Home Inspection Tomorrow!

After 7 LONG months I am so happy to say that we are under contract for this home and scheduled to close on September 17th!

The house is extremely close to where we are currently living and even a little closer to my parents.

The only negative is that Emma will be changing schools for first grade : ( We have LOVED Beech Tree and I'm sad that she is no longer in that school zone. Not only were the teachers amazing but there were such GREAT girls in her class with wonderful parents! Luckily we are still in the area and will be able to have play dates and I've just signed Emma up for fall soccer with the same group of girls from her old school. Ehhh old school... I hate the sound of that!

On a more positive note... we will be doing our home inspections tomorrow! This is going to be a bit of a family affair. Matt and I will both be taking off early to attend the inspection and while Matt is following the certified inspector around my dad and I will be mapping out the house. My dad is an architect and I'm going to put his skills to use and have him draw a "blue print" of the home... I think that this will be helpful for SO many projects that we will be undertaking before moving in. Righ now my mind is focused on purchasing blinds, purchasing living room furniture and planing the layout of all of our new rooms! I LOVE home decorating so this is going ot be a blast!!

I would also love my dad's input/help with the addition that we are considering for the house! This will be a few years down the road but Matt and I have some big plans for the house. It is a place that we can see ourselves in for the long run and I could not be happier!

A new addition to the Fleming Family!

Last weekend Matt and I drove down to Savannah, GA to meet the newest Fleming!

WILLIAM ALAN FLEMING!

He is so adorable and I will let the photos speak for themselves. On Saturday evening we went out on a golf course so all of the guys could practice their game and Emma and her cousin Claire could run around. The lighting was perfect and I managed to get some great shots of the happy Fleming Family!

Here is a new family picture!

And a few of the always cute Claire!

 

Oh Kate Spade... how I love you!

So I LOVE Kate Spade...

Not that I can afford her stuff as we PUT AN OFFER ON A HOUSE LAST NIGHT!!!

Since I'm having to say goodbye, I decided to have one last look at the Kate Spade website.

With the home purchase looming all I can afford is the blackberry case... At least that gives me something to realistically drool over

And we have a contender...

10 hours and 20 homes later the weekend seems to be a success in the home search department... there are several homes in both Alexandria and Burke that we might be interested in learning more about including the bellow home that is SUPER close to where we live now... a 5 bedroom 2.5 bath on a quite tree lined street.

We are currently looking at all the options and deciding the next BIG move... I'll keep everyone updated.

The home search continues...

After an unsuccessful week of looking at homes Matt and I have decided to expand our search outside of our little Annandale bubble. We are now starting to look in Burke and Alexandria.

This weekend I'm going to spare Matt the torcher and I'm going to go at it alone... from first glace on listingbook there are 20 homes that meet our "criteria."

On Saturday Emma and I are going to drive around and take a look at the properties from the street (maybe peek in a few windows) I'm not as familiar with those two areas and so I want to take a little extra time getting acquainted with the schools and the neighborhoods.

On Sunday I might drag Matt our to a few open houses... Once I narrow the homes down to the top 3-5 in each area I am planning on making an appointment with our agent and looping Matt in on the action.

FINGERS CROSSED!!!

Here is a sneak peak at the top contenders!

I'm a Photo slacker

I'm fully aware that I need to post my photos from Michigan!

It was a great trip and Emma and I are already planning what we want to do up there next summer! Bellow are a few photos of us up in MI courtesy of Angela Jeanine & Liz Wojes!

Our first night in Michigan was spent with the WONDERFUL Wojes family and a few of their friends. As you can see Emma had a BLAST doing sparklers and making smores!!!

Fireworks! We watched the 4th of July fireworks over the Traverse City Bay.

I bought Emma this fun light up sword.

Matt had fun with the sword also...

Went to the Midway...

Emma was brave enough to go on this ride...

More to come as soon as I download all of my photos!!

Home Update

Sad news... we did not get the house that we put the offer on. The Seller had accepted our offer but the bank (after 6 months) came back asking for $100,000 OVER THE ORIGINAL ASKING PRICE. We understand that the people who currently own the property owe more than what they purchased the home for at the peak of the market. However, I don't think that the banks recognize that in the 4 years that the home has been owned the value of the home has GREATLY decreased not only due to the economy but also from lack of upkeep. I wish them luck getting the new asking price. I'm sure that if we were willing to stick this out another year we could get the home in foreclosure but after 6 long months of waiting/disappointment I am just really to walk away... This means that there is a better house out there for us and now we start the wonderful search all over again.

On Friday Matt and I will be looking at two additional homes and fingers are crossed that we will find something that we love as much as the first house... We have decided to stay FAR away from short sale properties and with my search on-line I was able to find two great homes for sale with some LAND.

The first is on .56 acres with 4 beds/3 baths. Our agent says that it is a big but interesting property... I guess we will see what that means.

The second is on .46 acres and is 3 bed/2 bath. A smaller option but a GREAT price and really all the space that we need for the next 5 years most likely... with Matt wanting five kids we would eventually grow out of this one... but would have the space to build if we decide that we like the location. 

I will let you know if we like one!



Photos coming from Michigan shortly!