Productive Evening! And Thoughts About Future Purchases

Yesterday I took my lunch to pack some stuff, load up the car, etc. I filled it to the brim! Then I made pita pizzas and put them in the fridge. At 5 on the nose I headed to the gym for a quick 3.5 mile walk, then ran upstairs, grabbed Reuben and the pizzas and we were on our way to Alpharetta! Austin met us at the house and we quickly got the pizzas in the oven and unloaded the car! This trip mostly included our games, towels, and LOTS of my closet (ClosetMaid drawers, shoes, etc.). Also - the bed frames!

Now - both guest rooms have everything from frames and mattress pads to bed skirts, sheets and everything. The pillows are even stuffed in the cases & shams. All both rooms need now are beds! haha

Clearly, the last "rooms" to go will be our bedding, our kitchen and several things from each of our closets though. I'm not too worried - the more trips we take the better I feel about the whole thing, you know?

One annoying thing: Currrently both garage door openers operate the left door... the right door (i.e., my door) doesn't open - boo. Austin said he'd mess with it on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday - full day! We hope to go up there at 7:30 a.m. to meet the guys with a car full of stuff. Unload. Go buy a vacuum cleaner and a few other things; pick up more stuff; unload then CLEAN from top to bottom, especially the kitchen (to be honest - it's VERY clean but I want to do it anyway). Once we're done we may do one more load/unload then that's it for the day. We're hoping to have some free time to go see our friends!! Especially since next weekend is going to be slammed with the move.

I can't WAIT to see the hardwoods in!! And really to get the whole house done. I was thinking, as far as furniture, $100+ items, we really don't need that much:

• TV + storage baskets for Austin's office
• 2 club chairs + couch + floor mirror for the living room
• Coffee table + TV for the kitchen seating area
• 2 night stands + 1 chair for our bedroom
• Piece of furniture for entryway
• TV for video-game room
• 2 night stands + lamps for guest room
• desk + shelving unit + futon + TV + chair for scrapbook room
• full size bed for guest room

That's really it! (not including decorative items and the BIG things like granite/stainless appliances in the kitchen; hardwood stairs with new bannisters; etc.) To prioritize:

1. Full size bed for guest room $400
2. TV + coffee table for kitchen seating area $400
3. Storage baskets for Austin's office $70
4. 2 night stands for our bedroom $TBD - $500
5. TV for video game room $400
6. 2 club chairs + couch for living room $460 for chairs; $500 for couch
7. 2 night stands + lamps for guest room; $170
8. desk + shelving unit + futon + TV + chair for scrapbook room $800
9. TV for Austin's office; $200
10. Piece of Furniture for Entryway $250
11. 1 Chair for our bedroom $250
12. Floor mirror for living room $100

TOTAL: $4,500 - not too bad for all that, right? I even tried to add in tax!

Saturday Rental Hunting in a Nut Shell

1. Townhouse. I love it. It’s only a few years old so it’s all upgraded (high ceilings, granite countertops, tiled backsplash, etc.). It’s 3 stories, has 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath- it’s great. The pool table would go in the garage – and there’s actually a bedroom/full bath down there, too. Problems: The location. Right at Buford/North Druid – sketchiness surrounds it. Parking. VERY little guest parking and if we use the garage for a pool table we’ll need a guest space for one of us every day. Price. They need to come down about $250 (mostly because of location) to make it worth our while. Final Verdict: Maybe.


2. Townhouse. Exactly the same as the one above (same complex, etc.) but the location was worse/less private, it wasn’t in as good condition and it had fewer amenities. Final Verdict: No.


3. House. Amazing location (right behind Tin Lizzy’s), beautiful/older wooded street, charming homes with lots of character, great curb appeal, plenty of parking as it’s paved around the side to the back, fenced in yard – cute, cute, cute. We get in and it’s SMALL. It’s all hardwoods and has 3 bedrooms/2 baths but it’s just odd. The rooms are tiny – the bathrooms are really tiny. The kitchen was awful – at least 2 different floors and 3 different countertops – dated everything. It felt small, the pool table wouldn’t fit (no garage either) and as much as we loved the location and the outside it wasn’t us. Final Verdict: No.


4. House. Awesome location (right by our place now – behind Phipps), great curb appeal, awesome hardwoods, huge rooms, lots of house, had been upgraded in some spots, etc. Problems: Almost too big. Pool table wouldn’t fit. Awkwardly huge underground garage and your w/d sit in the middle of it randomly. No where to put the pool table (unless you put it down there in the scary garage but he mentioned flood damage… twice. Way too pricy. Two bathrooms were DATED – like yellow/blue tile. Some weird deal where it could be sold out from under us only by investors or something? Final Verdict: No.


5. House. Great location (right by Chastain park), great curb appeal, awesome hardwoods, good-size rooms – the main was doable – definitely… then the basement where we thought the pool table could go was all chopped up so it wouldn’t fit, the carpet was heinous, there was all of this random space we couldn’t use (rooms) that had the owner’s crap in them, etc. And they were asking too much for what it was. Oh – and the yard is HUGE- I mean 3 acres huge. Final Verdict: No.


6. Townhouse. Good location (Brookhaven – behind the Kroger past Phipps). Older area but well kept. Townhome was a little 80’s (could mostly tell in the fireplace and bathroom vanities). They had done lots of upgrades though and the rooms were a good size, the floors looked good, etc. The pool table wouldn’t fit in the basement OR the 1-car garage. And if we didn’t occupy the huge space it should have fit in (was like 1’ short on each side) we’d have a lot of house we didn’t need. Final Verdict: No.

So out of all of them only one is a maybe. And we would need to get them down $250 and it would STILL be $1,600 and no amount of money is going to make that place safer. It IS gated, but I mean Cross Keys High School is in walking distance one way and Buford the other way. The people in there were all alive though, right? And it was a bunch of cute, young couples. But out of all of them it's definitely the farthest away from where we work. Here’s some pictures of it since it’s the only one we’d even consider moving:

So at the end of the day we talked about buying vs. renting - pros/cons, and discovered that for us it all came down to 4 things:

1. Location: ITP (rent) vs OTP (buy)

2. Flexibility: have it (rent) vs don't (buy)

3. Renovations: can't do it (rent) vs can (buy)

4. Money: out the door (rent) vs investment (buy)

So if you rent you can live in the perimeter, have the flexibility to move, etc. - but you can't make it what you want to and you're not really saving $ if you're paying $1,600 to $1,800 a month. But if you buy you need to pack it up to the burbs, you're more 'locked in' and you can do whatever the hell you want because it's yours. It's like I told Austin - if you're not ready to head to the burbs, if location is your numero uno - then let's rent and call it a day. But if it's about the $, if you want to get a house a good investment then let's buy (if something happens we'll rent it out or sell it) and we can do renovations and make it ours. But you know Austin - he wants it all! Now that we've really gone out there and really looked and seen what's up and what things are going for.... it seems buying is our best option. Plain and simple. Bite the bullet. Rip off the band-aid and do it. So... it's pretty much looking like that's what we're going to do - but Austin just can't get on board with total burbs right now - so we're looking at places in our price range in or near the perimeter that need work. Some just need wallpaper down/paint up, new bathroom vanities; some need more. So we'll keep you posted on that! Wow.... I'm not exactly surprised it's going like this. This is how it was when we got our cars, our current apartment, our honeymoon, everything! And this is our biggest purchase so I know it makes sense but DANG - I'm just glad (I think) we've come to a final decision. At the end of the day - we've exhausted all rentals and only came up with one we'd live in (above) so.... i dunno. I'm exhausted by it all already! haha

So It Begins...

Yes, I've decided to create a blog that will document me and Austin's journey from apartment renters to home owners. I still can't believe we've arrived at this crossroad, but so happy to be here! May will be three years renting the same space, and we're now ready (for various reasons including wanting walls, the economy, wanting more space, etc.) to look into buying a home. Ideally - we'd like to close around the time our lease ends to avoid paying $4,000 to break it. Here's some other things we want (in a perfect world):

1. To live in Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Roswell or Alpharetta (the 400 corridor in North Fulton County outside of Atlanta).


2. Something along the lines of: Good (3br/2ba; 2 dens or 1 den/1 finished basement); Better (4br/3ba; 2 dens AND finished basement); Best (4 br/3ba; 2 dens and finished basement- UPGRADED.


3. We'd love for it to be upgraded. Upgraded in our minds = painted neutral colors, hardwoods on main, berber carpet on upper and/or lower, nice cabinetry, upgraded appliances, tile in bathrooms, upgraded hardware in kitchen/bathrooms, nice countertops, nice fans, etc. Don't get me wrong, we're not scared of DIY - just saying... :)


4. What we prefer: Open floor plan; Kitchen connected to living room; Pool table in its own area; A laundry room not closet; 10' Ceilings on main; 4-sided brick; Hardwood floors throughout OR hardwoods on lower w/berber carpet on top floors; No wallpaper; walls painted neutral colors; large walk-in closets, office OR master on main floor, etc.

So at this point we've just been locking down what we want in a house, where we want the house to be, how much we want to spend and what we're willing to do ourselves (clearly the odds of a property having everything we want and like are low). I've also been working on inspiration boards for different rooms - color palettes, what furniture/items we have that goes in it, what furniture/items we need to buy to go in it, etc. It's fun! Aside from that, we spent Sunday with a realtor looking at 8-9 houses in the Alpharetta area. We LOVED one, but it had synthetic stucco which is scary and expensive to replace. So we're back to square one.