we just...

...put an offer down on a house! We looked at 8 more houses yesterday (bringing our total - including houses viewed with our realtor and houses viewed on our own - to about 45 houses), and we really like the first, third, and seventh houses we saw.

We were super excited to actually be finding homes, on super cute streets, and in our price range, that we would be more than happy to live in, but, once we walked into that seventh house ("our" house), we just knew we'd found the one. Okay, I'll be honest - I thought I knew (I have a difficult time making decisions), but Kevin knew, with total certainty, pretty much the minute we walked in the door. We loved the house (a 1925 bungalow in an awesome location and with TONS of potential) so much that, after thoroughly exploring it, we went and looked at the eighth house (super charming, with a stone fireplace and built-in bookcases, but somewhat impractical with an outdated kitchen and only one teeny tiny bathroom that was on the 2nd story), and then drove straight back to that seventh house to explore it even further and to just sit in it for about 20 minutes and let the feel of it soak in. We decided right then and there that we wanted to draft up an offer that afternoon, and after going out for celebratory drinks with our very good friends, Matt and Emily, who live just 3 blocks away from our potential new home, we met back up with Marcia, our wonderful realtor, and put together an offer! The offer didn't get submitted until this afternoon (it was so hard to wait, but we needed to get some final information from the mortgage people, and we needed to sleep on it for just one night), and now we just have to wait and see what the seller counters back with. Nerve-wracking!

The house needs some love on the curb appeal front (we are thinking of re-painting the trim a dark navy blue, and we want to paint those new cedar steps to match the house, add some window boxes, and spruce up the bottom of the stairs with big flower pots), but overall it's in great shape. The house has: new windows throughout (even in the basement), recently refinished hardwood floors (no one has lived in the home since they were refinished, so they are in lovely condition), new doors, new ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathroom, brand new stainless steel appliances (dishwasher, fridge, stove, and microwave that have never been used), a new washer and dryer, new maple cabinets in the kitchen, a remodeled bathroom, new carpet in the upstairs and in the basement, fresh new paint throughout, a new high-efficiency furnace and water heater, newly spruced up ceilings, all new lighting, new smoke/CO detectors, a new doorbell, a new roof on the 2.5-car garage, a new garage door, freshly painted exterior, new cedar decks on the front and back of the home, new sidewalk along the house, a lovley front porch (where we will put a porch swing!), a decent-sized yard, two big and airy bedrooms on the main floor and a huge master suite on the upstairs half-story, and, best of all, it's on a great block, surrounded by beautiful homes, in the Macalaster-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul.

The house is just waiting for us to infuse it with our personality (all the newness has come with a small price - it's a bit bland right now), but it is in total move-in condition and we are already dreaming up little projects to really make it our own (anyone know anything about installing a direct-vent gas fireplace?). If we get the house (and, yes, we are aware that we must somewhat temper our excitement with the reality that we may not get the house), we are going to spend all summer making it our own, sitting on the swing in the front porch enjoying the light, and hosting friends for potlucks and outdoor bbqs. F-U-N. And, of course, we'll be waiting for friends and family from far away to come stay in our guest bedroom!

If the offer is accepted (and we hope to have that settled within the next few days), we'll still need to get an inspector in there to make sure everything is copasetic (as my dad would say), and then it would be official (well, we wouldn't officially close on the house until the end of May, but official enough to call it our own). We leave for Mexico on Friday, so it might be a bit of a squeeze to get all that done this week, but, for this home, we'll make it work!

That's the news for now and you can bet we'll be updating you the minute we hear back from the seller. Thanks to everyone for all the excitement and happy thoughts!