Key In Hand!

Our house key arrived today!
We closed 10 days ago and are just now getting the key. Our Realtor sent it in the mail for us. He's keeping a key, my Mom has one, and now us! Yay!

I Couldn't Pass These Up!

These are not the ugliest curtains in the world!

I found these at anthropologie.com and they are so cool I bought them on impulse! Well, the main reason I bought them immediately is they have a limited number in stock and they are on sale. They are so awesome in fact that the color of the living room is now going to be based on them!

Out With The Old...

The first order of business is to get rid of everything we just don't want.

First on the list; the bugs and mice/rats. The house has been empty for over a year now so the critters have claimed it as their own. Mom already started by putting out some d-CON bait to start deterring the rodents from hanging out. Next week the plan is to bomb for insects. That's one advantage to the house being empty for now.

Next, all of the ugly, nasty curtains are coming down and any random hardware that doesn't seem to have any purpose.

The ugliest curtains in the world

I don't expect Mom to get too crazy with this activity, we will give it another once over when we are there. There are a lot of decisions that are going to be hard to make without actually being there.

The Papers Are Signed!

This has been a long hard battle.

In June, my husband and I looked at a house while we were on vacation at the Oregon Coast. It was sort of a fluke, we didn't really think we would be purchasing a home anytime soon but it was a foreclosure and seemed to be quite a good deal, especially considering it had an ocean view. The house is located in Lincoln City, just a 5 block walk from the beach.

View From Upstairs Window

We are currently living in the Marshall Islands doing contract work for the Government so the logistics have been very challenging.

After three months of offers, counter-offers, multiple extensions, three different lenders, two appraisals, and hundreds and hundreds of emails; we finally got it done!

Part of the difficulty was the fact that we are living outside of the United States. That fact alone causes our home purchase to be considered a "second home" even though this is now our only home. The main difference between a first and second home loan is the down payment and depending on the lender some of the requirements. Unfortunately for us, none of the lenders seemed to know what these stipulations might be until we got most of the way through the process.

Since we aren't going to be moving back to the States anytime soon, my family will be helping us get some of the cleaning and painting taken care of in exchange for a place to stay at the beach. We'll be taking our vacations there until we move back permanently. The sad part is, our next vacation isn't for another 9 months! This blog will monitor the progress we make and document the changes as we go along.