Houston We Have a Contract....

It seems like it has taken forever,but we finally have a contract on a house!!! We have already had inspections, negotiated the tre problems that needed addressed and had our appraisal today. So barring something unexpected, we are set to close July 15. I cannot tell you how good it feels it know that there is an end in sight and a new beginning right around the corner. We already have company planned to come down and we couldn't be happier.

Here are a few pics of Chateau De Regenhardt-

front of the house, has cute curb appeal.

living room

beautiful kitchen. too bad I am not much of a cook

cute backyard. not what we are used to, but will be big enough for the kids, both K-9 and human.

Sisterly Love

Having a sister myself, I know first hand that sisterly love is very hard to come by until later in life. That holds true in our house as well. Usually Olivia can be found yelling at Cameron, taking toys away from her or trying to pull her around like a ragdoll. On the same token, Cameron can usually be found stealing Olivia's toys, pulling her hair or just annoying her anyway she can. Lately though, they have been playing more together. It is usually short lived and in ends as soon as Cameron takes the toy away from Olivia. The other night they were playing Ring Around The Rosie. It was so cute and that is one game that doesn't seem to start a fight.

*As I type this I can hear Daniel telling Olivia "no, don't pick her up, let go of her arm."

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

We have had an interesting couple of days. First and foremost, thanks to my extremely gracious dad and watching our K-9 children, my mom was able to come down for a couple days and spend some time with us. It was nice to see her. So while she was her, we had scheduled an appointment to go to the Design Center and pick out all the pretties for our house.

That appointment proved to be a real eye opener into why not to build a house. When we initially talked with and every time since when we have talked with the salesman at the model house, we were told that we were getting certain upgrades in our house that we were planning on building and they were already built into the price that we were given. We were trucking right along with picking out different things for the house, all of which we knew would add some money to our bottom line. When we got to the flooring section, we were left speechless. We were told that the standard tile would be 18" tile set on the diagonal. Um, that is not correct. The standard is 12'' laid straight. First of all, the 12" tile was very cheap, ugly color and very thin. So there was no way that was going into any house of ours. We picked out a nice 18" tile and found that it added about $8000 to the price of the house. And then adding the diagonal pattern was another $1500-$2000. Along with that, we were told that the standard tile was a Frieze carpet, again not correct. We have dealt with builder grade carpet before and if I never see it again, it will be too soon. So we decided to upgrade that as well. That upgrade added another $3000 to the price of house. I know what you must be thinking, aren't we a bunch of brats for thinking we can get upgraded flooring for nothing. Had we not been told that the upgrades were already included and there would be no extra cost we would have been happy to pay for them. Essentially we were lied to to get a contract on the house and then when they had us, they did a bait and switch. About the time we were trying to digest the flooring and knowing that this was not the end of the discussion, our realtor showed up. We quickly brought him up to speed and he was under the same impression we were about what we had going in. He too felt lied to. We talked with the sales manager and he was a jerk to the say the least. Gave us the customary run around about how he doesn't have any more money to give on the house, we are getting a base house with upgrades at our cost, blah, blah, blah. He left a really bad taste in our mouths. We quickly finished up the design appointment since we had already spent 4 hours there and at this point we were unsure if we would move forward with building but if we did, we didn't want to make another trip out there.

After the appointment we briefly talked with our realtor and he suggested maybe taking a step back and looking at some more resales one last time to see if anything tripped our trigger. So we ditched our plans for Tuesday of taking my mom out the Galleria and looked at houses yet again. It is a good thing we did. We found a house that we are in love with, that offers 95% of what we were planning on putting in the new build at a cheaper price.  After seeing this house and what it had to offer, we decided to cancel the contract for the new build. We have put an offer on this new house we found and are waiting to hear. I don't plan on posting any pics or info. about it until after inspections and I know 100% that we will close. After I have spilled the beans on the last two houses and they have fallen through, I have become a bit superstitious.

Stay tuned.....

FInally making progress.....

Today while I would out and about, I decided to drive by the location where our house is going to be built. Orginally we were told that at the middle of May when we signed all the papers that they had just begun pulling all the permits, and so at that point in time, it would be another 4 weeks before anything was done to the lot. But today when I drove by I was pleasantly susprised to see that all the trees had been cleared and it seemed as though there was a utility van there. So, maybe they are a few weeks early which means they will finish a few weeks early.