Year One

This post is a few days late, but as of last weekend we have officially lived in our house a year. Although I feel like progress has been really slow, it's nice to look back on here to see what we have accomplished since then. I had big dreams that we'd at least have replaced the old, brown carpet upstairs with wood floors, but between a wedding, two full-time jobs, and the pup -- it's still on the to-do list. 

Speaking of lists, here are the top five things I'd like to accomplish in the next year:

1) Upgrade the exterior of our complex including getting rid of the dry rot that plagues all the trim

2) Replace our windows with new double-pane ones

3) Replace the carpet upstairs with hardwood 

4) Install overhead lighting in both bedrooms and living room

5) Completely redo the downstairs half-bath

In my head that sounds like a completely reasonable list but it will be interesting to look back next year at this time to see what has been done. I have been really good about reigning it in lately but the fact that our neighbors just listed their unit that is the same size our as ours for $115k above what we paid last year gives me confidence that any time and money we do put into this place will be worth it in the end.

//one//

The Perfect Patio

What sold us on our townhome nine months ago was the giant outdoor space. Mike is a genius with a barbecue and I desperately wanted a space to improve my gardening skills (or lack thereof) and have an area to entertain outdoors. Unfortunately, we missed the mark by about a month to get those end-of-season deals so we decided to put off our hunt for patio furniture until this year.  

A while back I made a collage of what my 'dream' patio would look like and this is what I came up with:

When it comes to furniture, I am picky and Mike is frugal which makes it really difficult for us to settle on any big purchase. Fortunately for us, we found this sectional on Overstock on sale and, while it was still expensive, was the look we wanted for much cheaper than what we were finding at pottery barn, crate & barrel, etc. We could have waited for those 'deals' but we both agreed we didn't want another summer to go by without being able to really use our patio so we took the plunge.

We've had it for a few weeks now and it completely gives the patio a new feel. We were lucky enough to have our families come to our house this year for Easter and I loved that everyone was outside lounging on the sectional and enjoying the sunshine. Even Goose is a fan -- but his mom could do without the muddy paw prints!

I still want to add a little cafe table and chairs as well as a big umbrella but it's coming along. Mike is all about a fire pit too but personally I'd like a non-wood burning one so I don't smell like a campfire everytime we light it up.

Can't wait to crack a few beers and enjoy a book or two out here. Is it summer yet?

The Joys of Home Ownership

Last night I woke up suddenly because I thought I heard someone downstairs. We aren't used to all the sounds our house makes so I find myself frequently waking up at the smallest squeaks- like the other night I woke up at 3 am to Mike walking around and when I asked him what's wrong he said he heard water running and since we were advised that our water heater needed to be replaced, he thought maybe it had gone out. Turns out it was just the next-door neighbor's outdoor fountain that they let run all night, every night.

Also turns out that no one was downstairs but the sound I heard was from a massive tree in the common area toppling over. See that silver car? That's mine. Luckily it fell just right so that it missed any cars or houses but I still had an interesting call with the HOA management company that didn't inspire a lot of faith in me. The actual manager of the HOA was out but I got his assistant who said she'd send the landscapers over... I don't think she realizes how big of a tree I was talking about. Other than that, what really worries me is the fact that the roots of the tree were completely rotted out. As in, I probably could have leaned against the tree and it would have fallen over. Looks like this couple might have to get on the board and convince the HOA to send out a tree specialist to check the rest of them because the last thing I want to deal with right now is huge tree coming through our roof while we are sleeping.

Other surprises or inconveniences we have been dealing with include not being able to access our mail and a leaky water heater. We get our mail through a common box but unfortunately, the last owner didn't have the right keys to it (they never actually lived here, just rented it out). This isn't a huge deal but the post office never seems to be open when I have time to visit it. I actually tried going to the small one by our home the other day during lunch and it turns out we have to visit the larger one a few miles away. The good news is it's free to have your lock changed if you have just moved in as opposed to the $50 it costs if you need to get a new lock because you lost all the keys.

The other issue is with our leaky water heater which was pointed out to us during the inspection. We had gone ahead and ordered the home warranty before our inspection just in case he found something (they won't cover anything 'preexisting') and so it looks like we'll get a new 40-gallon tank for about $60. The one we have no is pretty gross looking but that is also because it is in a closet outside of the house so it's more exposed to the elements and rodents. Mike and I are considering a tankless water heater but with the cost of the actual unit being around $800 as opposed to $350, we are going to have to weigh the pros and cons a little more. I think the real deciding factor will be how much it is to install. We have the water heater guy that the insurance called coming out on Thursday so we will have to see what he quotes us. Anyone else have any big surprises with in the first few weeks moving in?

We Bought a House!

I graduated from San Jose State with an B.A. in Communication Studies back in May 2010. I know what you're thinking... "Cool, what does this have to do with buying a house?" Well, if you would have told me that in three years I'd have my masters in Tax Accounting, be working for a Big Four firm, be engaged to someone I hadn't met yet at that point, and own a house I would have laughed in yo' face.

But well, here we are!

The stories of the change in career and meeting Mike are for another post. This is all about why/how we bought a house. When Mike first mentioned buying a house I thought the idea was straight-up crazy. We had a perfectly good place where we saved tons of money a month and lived within a mile of all of our friends & the restaurants/stores we frequented. But then about six months ago someone was shot on our block. Like we are talking drive-by, gang related murder. Guaranteed Campbell hasn't had a homicide since 2007, but none-the-less it shook us from our little happy place and made me start to realize the things I had been ignoring that I really wasn't crazy about (the lack of privacy, how loud it was, the fact that our apartment frequently smelled like cigarettes from people sitting in the courtyard smoking).

My only hang-up at that point was that Mike and I weren't engaged yet and although I was sure he was the One, in my book, that needed to come first. To my surprise, he popped the question on a perfect day in Napa at one of our favorite wineries. After we floated back down from Cloud 9, we started to look at if we could realistically buy a place (lucky for us Mike's dad is a loan officer and ran some numbers for us). Turned out yes, we could buy a place, but that it would be really tight. Good thing Mike is one of the most frugal people I know so after breaking down a monthly budget we know we could stick to, we decided to start looking. Our parameters were as follows, broken up by what we must have and what we would like:

"Must"

• Price: Under 550K 
• Location: within walking distance to downtown Campbell, Willow Glen, or Los Gatos
• Space: at least 2 Br / 1.5 Ba
• Must have private outdoor space for the grill 
• Must have a garage for all Mike's biking gear

"Want"

• Hardwood floors throughout
• An open layout where the Kitchen is integrated into the main living area
• Single family house (rather than condo).

We definitely got all of our must-haves and did get hardwood in the bottom story of the townhouse so that is a start! Although it technically is not a single family house, we are content to only have neighbors sharing one wall with us. Plus the fact that there is a large green space in back of our patio makes it really feel like we have room to breath here.

Yesterday's post was mostly photos (and I promise a tour of the new place is coming soon) but for now here is layout of our new place!