A Little Bit of Background

Tim & I originally started looking at houses about 6 months into dating, only back then we were looking at townhomes for him with the idea that eventually it would be "our" home. About 6 months after that we started casually looking into the idea that maybe we would just go ahead and buy a house together. Not too long after that we opened a joint checking account and started saving up.

We had quite a bit of trouble looking for a house. Tim had his ideas of what he wanted in a house (aka champagne on a PBR budget) and I had lofty ideas of how easy it HAS to be to flip a house (thanks TLC). Not to mention that we both had valid reasons for sticking to the side of town each of us grew up in. Luckily for both of us and our future marriage we compromised on sticking to the downtown area and started a search for either a smaller new house or an older house that was move-in ready save for perhaps a coat of paint.

In January of 2009, after a year of searching and two months after getting engaged, we finally found "the one." It had amazing views, was close to downtown and our offices and was midway between his side of town and mine. We consulted with our dads, put down a downpayment, got an inspection, were approved for a mortgage and were ready to close...until about a week before we were actually supposed to close. On that fateful day we got a call from our real estate lawyer and found that the builder of our beloved home had built the house right on top of a sewer easement from the house on the hill above. Everything fell apart just as quickly as we had fallen in love with the house and in the end we ended up with no house and out a couple thousand dollars from our savings after paying for all of the typical pre-closing services thanks to the crook of a builder we were dealing with. To this day he still hasn't returned any of our or our lawyers calls.

Flash-forward about 4 months later and we finally took up one of our friends' offers to build a house for us in a new neighborhood featuring craftsman style homes. We looked up plan after plan on the internet and finally found one that we liked, with a few tweaks. Those tweaks turned into a complete overhaul of the downstairs layout and a few minor edits to the upstairs. We had the plans finalized, the deposit down and construction began in July of 2009. Within a week the foundation was complete and the base of the first floor was put down.

About 3 weeks later all of the framing was completed, plumbing, HVAC and electrical were all started, the roof and shingles were on and the doors and windows were placed in.

The transformation over the next couple of weeks was absolutely amazing; insulation and walls went in and were painted, our Hardieboard and trim were installed, cabinets, fixtures, faucets and countertops were placed, the driveway was poured and the garage door was installed. Finally our house was starting to look a little more like home.

Lastly the landscaping was done, hardwoods were finished and the porch columns and rails were installed and it was time for the closing. After lots of paperwork and little fanfare we officially became homeowners and with all of the work behind us we began our life of leisure....or so we thought.