Singleton's Buy Their First Casa!

WE DID IT!!!!  Todd and I bought our first house today!  As you read from our last post, we flew out to Houston, rented a car and headed to New Orleans, LA.  We hit up Slidell, LA first.  I had it in my head that Slidell was the place that we were going to live.  We searched for houses online before heading out to NOLA, and got to check them out on Friday.  Well, the pictures were better than the real thing.  There were some weak houses.  We did narrow it down to one, but the kitchen was horrible!!!  We decided we would have to gut it and redo it totally. So we decided to check out Mandeville, LA also on Sunday.  Once we got out there and checked out the area, I was really feeling it.  Mandeville had all the new stores and the over all feeling just felt nicer (if that makes any sense).  Todd and I both decided, we like Mandeville better than Slidell.  The overall vibe was just better.  We met with a different Realtor we've been in touch with and looked at about 8 or 9 houses.  We narrowed it down to 3.  One, needing lots of work, but it was in an awesome area called Greenleaves.  This subdivision has a trail and ponds and it's super close to all the new shopping plazas (more on that later).  The second, was in a nice subdivision as well, just a little further from the shopping, but it backs up to a busy road in the backyard that Todd hates.  He also didn't like the color of the brick and the small kitchen. The last was the furthest out, but it was new construction.  This one was the nicest but it also cost the most.  The subdivision seemed "sterile" compared to the other two subdivisions where there were tons of kids and families outside.  The new construction subdivision had no one outside.  We decided on the Greenleaves house but a few things were brought up during the property disclosures.  Things like "settling water in the backyard" and the idea of the seller not wanting to negotiate.  We decided to relook at the second house.  After a second look and some discussion on what we could do to hide the busy road, we decided to go for it.  It needed little work (the kitchen has granite counters, new tile floors, and kitchen cabinets.) so we wouldn't need to put tons of money in it and it was 15k less than the new construction house.  Plus it was closer to the shopping.  We put an offer in on Monday.  The sellers countered on Tuesday.  We came back yet again and they accepted! We finished up the paperwork today via fax and are heading back to Hawaii tomorrow.  Ahhh.... what a busy week!  We plan on painting and changing the ugly green tiles in the front of the entry way.  We also have some other plans for little things like changing the ceiling fans, door knobs, adding some glass tiles to the backsplash of the kitchen, etc.  But all in all, I think I'm alright.  NONE of the houses were as great as I wanted and I was quite disappointed at what I had to choose from, but I guess I had to make the best of it.  We did buy the house from a Navy officer who is rotating out as well, so I'm sure he kept up on the house pretty well.  I can't wait to start working on it!  Check out more pics here. 

Comments

[Maribel Alonso]

HEY!
Sorry I missed you guys. Cant wait till you guys are back! Love the house.