My First House

March 6, 2013

It’s been just over 24 hours since I closed on my first house. I’ve been flooded with many thoughts and emotions over the past 2 days. To say I’m excited would be an understatement! Let me sum up how I became a homeowner. It all began a year ago. I was in New Zealand having the time of my life but also giving thought to what the future would hold when I returned to the States. My Dad talked to me a bit about the possibility of investing in real estate. Although it peaked my interest, because I didn’t know where I was going to end up, I didn’t act on it. That is, until this fall when I went up to northern Minnesota to look at a house. An offer was made but it didn’t pan out. After that I continued to look online at houses and even walked through a couple; nothing worth pursuing. When I went to Florida with my family in January, I knew looking at a few houses was on the agenda. My parents drove to Florida and my sister and I flew down a couple weeks later. During the time in which my parents were not under close supervision of their two daughters, they drove through a small town. Liked it. Stopped by a real estate office. That’s my parents for you. A week or so later, after my sister and I had joined them, we stopped by the real estate office again. After viewing several houses, offers were made, one of which included the house I now own. Did I forget to mention that my house is in Florida?! So began the process. The next month was spent getting things in order and ready for closing.

A bit about this house:

This lovely 3 bd, 2 ba house is set on a one acre corner wooded lot. The house is 1780 sqft and includes a fire place, screened porch, and shed.  The previous owner, an older couple, had lived in the house for 20+ years and not much had changed within the house during that time causing it to be very dated.  It is an investment. My intentions are to update the house (new flooring, paint, and landscaping) and then either rent it or resell it. 

Let me give you the grand tour:

Welcome to my house. Upon arrival, please exit your vehicle.

After exiting your vehicle, make your way along the garage  and up the walkway to the front door.

When you enter the front door, the living room will be on your left.

The living room connects to the dinning room.

Walk through the dining room and on your left you will see a door that goes into the Master bedroom.

The master bathroom

Look at that view! Yes, I have a small garden outside my master bathroom. 

Backtrack to the entry way. There is a walkway leading the the kitchen and second living room.

The kitchen. To the left of the fridge is a pocket door going into the dining room.

The second living room. Check out that fireplace. Sweet!

If you walk out the sliding door near the fireplace you will come the the screened porch. There are a total of three sliding glass doors leading to the porch; one from the living room, one from the dining room, and one from the master bedroom.

Before entering the kitchen. There is a hallway to the right. Going clockwise you will find the bathroom, 2 bedrooms, and the laundry room.

The hall bathroom

The hall bathroom

The first bedroom

The second bedroom (and my dad).

The laundry room with a door that leads into the garage.

The garage with a few things that had been left by previous owners.

The back of the house.

Closing Day (March 5):

After a restful night’s sleep in Cordele, GA, my dad and I continued our drive south. We arrived shortly after 12:30pm. Being that it was lunch time, we partook in a delicious meal a Pavarotti’s pizza. This was followed by walking to Sherwin Williams to check out our painting options and the bank to set up our new accounts. At 2:30pm we made our way to the house where we met Glen, our real estate agent. We did one final walk though of the house before going over to the attorneys office to sign papers for closing. I sat at the long conference table with excitement and waited for the signing of the papers. No big deal. In less than 15 minutes papers were signed, keys were given, and pictures were taken. I just bought a house! BAM! But the excitement doesn’t end there….drumroll please….then I unlocked the door to my house for the first time. The following moments were spent walking around the house, soaking it all in. It’s a surreal feeling. After I got my head out of the clouds, the work began; unloading the car. Shortly thereafter, we went into town to get dinner and groceries. Upon returning, I went to work scrubbing down the showers before rolling my sleeping bag out in the master bedroom and going to bed. 

Unlocking the front door for the first time.

Meeting the Neighbors (March 6):

I woke up around 7:30 and after a little contemplating I went for a brisk morning run. I’m not much of a runner. This can be proven in my wimpyness of not running at all this winter. Minnesota winters can be brutal. Snow+Ice+Cold+Ella+Run=No Way Jose! That equation may not make any sense but I think you get the point. Needless to say, I ran this morning. A short run but a run nonetheless. After having a bowl of cereal for breakfast, it was time to continue errands that needed to be done. It hasn’t taken me long to learn that buying a house involves a lot of paperwork and a lot of errands. Rather than just stating we ran errands, I’m going to give you a rundown of where we went simply because I can. And who knows, maybe someday you are going to buy a house and this information could be useful.

We began by stopping by a nursery/landscaping business that was on the way in to town. It was closed. We then proceeded to the home insurance office where I signed and paid for home insurance. Side note: The insurance lady as well as the lady at the bank both had a bottle of nail polish in their office. From the insurance office we went over to Gary’s, the local flooring guy. We talked to a nice older lady about having Gary come out to measure and give us quotes on flooring. We went on a short drive around stopping at the recycling center/dump to see what the regulations were.  Before going back to the house to grab a sandwich for lunch we stopped at another nursery and spoke to Mike who offered to come out the next afternoon to look at the yard and offer suggestions. Next order of business: the post office. I stopped in to inform them of my recent purchase to ensure that I would receive my mail rather than it being forwarded to the previous owners. I then walked to Sherwin Williams (paint store) where I was supposedly going to meet my dad. He wasn’t there. I carried on nonetheless. The purpose of going into Sherwin Williams was to inquire about painting formica cabinets. So I did just that. I took in a kitchen drawer to find out that you can indeed paint formica and have it turn out well. Sweet deal. Figuring that my dad had walked to the library to get free wifi, I drove over to find him sitting outside on a bench browsing the web. In case you haven’t caught on by now, we don’t have internet at the house, which explains why this post is in one big chunk rather than divided by each individual day. I’m sure we will drop by the library often to get internet. While at the library we took the chance to post the old carpet on craigslist. I figured it couldn’t hurt to list it and if no one was interested, we would just pitch it. We stopped at the tractor supply store to get a ball hitch in order to connect to the trailer Glen had brought over for us to borrow. On the way back home we bought some fresh strawberries from a fruit and vegetable stand. Sorry Tim, you don’t get any. We also stopped at the home owners associate to get my pass for the river.

The Rainbow River. Not only is it very clear but it is 72 degrees year round. The light blue water is where it has sand on the bottom.

Conducting business

Upon returning back to the house, we decided to take a little rest. Wanting to enjoy the sunshine, I went outside and laid on the driveway using my fleece jacket for a pillow. It was a beautiful day. After 20 minutes or so, I heard someone say, “Are you okay?” I sat up to see an older gentleman walking towards me. I guess that’s one way to meet your neighbor. I went over and introduced myself and we chatted for a bit. Bill lives across the street with his daughter and granddaughter. He also told me a bit about the previous owner. Glen also stopped by. I then grabbed an apple and peanut butter and enjoyed a nice afternoon snack on the back deck.

Then the grunt work began. Thanks to the previous owners leaving a ladder, I managed to climb atop the roof to clean the gutters. Because it was an older couple living here, who knows how long it had been since they had cleaned their gutters. They were filled with leaves and pine needles. In some areas, the leaves on the bottom were black and starting to mold. As I was doing this, my dad was working on removing the outside light fixtures that needed to be replaced. When I was about a quarter of the way into the project a maroon station wagon pulled into the driveway. Donning a hat and beard, he introduced himself as the neighbor that lives three houses down. Bob’s the name. I made my way down from the roof to introduce myself. As I’m writing this, I’m trying to think of a word that describes Bob but none come to mind. He is a lively older guy who has done some business in real estate and offered to bring by sample leases. Bill (a different Bill than previously mentioned), had been out walking the dog and saw us talking to Bob. Bill then passed this information on to Nancy, his wife, who immediately came over to introduce herself. We showed her the house before we walked over to hers. After she showed us around, she gave us two air mattresses to borrow. After talking to Bob for about 20 minutes and Nancy for 40, I made my way back to the roof to complete the task I had started. After much sweeping and hosing down, I am now proud to say that the gutters are clean. 

Up on the roof to clean the gutters.

A skeleton of some sort that I found in the gutter.

The gutters desperately needed to be cleaned. Can you tell?

Dad working on the outside light fixtures.

This, and more, came from on top of the roof.

After taking a quick shower, we drove 15 minutes to the edge of Ocala. We ate Five Guys for dinner before going over to Lowes. I’m sure it was just the first of many visits to Lowe's we will be making over the next few weeks. We picked up some light bulbs, sheetrock mud, and electric tester. When we got back to the house, it was time to call it a day. 

Dinner at Five Guys

Our first trip to Lowe's