We are buying a house!

Steph and I are buying a house. A long explanation follows. Read only if you are bored. Skip to the bottom to see pictures.

Background: When we moved into this area, I got involved in a community program that takes meals to shut-ins (older folks who can't get out much). It wasn't so much about providing them with food (many of them are quite wealthy) as it was about providing them with some company. That is how I met Mrs. Milly. She was 87 (she's almost 90 now), still lives alone, has no living relatives (she has outlived two husbands, two children, and tragically one grandchild), and lives in this fantastic old house (originally built by her great, great grandfather in 1854). She lives in this quaint little town about 15 miles from here off a little lane which is populated with several other house that are ~150 years old. Mrs. Milly and I have been having Friday lunch (sometimes just tea) several times a month for almost two years now. My sweetie even "borrowed" the old house to throw my big Halloween/birthday bash last year. Mrs. Milly stayed through dinner and had the whole place rolling, telling her (probably too incredible to be true) stories. About a month ago she told me she was looking to move out of the house into a nearby "retirement village" and offered to sell it to us. It was *way* out of our price range, and we weren't too keen on the idea of dropping our sizable savings on the down payment the bank would require, so we passed on the offer.

Last month, Mrs. Milly made us another offer. It seems she has a new boyfriend (a younger man . . . he's only 85) who lives in the retirement village, so she really wants to move there. She also wants to be out of the house; it is a lot of work. And Mrs. Milly, who is apparently far more wealthy than she lets on, doesn't want to spend her savings up living in the retirement home. She wants to leave it to the local historical society instead. So she offered to sell us the house, owner financed with no down payment, on a ten year loan. If she dies before then (which I doubt ), we just pay her estate, and the money goes to the historical society. At current market prices, the house really is a good deal, though the payments are really high because of the ten year mortgage.

Our main consideration is that this would mean a dramatic increase in our monthly expenses. We could make the payments (and vastly increased upkeep costs) easily enough at our current incomes, but it would put an end to our "living on one income" days. The pros are, of course, it is a freakishly awesome house at an amazingly good price.

We found out on Friday that Steph is having her contract renewed, so we called Mrs. Milli, and we are going forward with the purchase.

*is very excited*

Wow! Congratulations! It looks absolutely beautiful.

Very awesome! How exciting. Beautiful property & landscaping.

When's the move in party?

Oh wow, congrats! That is one awesome house!

When's the move in party?

There is a whole list of things to do (legal stuff, inspectors, closing, etc.), but right now we are planning on moving in the week of July 6th. Party on the 11th?

woot woot, my b-day is the 4th, i'll be there lol!

Good luck w/ the inspections; they're always such a PITA.

The 11th is tempting Just the mental exercise of how I would go about phrasing that to my wife is already making me laugh.

Maybe we'll all met some day, for real. With big ole "HELLO MY NAME IS" tags and all

you know i've thought about that too West, maybe we should look for some really big gaming convention and see about having everyone try to meet up, maybe get some Twilight Valley shirts or something to show who we are?

Would be a bit hard for me, seeing as I'm living in Australia.
But yeah, that does sound like a good idea. One day anyway.

You all should come to the anime convention I work for, Daigacon. Totally.

It is a beautiful home. Some folks have all the luck.

Congrats to the both of you.

A convention, huh? Sounds like a reason to fly over.

~FC.

BloodiedClaws wrote:maybe get some Twilight Valley shirts or something to show who we are?

oh, i guess we could do that instead of name tags...

Premsyl wrote:It is a beautiful home. Some folks have all the luck.

Hehehe. Luck. That's cute.

*pats little Premsyl on the head*

West wrote:

BloodiedClaws wrote:maybe get some Twilight Valley shirts or something to show who we are?

oh, i guess we could do that instead of name tags...

i about had tears in my eyes from how hard that made me laugh

BloodiedClaws wrote:maybe get some Twilight Valley shirts or something to show who we are?

The closest thing I have to a WoD t-shirt is a tank top that reads, "Everything I need to know in life I learned from Dean Winchester."