august 2016 | I bought a house! : "before pictures"

Once upon a time, (last February specifically), I decided that it was a good idea to think about buying a house. I am settled into my career, knew the area I wanted to live in, and was tired of renting. Scout is fine in an apartment, but I wanted her to have a yard to run and play in, and I was ready for some stability (I've moved every year- sometimes multiples times a year- for the past ten years). The rental market in the Portland Metro is brutal - a one bedroom rent is averaging 1,400/month, which was quickly becoming to expensive for me. It made sense that a mortgage may actually be cheaper, or at least the same price.... 

I talked to my parents, went to a class on home buying, got my finances in order, and started looking at neighborhoods. Then I started looking at houses ...and I looked, and I looked and looked. And made offers, and I even got three accepted offers.... and had to end them... due to rotting floors, roofs, etc. I was open- and excited- to make some changes to any house, but was not interested in houses that had not had water turned on for 5 years, for example! I am more into cosmetic changes, and was not interested in structural changes.

When June came around, I felt that I was never going to find something. I had a lot of trips planned, and Caleb and I started to look at apartments, or maybe even living in an RV - we even went to look at them and though we could probably do it. Then on a one day break between the Redwoods, and leaving for Washington DC, there was an open house I went to. And my parents went later that afternoon. We all loved it- so, not really expecting that I would actually get my offer accepted, I made an offer, and it got accepted!

So... 48 (but who is counting!) days later, I got my keys!

(& stay tuned for more pictures, because I thought it would be fun to share - I started to tear up the carpet aprox. 15 minutes after I got the keys!)