The Story of our First Home Part One

I know that many of our faithful readers have been anxiously awaiting for more news about the house. It has all been such a whirlwind I have been keeping a journal!

February 24-The Bontroger Family invited us over to their house for a playdate. They live in Forest Park which is a neighborhood in Everett. I fell in love with the neighborhood. I picked up a flyer for a house for sale around the corner from them. $349,000 which is out of our price range!

March 8-Darrick is home on leave. After the boys Spanish class we drive through Forest Park because I want Darrick to see the area. We stop at the actual park to play at the playground and take a little hike. We talk about how much we love it and I tell Darrick that I am going to be spending a lot of time here this summer (little did I know...)

March 9-After we drop Naomi off at preschool we have time before the boys class so we drive around because Darrick wanted to show me the Port Gardner neighborhood. We see a house we like and pick up a flyer for fun-too expensive. We make our way over to the school area, still exploring. We end up on Federal. We see another house for sale and pick up a flyer, $209,500. It is super cute. Darrick gets out and looks around, and goes in the backyard. He comes back and tells me that I should peek in the windows so I do and I love it. We decide to call the Realtor. I'm not sure why we did this. Darrick calls her while I take the boys into class. He comes in and says she is not too busy today and can show us the house. We decide we want too see it. Darrick calls her back and sets up an appt. for 1:00. We get there a bit early and walk across the walking bridge that is right by the house. We discover that it leads right to the hiking trails at Forest Park.

Sharon arrives and we tour the house and love it even more. She gives us the name of her finance person. We call her and her name is Jill. She takes our information over the phone and she will let us know if we qualify. She calls us back later and says that we are super close to qualifying. She suggests a few easy things to do to improve our score and she mentions renting the house until we can buy it.

We call Sharon and she mentions renting the house until we can buy it. We go out to dinner with the Timmermans and tell them about the house and seek their advice.

March 10-We start off the day doing the things Jill asked us to do. We call my parents for advice. They look at it online and like it.

March 12-We are on vacation in Canada and check our email. We got an email from Jill. She lays out specific steps for us and requests our landlords name. We decide we should let Rose, our landlord, know that we are thinking about buying. We are nervous about what she will say because our lease is not up until September. Rose texts back "Wow. Awesome" We feel good about that. We show Sam and Darcie pictures of the house and they like it.

March 14-We get a voicemail from Sharon asking Darrick to call her. Darrick first called Jill. She says that she thinks it is totally possible for us to buy this house and that it will happen fast. She is going to write a letter to Sharon saying that she believes we will get there in a couple of months. She also mailed us our credit report. Then Darrick called Sharon. She is waiting for the letter from Jill. She also talked to the seller and doesn't see any issues with paying rent until we can purchase. We made an appointment to meet her in her office at 1:30 pm tomorrow. The letter from Jill came via FedEx.