our house!!!

this is our (soon to be) house!

this is what i was so excited about in previous posts! the seller has accepted our offer, but it's not final yet. i think closing will be sometime in late may. but let me start this story from the beginning. my mom was just kind of randomly looking at craig's list for a house, just seeing what was there. well she saw this house. there was no picture or address or anything. the ad said that it was a 'wonderful white brick home. 4 bedrooms (and the rooms are big, too!), 2 1/2 bathrooms on 2 lots. the owner has lovingly cared for it for the past 50 years.' so we thought we'd give it a shot. i already had a strong hunch that it would need some work, if it had the same owner for 50 years. so we requested a showing, and last thursday, a week ago today, we showed up. the house was/is so cute! the lady that lives there has so much stuff. in every single room, it is PACKED with things (she "collects" clothes, too, so that kind of adds to it. =) ) and the kitchen needs to be completely redone. but it has a full basement with a family room and a little bar! it was so cozy down there - our western furniture would fit really well down there! it also has a little servant's quarters. the current owners are only the 2 owners - and it was built in 1934. there is carpet almost everywhere, but the hardwood floors underneath are beautiful! the windows also need to be redone because of lead paint - they're still original. well we fell in love with the house the minute we stepped it. we asked for another showing the next day, this time with our handyman friend, just to make sure the renovations and such would be doable. he thought it was the greatest house. by the time friday evening rolled around, we were ready to make an offer, but since so much needed to be done, the price they were asking was way to high. so we subtracted everything that needed to be done, and presented the offer (which we thought was very reasonable, so were very optimistic) on saturday night. they said they needed to think about it, as this was their family home and everything. sunday after church, they wrote us an email, and said that they couldn't accept our offer, not even making a counter-offer! so we were really sad (mom even had to cry! [sorry mom! =)] ) and thought that was that. monday afternoon we were driving around the neighborhood, but not driving by the house because we were too sad. everyone was tired of house-shopping after what happened with the house. the owner of the house was going to have an estate sale, and since they have some really nice furniture, we of course wanted to go. so monday night my mom emailed the lady and told her that she hoped that we didn't insult her with the offer, and asked when the sale would be. the lady replied right away asking that we didn't get the counter-offer (which was, by the way, the very price that we were hoping to negotiate to!)? we were all so shocked (but very, VERY happy!! that was when i wrote the 'stunned' post)!! we told her, yes, we would accept. so we don't know we have the house for sure, but we are 99.9% sure. like i said, closing will be sometime in late may. and the lady's brother-in-law (he owns a bank, has a title comapany, and is a morgage broker) will even help us with the paper work, and his son, and attorney, will write up the contract! it couldn't get any better. it is in a perfect location - about a 3 minute drive to church and 4 blocks away from a grocery store. alright, enough rambling! i think that was my longest post ever. i'm SO glad to finally get that out, though! i thought i was going to burst! =) i will try to keep you posted on anything new with the house.

ciao,

carlotta