A place of our own... maybe!

After over a year of searching, we finally found a house we wanted to purchase. We put an offer on it a month ago, but were too late- someone beat us to it. 3 weeks later, our agent called us and said that the offer fell apart for the other buyer- and that the bank still had our offer and was considering it. They counter-offered, and we counter-offered back, and then we received a phone call today from our agent saying the bank had accepted our counter offer. Yaay! The house is a duplex, located in Orem. The nice thing about it, is that it is a side-by-side, with full basements on each side! So the noise factor is greatly reduced. It is kind of in a T-shape. Each side has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, large laundry/furnace room, and a large family room. The East side also has a storage room with lots of shelves. It has appx. 1850 Sq ft on each side. The nice thing is that it was a foreclosure, so we got a GREAT deal on it! As for the not-so-nice features- the carpets are filthy. And it definitely needs a LOT of updating- it was built in 1971, and I do believe it still has most of the original carpets, cabinets, and appliances. The other downer is that we are hoping to get an FHA loan on it, to get a lower down payment, but aren't sure it will pass the FHA-required inspection. So, pray for us that everything will work out as we try to get the financing we want. As for the fixing-up, well, that will be the fun part! Finally Jim will have a project away from Aspen Grove to do on his days off! Here are a few pictures:

This is the kitchen entrance to the West side. This is the side we will try to rent out. All other pictures will be of the East side, which we plan to live in while doing some fixing up.


The upstairs bathroom. In pretty good shape, really.


The kitchen looking towards the door to the outside, and the stairway to downstairs.


The living room when you first walk in. Notice where the furniture used to be?

The downstairs family room- tons of space!

The street view. Bonus: TONS of parking, including 2 covered parking spots!

This is a view of the kitchen entry from the outside, and of the little playhouse in the yard.

This is the first bedroom upstairs- I assume it is the master bedroom because of the double closets.

This is the kitchen. Very spacious- but needs a little work, especially that stove!

We're very excited that the bank has accepted our offer. If all goes according to schedule, we should close on December 22, so that will be our Christmas gift for this year. It will be a lot of fun! We'll have lots of room, so please feel free to come visit us anytime :)