Our house... in the middle of our street!

No more broken dreams!!! We have finally come to an agreement, signed the papers, had an appraisal and we are good to go for getting our house! Move-in day = December 15th!

WOOHOO!

Because we know you haven't seen enough of it - Here is the front of our house!

And the back of it!

And the garage!

And here's Gus! He's really excited about his new yard!

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday today to our nephew, Raleigh, and our sister-in-law, Lisa!!

Happy First Birthday, little man!

Happy ?? Birthday, Lisa!

Broken dreams?

Okay, it is not as serious as the title seems to say, but house-buying can be a little frustrating and disheartening. We've been trying to do everything right all along the way - playing the offer/counter-offer "game" - getting a house inspection done - requesting that the sellers have a professional assessment and brace one of the basement walls - then WE hit a brickwall with the sellers on the last part... So, it might be back to the drawing board for us. Don't worry! We're not going to give up! Just wanted to give you an update. Happy faces are back on...

Busy week & Big news!

What a week!!!

I was out of town at a conference starting on Tuesday afternoon, and it was a busy trip! It was a three day college and university housing conference. I had a chance to co-present on making adjustments as a first year professional with one of my coworkers, and that went pretty well. Apparently we were funny and entertaining. I also got to attend several sessions while I was there, brought back some great information to share with my department and staff, and got lots o' free stuff from all of the vendors. We stayed in a hotel that had a LOT of character (smoked, gold-foil mirrors anyone??), and I had the opportunity to show everyone just how good the karaoke version of Damn Yankees' High Enough can sound. What can I say - I love power ballads.

During the time I was gone, Joel stayed busy too! We kept in very close contact over the phone as he went through the process with our realtor and home mortgage consultant of putting in an offer on the house we wanted, getting a counter-offer, putting in another offer, getting another counter offer, and FINALLY we came to an agreement!!!!!

So, here's the big news: WE GOT THE HOUSE!! We signed the papers this morning that we officially accept the counter-offer, we're having a home inspection next Wednesday and then the SOLD sign should be going up. We'll be moving in mid-December (renting the property briefly) and then closing in February! It feels really good to not have to search any more!

I do want to take an opportunity to say a special thank you to one of my new supervisors for going out of his way to help us out, and a HUGE thank you to our mortgage consultant and realtor for helping out a couple naive first-time home buyers. Hopefully the inspection goes well! We'll update you soon. In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures of the beautiful house:

The big, beautiful master bedroom. With Joel in it.

The lovely bathroom. With Joel in it.

The backyard (the swingset is going away) and the HUGE three-stall garage. With Joel in it.

Two can play at that game...

So, Robin decided to retaliate against my posting of her (very flattering) giraffe neck picture (see previous post). She did this by posting a very UNflattering picture of me in a particularly ugly hat (see Robin's blog at www.rfriedr.blogspot.com or follow the link on the side of my page). My competitive nature leads me to post this pic of Robin that was taken while we were traveling in Scotland:


Isn't she pretty? :)

The Official Offer

Hey folks. So, I may have "spoken" too soon on my last post. I actually received the OFFICIAL offer from NDSU yesterday. :) The previous offer was the unofficial offer, but now it looks like the things that need to be signed are signed, the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, and I have now officially accepted, so I'm going to celebrate again!

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!

So now that the offer is official, I figured I could take a moment and let you all know what I will be doing. I am going to be the Learning Services/Orientation Coordinator at NDSU, and I will be working in two different areas within the Office of Orientation & Student Success. I will be spending part of my time working with the tutoring center at NDSU (I learned that about 1000 students come through the tutoring center each week, so it is a very busy place!), and I will be spending part of my time helping to coordinate new and transfer student orientation sessions, as well as campus events like Weeks of Welcome. I'm looking forward to learning more about these programs. I will be starting December 18th!

In the meantime I will be working hard at Concordia to make sure the transition goes smoothly for the incoming hall director and the students and student staff in the building. I am going to miss everyone a lot! I have had the pleasure to work with an amazing group of professional and student staff members during my time here. It will be nice to stay in the same area and keep in contact with them.

Joel and I will be going house shopping again tomorrow evening. We will see four new houses and then revisit house #5 (see previous post). We would REALLY like to put an offer in on a house (probably #5) early this week before I take off for an out-of-town conference. Time is going very quickly! Wish us luck as we go through the new process of house buying... we'll need it. :)

I'll leave you with a picture I recently ran across of Robin doing her giraffe impression (also known as "giraffe neck"). She will love me for this...

WOW...

Last Friday I was offerred (and accepted) a position as NDSU's Learning Services/Orientation Coordinator. I am thrilled! I am very excited to be working in this area and with that office. I will be starting in mid-December after the end of the semester at Concordia. Learning a new position is always challenging, but I'm looking forward to the transition.

Speaking of transitions... we are also house shopping now. Since my current position is live-in, we are looking for a new housing option. Having Gus makes renting a challenge, and we are hoping to begin "investing in our future" by buying a house. So, we went house-shopping tonight and took a look at seven different homes. Here's the breakdown:

#1 - not too bad, but the basement would need to be finished (half completed) and there had been some pretty serious water damage... pretty much a "No"
#2 - bright orange siding, very cat-smelling, and overall very run-down... another "No"
#3 - adorable little cottage home with beautiful molding, a huge yard, right by a big park, but a little small (only two bedrooms and one bath)... fun to look at, but probably not feasible...
#4 - huge character home with amazing updates, but a basement that would definitely need to be finished (half completed)... this house would be a money-sucker with all of the other updates that would need to happen... beautiful though!
#5 - beautiful updated 1890 home, two stories, beautiful open kitchen, deck, fenced backyard, updated bedrooms and bathrooms... LOVED IT
#6 - cute stucco two-story, brand new kitchen (kind of small though), small bedrooms, but overall a definite prospect
#7 - great 50's home, cozy finished basement and tons of room, HUGE fenced backyard, but it is within sight of the interstate and there is a constant background noise of the cars speeding by that would drive us crazy... unfortunately this one is a no-go

Overall we really enjoyed the time we spent looking. It is a little overwhelming, but we have a great realtor and we're maintaining our enthusiasm right now. Hopefully we will get more info on #5 and see where that one goes. Otherwise we will be looking at a few other homes on Sunday, and we'll keep you updated. We'll leave you with a few pics of #5: