The time I bought a house...

I've been looking for a couple of months. I've seen about 20 houses.

This was my first love. It's just under 2200 square feet. Four bedrooms (or 3 bedrooms + an office), 2.5 baths. I love tri-levels. So much space. Nice yard, attached garage with a pulldown stairs for extra storage above the garage. The kitchen is lovely. Hardwood floors throughout + slate at the entrance. There's an added on sunroom with skylights that is so perfect for relaxing and reading a good book.

It's basically move in ready. The location is the best part. Super nice neighborhood, older subdivision. Out in the country, off the main road. No traffic. Quiet.

After it'd been on the market for about a month, they lowered the asking price by $5,000. I still hesitated about a week.

6/14/13 I finally put an offer in.
6/15/13 They called back. I have until tomorrow to give my best offer. 
6/16/13 I gave my best offer. 
6/17/13 I didn't get it.

6/26/13 We looked at three more houses. 
7/19/13 We looked at more houses.

 8/7/13 I've looked at more houses. I found another one that I really like.

It's about 1500 square feet, three bedrooms, two bathrooms. It has two separate living spaces, which I'm considering more of a priority now that I've seen more homes. The fireplace in the family room is amazing. Easily my favorite part of the home. They've started putting crown molding up in several of the rooms. The master bedroom is huge with a private bath and a walk in closet. The laundry room is actually a room, unlike in a lot of houses where it has just been in a closet in the kitchen. I hate that. It sits on a hill and the backyard is fenced in. It's a chain link fence so in the future I'd love to replace it with 6' privacy fencing but it will work for now.

9/5/13 I put an offer. We count offered back and forth a few times. Ultimately, she would not come down enough on the price and I thought she was asking too much so I rejected her final offer and am still looking. 

10/23/13 I just put another offer on a house. I like it. It's a tri-level. It is just under 1500 square feet, three bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms. 

It's located in a quiet neighborhood on a cul de sac. The garage opens into the kitchen, which I decided could be a deal breaker for me. My friend bought an home in an expensive subdivision and you come in from her garage into their (carpeted) family room. I hate that. The garage is huge and includes a workbench (!) and I love that the driveway is to the side of the house, instead of in front of the house. I prefer this, which is funny because the previous two houses I loved both had garages right in front. The bedrooms are on the smaller side and so are the closets so there's not a ton of space but I'm gaining a garage for storage so that's ok. The full bathroom is on the small side, but the bright side of this is that it can be more of a private (master) bath since only the bedrooms and that bathroom are upstairs. The main living space is on the first level/basement which has an amazing fireplace.

this is the previous owner's photo

The laundry and half bath are also down there so it's convenient to do laundry while you're watching TV in the evenings and since this would be the main living space, the half bath down there is perfect for guests. I also plan to resurrect my treadmill from storage and have it down here. There's definitely enough room and since it's getting colder outside, I'm going to appreciate running indoors! It has a nice size backyard that is fenced in, but I want to replace it with a privacy fence in the future. It's a great size for a starter home for me with everything I'm looking for + the price is perfect.

10/25/13 We have an accepted offer!
10/28/13 The home inspection was done and there are some brick repairs to the chimney that I am asking the home owners to complete. 
11/4/13 The owner agreed to repair the bricks and I met with the financial guy today. He said we should close in 10-12 days! Yikes.  
11/8/13 I found out my loan was approved! 
11/14/13 We closed today! Our original date was Nov 27 so this is a huge deal!
11/15/13 Mom and I started moving stuff in and cleaning.