STRESS

It's been a whirlwind of activity since Jared & MJ's birthday (the last post).

First, I FINALLY graduated from SUU. It's amazing to be finished, even if it is only for a few months. I will be starting a Master's of Science in Marketing at the University of Colorado-Denver in late August. I have grand plans of how to enjoy my first summer off of school since 2007... they mostly include playing with my darling daughter, learning to play my guitar, and doing yoga. I do have more lofty goals, however, that includes buying a home (more about that later), potty training MJ, and getting her started in preschool.

Now, more about the move and our troubles finding a house.

Back in March, we traveled to Denver to search for a rental. Little did we know how incredibly intense the rental market is! We looked at about 20 rentals, applied for 3 and got turned down for each one. After crunching the numbers and looking at available homebuyer programs, we determined that it might be easier and cheaper to buy a home instead. We got pre-approved for a mortgage in early May and started searching for our future home. Jared and I spent two action-packed days looking at every available home (that wasn't a foreclosure) in the Denver area. We finally found the one we wanted and submitted our offer. After a little negotiation, we got an accepted contract and were eager to move forward.

Since then it's just been a nightmare trying to get our financing lined up correctly. We're scheduled to close on June 17th and we're just hoping beyond hope that we can get everything wrapped up in time (before the 17th would be even better). At one point, Jared's work attempted to, without any notice, switch him from salary to being compensated solely on commission. So, we were looking to move to Denver on Memorial Day to look for new jobs. Luckily, Jared was able to talk to his boss and push back the commission switch until after we can close on the house... That bought us a couple weeks, but if everything doesn't close on time, we'll be in trouble again. (The switch from salary to commission requires two-years worth of commission history for the mortgage application, which Jared doesn't have. That's where the complications stem from.)

Aside from all the financing challenges, we are beyond excited to be buying our first home. We just keep dreaming about all the things we can personalize and make our own. Jared is especially excited about putting in a putting green in the backyard. MJ is excited to paint her new room blue. And, I'm just excited to finally have a home to call our own.

The home is really cute. After looking at everything in our price range, we had to compromise on a few things that we wanted (our new home only has a 1 car garage, the kitchen is a bit small, and the home is pretty far south of downtown). But, we're really happy with our choice. The home was built in the early 80s, but everything inside has been recently remodeled. There's plenty of room for us, our stuff, plus room to grow. Oh, and, our monthly total housing expenses (including insurance and PMI) with buying a home will actually be about $400-$500 cheaper than any place we looked at renting.

At the end of May, I finished by job at the Volunteer Center of Iron County. I am still looking for a new job in Denver, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to find something soon. Hopefully in my next post, we'll have some good news...