#4 - Buy a home.

This just in - The Kellers are homeowners :) Here are some special thanks we should say before I move on to house details!

1. We are thankful to God for allowing us to purchase a home! It truly is a blessing to us, and we never want to take that for granted. We pray that we are good stewards of this home and many blessing will come from it. We are also thankful that God gave me (Charity) patience through this process because waiting is not a strong characteristic of mine. Being truthful...

2. We are thankful for our new neighbor, Candy, for letting us know about this home. At first I blew it off because I didn't think we were ready (aka not enough money saved, i was about to change jobs, life, etc)... Obviously, I'm not the one that has the final say.

3. We are thankful for a great Mortgage officer - Amy Brooks at Iberiabank Mortgage. She was fabulous! Since we didn't have a real estate pro - she got the brunt of my million questions and was very nice and informative throughout the entire process! Strongly recommend her!

4. We are thankful for Carl Decker - who is the executor of his aunt's estate (which is the house we bought). We were able to negotiate directly with them which saved us from getting any other parties involved.

5. We are thankful for all the great contacts we dealt with along the way (and maybe they could be helpful to someone else some day) Jenni Spears at Spears Insurance - awesome! we even switched car insurance to them and saved a ton, Mark Hodge who did our home inspection, Arey, Long, and Cross Law firm, Bill Arey did our closing (super quick and funny - win in my book)

6. We are thankful for awesome friends and family! This should be #2 but I'm going in order of how things happen... We are seriously blessed and thankful for the following people who made the move possible and easier and gave us emotional support and encouragement throughout the entire process!

Our parents - Burton & Gina Keller and Marie Thompson, our siblings (esp Jonathan and Kyle for helping with the heavy lifting - but we are thankful to all of you guys), our friends - Kate Range, Drew & Teresa Dickson (and the boys), Sharon & Nick Jack, Candy & Olivia Gates, Paul & Cindy Deball, and everyone who I will miss that have prayed for us, stopped by the house blessing, or encouraged us throughout it! We are very appreciative!

Now on to the house part - I'm convinced that first time home owners should receive a manual before they ever think about purchasing a home. Here's exactly what I did wrong, so future first time home owners - be warned!

1. Do not change jobs while trying to buy a home. Seriously. Just don't do it. It was totally a God thing for us. So fighting it would have been worse... enough on that.
2. Don't give yourself tightdeadlines. Like having to be out of your current place because something well happen that delays it. We extended this to the max and then ended up moving out in 5 hours...
3. Student Loans are the devil. Pay them on time - always. Watch were they are because they change hands a lot. And know when you are in a grace period and when that ends. Again, Student Loans are the devil.
4. Self employed individuals are not favored in the home buying process - my poor hubby :(

5. If you have little, no, or bad credit - fix it now. Make sure things are accurate.

6. Don't make poor decisions in college, they will come back to bite you.

Ok enough of that... a million and one things went well or we wouldn't be in a new home. So here's some pictures :) Enjoy and if you like to remove wallpaper, paint, or renovate a bathroom... you're welcome over in work clothes at any time!

Here's our cute new house from the road. Location wise - It's perfect. Very close to the park. Right on the rails to trails (aka - Fall Line Trace) where I love to run and bike. Convenient to shopping, dining, etc and for future Kellers, it's zoned for great schools.

 Here's two pictures of the kitchen the day we toured the house. Isn't that guy super handsome?

The kitchen and the bathrooms probably need the most TLC but they are very functional just as they are!

 

 Here's a couple pictures of the hall bath. We (and by we, I mean Kate Range) went crazy on the wall paper in the hall bath, so now we can finish removing it and paint this room first! Hopefully, we can post our first renovation pics this weekend.



This is the laundry/ pantry - right off the kitchen. It's huge compared to what we had before. Little paint and TLC here will make a world of difference.

 

This is the one of the two small bedrooms. The other one has nothing in it, so we'll leave that space off.

 This is the master bedroom. Our master bath comes equipped with a handicap jetted tub if anyone is interested in removing and remodeling!

Here's a picture of the kitchen with our things in it and on the right, us (and the Deballs) attempting to remove wallpaper... this is not going to be fun.

 and finally here's a snapshot of our new living area ready for Christmas! We are hosting my family for Christmas in our new home! Super excited (and it's another item off the 30 before 30) Merry Christmas to us (and a Merry Christmas to you!)