So, we finally did it. We sort of maybe bought a house. I don't know for sure. That's because we're in "escrow" and I don't actually understand what that means. We signed the papers last Wednesday and the bank signed it the next day… so that’s official, right? Our realtor beams with the “I’m so proud of you for finally making the decision” smile, and gives us the congratulatory “Yes, you are now in escrow”.
And then in the same conversation, she said something about the deposit going into escrow.
Right, okay. The escrow company hasn’t cashed our check yet… what does that mean?
So I’m a little confused. Your money goes into escrow, and then you are in escrow, except you most certainly are not in the same place as your money. Somehow "escrow" has become a sci-fi planet, and you and your money are both on it but in parallel dimensions. But you’ve already signed the “contract”, which meant you were already in escrow anyway. Huh?
Nonetheless, the good news is that if we jump through about a dozen more hoops, we’re told and that it will close 45 days from when the bank signed the paper – which was on the 14th, so really, we should start packing.
With that said... let me take you on a tour.
This is the front of the house This is going to be the formal living room and formal dining room from 2 different angles... Depending on the budget, we were thinking of tiling the walkway from the front door all the way up to the back sliding doors.
This is the kitchen... they've just installed ugly linoleum on the floors, that we'll be replacing with tile as soon as they give us the key. Eventually, I'd like to upgrade the counter tops to granite, but for now, the tiles are in pretty good shape and the cabinets are practically brand new (although we're going to be staining them in a darker color).
This is the walk-in pantry (it's actually much bigger than it looks on the photo) -- the second one is where we'll probably put a smaller dining table...
This is the family room with gas/wood fireplace. We're getting some estimates on putting hardwood floors here since it'll be the highest traffic area, although we might wait since it's all brand new carpet downstairs anyway. 
This is one of the bedrooms upstairs with a balcony... There's a decent size storage room just outside the sliding doors (by the balcony) which is a plus.
This will be our bedroom with the fireplace and balcony. 
This is the master bathroom with the whirlpool tub. There's brand new carpet in there (all upstairs) as well, but we'll likely tile this when we tile the kitchen downstairs. 
This is the humongous walk-in closet connected to the master bath. We'll definitely have to put some shelving in there, but I can't wait to finally have room for all my purses and shoes! :)
This is the balcony off of the master bedroom. 
This is the loft, separating the master bedroom from the other bedrooms. It'll likely become a playroom for Ethan with maybe a seating area/entertainment area on one side (it's already equipped with surround sound).
This is the tandem 3-car garage. The plan is to section off the third space and maybe make it a 5th bedroom downstairs for maybe my mom when she comes over, or could potentially become Mike's "man cave" :)
This is the backyard... not as big as I had originally wanted, but there's plenty of room for Ethan to play safely and not a whole lot of gardening for me to do (I unfortunately did not inherit my mother's green thumb).
Well that's it for now! I will keep this posted on any renovations we end up doing!
We had our inspection yesterday and so far so good -- the only major problem the inspector found was the water heater not working, and hopefully the bank will fix that before escrow closes. The rest were just minor fixes, and that's what I married a handy man for! :)
Til next time!
I'm so excited!
