We bought a house!

When we were looking to move to Nebraska we initially decided that we would most likely rent an off base house instead of living on the base. There were some base houses with four bedrooms which was appealing to us but we figured this would be a good chance for us to try living off base for the three years that we would be stationed at Offutt.  The market here is crazy! We looked at renting houses but they were flying off the pages so quickly.  We had some friends that told us basically the best idea was to find a friend who is already living in a house that would be moving to attempt to take over their lease.  

We knew a few people moving out of their rentals this summer, but after not hearing back too much information and not wanting to be to pesky we decided to consider buying a house. We have been married for 12 years and just this past year, living in Illinois, it was our first time renting a house.  During our previous assignments  we have lived on base so buying a house it was a  pretty foreign concept for us.   We had a lot to learn.  A friend of ours who is stationed here connected us to a realtor who we couldn’t have been more happy with.  She was very patient with all of our clueless questions and was very helpful in setting up different houses for us to look at it from a far.  

Even the houses for sale moved quickly.  We’d see a house we liked and by the time we’d request a virtual showing, there would already have been several contracts put in.  There were two that we ended up liking a lot and we ended up doing a one hour virtual walkthrough with both.  The realtor basically FaceTimed us and showed us the homes.  We felt like her assessments of the house were honest.  She pointed out things she’d probably change or “gotchas”. We felt like she cared about getting us our home rather than just making a sale.  

The house we made an offer on was a little higher than our original price point, but the location can’t be beat.  We’re just about 10 minutes from the base, and right between the towns of Bellevue and Papillion.  Our neighborhood is a little newer and pretty popular with military families.  The school is around the corner, which is amazing! We got used to that in Illinois and it’s going to be an awesome blessing again, especially since Theo and Woodrow will be on the same schedule now and getting older so they can walk to school without me.  (Maybe).  Our inspection went well and the sellers agreed to all our requests. 

My mom watched the boys for us, so that we could come in early April and close on the house.  Mason and I drove to Omaha in a Tuesday, saw the house that night, closed Wednesday morning and then met with contractors that afternoon/evening to set-up some projects before moving in. Then we drove home Thursday.  Whew!!!  Housing costs add up quickly.  Some projects we had worked on before moving in (which worked out well) were: Sanding and sealing the wood kitchen floor, rekeying, installing new kitchen appliances, redoing the kitchen countertops and backsplash, painting the first floor, sanding and staining the deck and closing off one side of the yard with a fence. We had the flooring replaced in two bathrooms, windows washed, and carpets cleaned.  It was super nice having things compelled before moving in.  Now we’re watching the kids like hawks and will be on top of the movers making sure they don’t scratch anything.  

When we got into town Wednesday night after the drive it was nice to be able to move right into our house and have space to spread out.  The kids liked seeing school, our next door neighbors have a little boy who’s 8, and they’ve been excited to check the mail which is in a “shared” box across the street.

The next part of the journey will be getting all our belongings (due Monday) and unpacking!