the operating room, but your arms are strapped down and you can't move. She had to wait in the recovery room for over an hour before she got to hold her son. The reunion was so sweet. Jessica is a natural mother!  Not to mention Scooter is a natural father too.  They're going to be the best parents.  Honestly.

The next day, we brought Eli to the hospital to see the new baby.  We were so curious to see how he'd react and what he'd do.  His reaction was pretty funny.

At first, he wasn't quite sure what to think of his cousin.

He just sat there and stared for a few moments.

Then, he wanted to pat the baby's head.  He was gentle at first.

But then he started to get a little more agressive by squeezing his head a little.

I had to step in and remind him to be gentle.

And soft.

I think Eli got the message because then he bent down and gave his cousin a little kiss on the head.  It couldn't have been sweeter!  I can't wait to watch these cousins develop a relationship throughout the years.  I hope they'll be best friends!