It's time to pack!

Well - not quite, but probably next weekend! This weekend I've been making goodwill piles and putting some things in Craigslist.

Our super sweet realtor Kari dropped off a packing kit for us from PorchLight - love it! It's complete with stickers for boxes, a sharpie and box cutter, too!

Here we go again!

We are officially one week into house-buying experiment #2. It is so nuts how quickly things move. We went to look at a house we had already seen once, when our realtor mentioned there was a new listing just around the corner! It's an adorable brick ranch in our first-choice neighborhood, so we will be convenient to work, City Park and the new Trader Joes :) . It's a little smaller than we were originally going for but we are super excited to move in and make it our own!

Here's a little recap of how the last week went:

*Wednesday: House went on the market at 12 pm. Saw it a 5 pm. Made an offer at 8 pm.

*Thursday: Received and accepted counter offer.

*Friday: Starting getting the permits we asked to see (learned our lesson from last time)!

*Saturday-Monday: Cautiously excited!

*Tuesday: The inspection went great and the sewer scope was successful this time - whew!

*Wednesday: Met with our mortgage guy to sign a lot, lot, lot of documents for our loan!

We are so happy this one is working out so well thus far! We still have a couple more hoops to jump through -- appraisal and resolving the minor issues from the inspection -- but if everything goes as planned we can expect to move in exactly one month! Anyone want to help pack?! :)

Real chairs!

I had been eyeing some bar-height chairs at American Furniture Warehouse but at $69 each I figured I would wait until we got a house. But I was browsing Craigslist and saw the exact same chairs for $60 TOTAL! Score!

I'm so excited to replace our uncomfortable, wee stools without backs with these REAL chairs!! I don't even care that we'll have to move them (hopefully) soon!

Denver Dining Project March and April

Still going strong on my resolution to try new places in Denver instead of relying on my old favorites! Here are the new-to-me dining spots I tried:

March:

Trillium
Went to Trillium for Restaurant Week with the girls, and it was tasty! I had this amazing beet ravioli, where the beet made up the ravioli (instead of noodles) and was stuffed with goat cheese. Yum! I liked the atmosphere and they even had a "Reisling of the month," which I appreciated!

Strings
Max and I had a little date night at Strings, which has been around forever. It was busy busy doe to Denver Restaurant Week. While the service was great and the food was equally good, I didn't love the atmosphere. It felt a little stale, like they had not updated anything since the early 90s. Also, I am pretty sure we were the youngest people there!

Steak n Shake
Bree and I went to try out CO's newest burger chain, Steak n Shake, now that the crowds have died down! I had a regular cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate milkshake! I will say it was a lot cheaper than I expected! I think I like 5 Guys' burgers better, but Steak n Shake does have milkshakes, and 5 Guys doesn't! It's a little far from my house so I don't think I will be going there a whole lot!


St. Mark's Coffeeshop
Met Kim for coffee and a cookie one morning after Pilates! It's a cute little coffee shop in Uptown and a great place to sit outside and chat on a nice day!


April

Avenue Grill

Great sign!

Everyone is always raving about how great the happy hour is at Avenue Grill, so I made Max meet me after a particular stressful day at work! I think it might be a little fancy for us - and while my martini was delicious, I did not think it was anything special!

Rackhouse Pub
Max and I met Megan & Jon here for happy hour one night after work. Despite the fact that it took me an hour to get there it was worth the rush hour drive to Second and Kalamath! I of course had the signature Stranahan's whiskey and coke and also indulged in a side portion of their baked mac-n-cheese, which was to die for! So, so rich and delicious. It's definitely a "guy spot" but I would totally go back.

North
I have been wanting to try North forever and when I learned they have a $9 lunch special, it was the perfect opportunity to check it out on the cheap! It definitely lived up to my expectations! My chicken sandwich was great and we were in-and-out in less than an hour, perfect for a quick lunch!

Pinche Tacos
Jill has been raving about Pinche Tacos off Colfax for months so I knew I was going to like it! Tilo and I sat at the community table and enjoyed cheap beers (Modelo) and flavorful tacos (steak and queso). I was too full to try the churros, but they smelled so good - definitely going to go back here.

Now that I read the whole list it seems like I might go out too much. It's a good price to pay for living in a foodie city like Denver!

Long overdue update!

I have to admit it's hard to blog when you're so busy! Between our delightful spring weather, work, birthday celebrations, etc, we have been on the go!

It's been an interesting six weeks or so, that's for sure. We looked at at least 15 more houses, 2 of which we really liked but by the time we decided to make an offer, they were under contract!

We did find one house that we loved north of City Park. It was an adorable fix n flip bungalow with pretty much everything we wanted; three bedrooms, two bathrooms, brand new kitchen and a two car garage! We thought about it for a week or two and then they dropped their price, so we decided to go for it! Here's how the last week went:

* Thursday: Made an offer
* Thursday night: Seller presented counter offer, went back to look at the house at 9 pm

Don't judge a book by it's cover!

* Friday morning: We accepted and handed over the earnest money.
* Over the weekend: Under contract and super excited!
* Monday: Looked over and signed the disclosures
* Tuesday: Got some missing financial documents to our lender
* Wednesday: Inspection and sewer scope went horribly worng
* Wednesday night: Terminated the contract

So in less than a week we went from making an offer to terminating it. Essentially, the house was a shoddy fix and flip and they did not do a good job whatsoever. It became very apparent throughout the inspection that almost nothing was done correctly! It baffles me that you could try and sell a house branded as "totally remodeled" when so many "hidden" things were wrong with it.

It was totally worth the $400 inspection and sewer scope fees to avoid dealing with a $200,000 headache in the coming years. Obviously it's bittersweet but it is what it is! We will obviously keep looking. Since that was the seond house we had made an offer on, maybe the thrid one will be the charm?

Good thing I didn't make that premature trip to Ikea! The search continues....

No deal

The offer/ counter-offer situation did not work out unfortunately. I still have hope that the sellers will change their minds in the near future. There were no promising houses to look at this weekend, so we took advantage of the free weekend to:

*have brunch on the patio at Racines
*take a leisurely bike ride around Lowry
*see The Descendants
*walk around sunny Wash Park
*take a nap (thanks daylight savings!)
*have dinner with my fam

All in all it was a great weekend. I'm ready to see what next week has in store!

Winnie in my bicycle basket!

Signing an offer

Our invisible deadline for making a decision is about to approach and I am not confident we are going to make it. We are supposed to give our apartment leasing office 60 days notice if we are going to move out or go month-to-month.

We attempeted to make a lowball offer on a house in Skyland on Monday but it was already under contract. While I didn't think they would accept it anyway, it was another reminder that houses in our price range go so, so quick!

We saw a different house twice over the weekend and after thinking about it a couple of days decided to make an offer! We thought we had a very reasonable amount but the sellers countered and we still thought it was too high. Sad! It really is a fantastic house but we want to be smart about the money we are paying for this particular house! We did reach out with a counter to their counter so we will see if it works out!

If nothing else, we got a look at the offer letter process, which was new to us! Basically our real estate agent drew up the contracts with everyone's info and a very detailed day-by-day checklist/deadline calendar for inspections, title transfer, loan paperwork, etc to be completed. We got a look at the disclosures and the nitty-gritty house info. Our mortgage banker sent over our pre-approval and closing cost amount and we wrote a check for the earnest money!

So while we don't know the outcome yet, we feel like we're getting closer! Send us your good vibes for the original house to come through for us tomorrow. Otherwise, we will keep searching!

xoxo