Adventures In House Hunting

In case you missed it.... WE HAVE A HOUSE! :)

I have been completely obsessed with finding somewhere for Mike and I to live when he gets back. Like, on-real-estate-websites-every-single-day-since-he-left obsessed. I had originally planned on moving into an apartment complex called Arlington West because well, they are BEAUTIFUL but also because it's all that I knew in Jacksonville! Our very dear friends Taylor and Joel Hanson lived there and whenever I visited Mike that's where we would stay. I fell head over heels in love with the Hanson's old apartment and it's updated kitchen, built in columns and archways, brand new construction, the list goes on and on! Mike was completely on board until we discovered the cost of rent for the 2 bed/2 bath apartment I wanted... Yikes. So before he deployed, Mike started encouraging me to check out the town houses and detached homes in the area and even though I was super hesitant at first, I'm glad I did! I found this little neighborhood called The Gables and quickly became addicted to clicking through pictures of their adorable town houses! This all happened back in March/April so I basically couldn't do much for our housing situation for the next 6 months... Lame.

Fast forward to mid-August, about two months out from Mike's expected homecoming window and my move date, and I really started getting excited. I called the real estate office of a town home I had been eyeing to try to get some more information and the poor woman who I talked to acted like I wasn't even speaking English. Apparently the housing market moves SO quickly in Jacksonville that it was basically pointless to set my heart on a particular house. She offered to take down my information and my wish-list and e-mail me several different listings to keep an eye on and I was thrilled! More houses to creep on! About 3 weeks went by and I never heard another peep. I was totally disappointed and a little defeated and I waited until about the third week of September to even look at houses again.

After taking a few weeks of from my house hunt I was feeling newly motivated and excited! I decided to book a trip to Jacksonville the weekend before my move date to do some walk throughs and to spend some time with my girlfriend Amy. I spent days looking at different sites and houses until I found four that I was really interested in. I called the listing office of my #1 pick and talked to a very nice woman who immediately scheduled a showing for me on the afternoon of my arrival in J-ville. I was beyond ecstatic, FINALLY things were falling into place and I was so excited to know that I would come home from my trip with a house!

That was A LOT of typing... So here's my backyard and the view when you walk in the front door to break things up a little ;)

So finally Thursday, October 3rd rolled around and after a red eye flight and some lunch (and early afternoon cocktails... hehe) at Carolina Ale House, Amy and I were ready to get our house hunt on! All of the houses I wanted to see were conveniently in the same neighborhood and I was scheduled to meet the real estate agent at 1. We drove to the first house and sat outside of it like huge creeps until about 1:15 when I decided to call the listing office. Long story short, the agent double booked showings and was out of the office with another client. "When will she be back...?" they had no idea. Great. So it was time for some Target therapy until I finally heard from the agent around 2:45. Another long story short, she left a lot to be desired but I did end up finding a house I loved so no harm no foul I suppose. The house I ended up loving and my #1 pick from the real estate website were not the same house and so I had a little internal debate happening... Luckily I got to talk with Mike that night and described both houses to him and we made our decision! I went into the office the next morning, filled out an application (we got immediately approved :)), and 30 minutes later the lease was signed and the keys were in my hands! We got SO lucky, our landlord even agreed to waive any sort of pet fee! 

My cute little kitchen before and after a weekend of shopping! :)

Once the weight of house hunting was off of my shoulders, Amy and I got to enjoy a weekend of shopping, wine drinking, and setting up her apartment! I am SOO glad that I was able to take the trip down to find the house instead of leasing one based off it's internet pictures. We saw a couple houses that were just plain scary and I would've been kicking myself if I had ended up in something like that! 

Now the next big step is to pack up what little furniture I have and make the (almost) 4 day road trip from Highlands Ranch to Jacksonville! I am once again completely lucky, my sister Gracie is taking the trip with me and she has her drivers license so we can share  the driving hours and she can keep me from going insane! We start driving on Thursday at about noon and hope to get to the house on Sunday evening and then cue the real craziness until Mike gets home!

Wish us luck... I've never pulled a trailer before let alone across the country! At least I know we'll have fun doing it :) More pictures and road trip stories to come!