Oh my, in just about 45 minutes I am signing for a house. My first ever. I haven’t gotten excited about this yet because I am overwhelmed (a little) with the amount of things I have to do before I move into the house.

The list is a mile long and tonight I may type it up so that I can have it easy access someplace. It will keep me accountable on what I have to do and what money I spend.

My family is going to dinner at Red Robin to celebrate. I told this this is the last of my spending for a while let’s go someplace nice, haha! Then I remembered I have a gift card for there so…dinner is covered.

After dinner I am going to look at a console table someone posted on a local FB page. It was originally $400+ and they are selling it for $75. It look nice, only a year or so old and they would move it for me Saturday to the new house. It will sit in the window area of the living room with a lamp on it. I use timers in my current apartment for lights to make it look like I am home because I am so often house sitting.

My agent sent me a note that I was smart to stand my ground with them completing items off the pest report because more things were found once they took off the decorative finial. Nothing major, but it was another $700 to repair that the sellers were responsible for, not me! And I spoke with the company today who completed the work, there is a guarantee on the work and he said no other problems were found. And he sent me the before and after pictures for my records and the list of completed work. Nice guy.

I can’t believe how fast it has come together.

We are one step closer on the home purchase front. They agreed today to do the pest work and give me credit for three other small things. I was not going to buy the house without them doing the pest report, not even taking the credits at closing, as they could have discovered something more for which I would have been on the hook.

They also agreed to the home warranty as the heater is 18 years old (ac is two years old). They also bought an enhanced warranty as opposed to the basic one. When I asked my agent said that is the one they wanted me to have. The enhanced covers much more than the the other one that is usually purchased. Either then
Y are very kind or they know more things are going to break. I am going with kind. My agent also throws in $100 as a gift to each buyer toward the warranty so that helps them a little, too.

Now I wait for the work to be completed in the next few days and then the loan will fund. I should be closing sometime in 14 days or so. Then the fun really begins with the packing, cleaning, cleaning the floors etc so I can move in.

I am using a professional company to clean the house before move in and cleaning the carpeting. I may still get painting done before I move on, not sure yet.

My mom has graciously offered to "babysit" my house when work needs to be done in the next few weeks. She said since I don't have kids and she has babysat all my nieces and nephews this could be the way she can help me.

So much to think about.

So when last I wrote I had made an offer on a house. They accepted.

I had the inspection on the 23rd and it showed very few problems. The major 4 were: 3 cracked tiles on the roof and flashing loose, no screen door off kitchen, the fire door between garage and house was made insecure when they put in a peephole and a gate is very loose.

I am waiting for the roof inspector to give an estimate on replacing those 3 tiles but then I am going to ask for all of those and the items from the past report (a few pieces of dry rot) to be repaired. I already know they will do all on the pest report.

I have been trying to plan a budget around the mortgage payment, expected income from my FT job and known expenses. I called the gas and electric companies for an estimate of what the current bill averages have been for the past year. I know sewer/water/garbage rates every month. I have estimates made for the next year worth of expenses. Any estimates that come in under will be swept into a house account for those months when things are higher or for repairs or things I want for the house.

We are getting a raise in July of 3%. 1% automatically goes into retirement as mandated by the union contract but the other 2% will go into my 401k and 457. I don't need it so easy way to save more for retirement.

I need to buy a refrigerator, washer, dryer and am looking at replacing the water heater before I move in. I'd love to replace all the flooring but that just can't happen before I move in - it lowers my reserves beyond what I am comfortable.

I plan to rent one of the extra rooms for either $450 plus half the utilities or $600 even (which should be just about the same). I am hoping to put new carpet the extra room I want to rent out and with fresh paint it would look very nice. Since it is a smaller room I might be able to do it with just a remnant.

I called a friend who is a contractor and asked if he has any crew members who want to pick up some extra cash and paint the inside of the house. He said yes there are. Once I have the keys we will go and buy paint and all they need to paint the inside of the house for me before I move in. It should take 2 days or less. I am thinking white for most of the house, a dark blue accent in the kitchen walls as very little shows but would make the kitchen pop, and gray in the living room-dining room.

I have received my first housesitting payment of 2015. It was for drop in care on 12/31 and the morning of 1/1. I am waiting for another payment more from this client for this past weekend, another clients payment for three days the last week of the year. I am currently on a house sit that will pay enough for the dryer I need to buy for the house.
I have several other drop in care appointments this month. So I will more than meet my goal of $700 earned this month - 11 months to go!

I have been pulling together all my tax papers for the business. I pay all my memberships, insurances, business license, po box etc. in December so it makes it easy to put into my tax papers once I print out all the receipts. I do my paperwork monthly for mileage and income so all I need to do is finish Decembers mileage report, hit print on the reports and the year is done. Once I get my w2 from my employer I can send it all to the accountant.