2 mangoes, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 avocados, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 lime
Directions
Cut up the mangoes, avocados and red onion. Combine in a large bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lime onto the salad. Toss and serve immediately! I sometimes let it sit in the fridge for half an hour or so, but don't wait too long. It's best fresh and not ice cold.
This weekend our Realtor was out of town, but luckily she set us up with a partner of hers so we didn't have to miss out on seeing some new listings.
House #1
Pros
Large rooms.
High ceilings.
Like the kitchen.
Great curb appeal.
Lots of storage.
Cons
Pretty sure the neighborhood is just not for us - it's too new and "master planned."
Seems smaller than it is. It's over 1400 square feet but it doesn't feel that large.
Small dining area.
Yucky carpet.
House #2
Pros
Very big.
It has a bonus room (basically a fourth bedroom, but without a closet) that we could use as a guest room or office.
Good curb appeal.
Cons
Same area as house #1.
Quite a bit more expensive that house #1. Although it's bigger, the first was big enough. If we wanted to live in that area, we'd choose the smaller house and save the money.
House #3
I'm not going to post pictures of this house, because we made an offer!! Potential stalkers could find the listing with photos I post here, and then they'd know our address. So no pics for now... sorry :(
I'm trying not to get too attached or excited, because lots of things could prevent this from being our home. It's an old house (56 years old) and may have problems that the sellers are not willing to pay for.
FYI with a VA loan like we are using, the sellers must fix any safety-related problems. The VA buyers are not allowed to pay for them, and we will not be given a loan if the sellers won't fix them.
The one thing we know will need to be fixed is a wall in one of the bedrooms that is rotted/moldy. It doesn't appear to be too bad though, and it has a new roof so the source of the damage should be fixed now.
We'll see, if we even get to an inspection! First we have to agree on a price. We're not willing to pay full asking price, even though it's a steal for the area. The neighborhood is fantastic... but we have a budget.
Anywho, we found a house we like!! I was fearing that this would never happen... my stomach is in knots. The seller has until 6 p.m. to respond to our offer!
Pros
Great school district.
Adorable neighborhood.
Big, and it feels big.
It has hardwood under the carpet, which we'd like to refinish.
Huge master bedroom.
Good curb appeal.
New double-pane windows, new roof and new garage door.
Cons
Small kitchen, but I have plans for expansion :) It will take quite a bit of work though.
Small bathrooms, for which I have no plans for expansion... this is something we're willing to live with.
Old, and kind of dirty.
The landscaping in the backyard needs help.
House #4
Pros
We like the neighborhood.
Right next to a walking path.
Great layout.
Fab yard.
Cons
We knew this was a no-go as soon as we walked in. All the wood flooring is waaaay warped. Like, crazy warped and there are waves a foot high in most rooms. It appears that there was either a major flood in the house, or they didn't leave room for expansion that naturally occurs with wood. It's freaky!
Of course they didn't post a picture with the online listing, but I found a similar photo here:
We'd never be approved for a VA loan with this situation going on. Too bad, because it's a great house!
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So where are we now? We're currently waiting to hear from the seller - they can either accept our offer, reject it, or counter offer. This is bananas! :P
Today on our nightly walk around our neighborhood, I spotted a postcard in the gutter. It was addressed to someone in the area, but at least half a mile away (we weren't sure, but we knew the street was close). It was such a freaky situation because it was dated 2003 - why was it on the street today?!
We (read: I) decided to go on an adventure to find the house it was originally sent to and leave it in their mailbox. I hope it was the right thing to do. I just wondered if they missed it...
So we found the house, which is just blocks from our own, and left it on the porch. But on our way, I read the front of the card which featured "Thomas Jefferson's Ten Rules for Living a Good Life." This woman's father sent her a postcard from Charlottesville, Virginia (home of Jefferson) in 2003. I wonder why and if she ever saw his message before today!
This list features some fabulous pieces of advice, and I had to share them! I think it's so cool that these were written something like 200 years ago (since I totally just Wikipedia-ed him and he died 185 years ago), but these are sooo applicable to my life today!
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want because it's cheap; it'll never be dear to you.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
Never repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
Don't let the evils which have never happened cost you pain.
Always take things by their smooth handle.
When angry, count to 10 before you speak; if very angry, count to 100.
These are speaking to me - especially #4, #6 and #10!!
Outdated (But I can totally see the potential with a little bit of love!). It would need new floors, windows and appliances
Farther out in the 'burbs than we wanted
The weirdest thing about this house? It's the same design as the house James grew up in and where his mom still lives! It's basically a mirror image, with a few changes. We got serious deja vu. This doesn't bother me a ton since I always liked the design of that house. But he was freaked out by it a bit!
House #2
Good
Big house
Big yard
...that's it
Bad
Weird layout
Converted garage
Craphole (yeah it's a technical term)
Faces the back of a high school
House #3
Good
Nice, clean, updated interior
Big backyard
Feels big - good layout
Bad
Teeny tiny kitchen
Bad neighborhood
1 car garage
House #4
Good
New carpet, paint
Clean
Love the backyard
Nice curb appeal
Bad
Faces the side of a school
A little small
Small, old kitchen and dining room
House #5
{Sorry, no more pictures available online.}
Good
Feels big
Large living room, family room and dining room
4 bedrooms
Bad
Super weird/random nooks and crannies everywhere
2 stories
1 car garage
It has 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms downstairs - not good for when we have 2 kids
Overall strange
House #6
Good
Seems like a good neighborhood
Bad
Really only has 2 bedrooms. The "possible" 3rd is a family room.
Fugly backyard
Bad layout that makes it feel way smaller than it is
House #7
Good
Big and perfect layout for us
Bad
Reeks of cigarette smoke
The whole backyard is paved over
Needs a whole new kitchen and all new flooring
Too close to the freeway - you can hear it from the front yard
Today was our first day out looking at houses with our realtor. We've been going to open houses a little as they come up (like this one and this one), but actually making appointments to see our favorite houses was so much better!
We were able to see 5 of our favorite houses. They were all regular sales (as opposed to short sales). We had some additional faves that are short sales, but our realtor recommended against those because they take so long. If we don't find a regular sale that's a good fit we'll check them out, but this was a good start. Just these 5 in 1 day was exhausting anyway.
House 1
(3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms)
Good
It's in a nice neighborhood with good schools. It has a nice backyard with a deck and good amount of grass. We liked the yard a lot. It has good curb appeal - looks cute from the front (Warning: It's very hard to think of better describing words than "nice" and "good." My apologies.)
Bad
Weird layout. We're pretty sure that they added on a new living/dining room and it didn't work so well.
It only has 1.5 bathrooms and we realized that we really need 2 full.
There is a lot of cosmetic work to be done and it's priced too high for what it is.
House 2
(3 bedrooms plus a bonus office, 2 bathrooms)
Good
We loved the layout. The kitchen was huge and open to the living and dining areas.
The extra room (it would be considered a fourth bedroom, but it lacks a closet) is ideal for us to use as an office. The rooms all feel large because of the high ceilings and have lots of features we want like double sinks in the master bath, walk-in closet, etc.
Bad
It's pretty trashed. It's a foreclosure, and the walls are filthy and all the carpet would need to be replaced (and it's priced high for us). It's just icky. The house is also located on a busy street and it's super loud in the front yard from the traffic. The backyard is a downside too, as it's mostly paved over and it feels very harsh. We want grass!
House 3
(3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms)
Good
I was so excited to see this house! Aside from being 2 stories (we prefer a 1-story ranch style), it was almost perfect. It was on the market forever and was out of our price range, but they recently dropped the price $30,000.
The carpet was in good shape. The yard was lush and private. It's a modern layout and would work great for us. I could totally see us living and raising a family here! Until...
Bad
I noticed a large amount of mold in one of the bedroom closets. Taking that into consideration, we remembered that the exterior of the house had a good deal of the siding replaced suspiciously - very obvious because it wasn't painted over. The bedroom is on the second floor while this work was on the first, so we are pretty certain that whole side of the house has some pretty serious water/mold damage. This explains why it's been for sale for months and months. Even if we wanted to deal with it, the type of loan we're getting won't even allow it until it's fixed (and it's a foreclosure so they won't fix it). It seems like a money pit.
Some other negatives that we were willing to live with: Linoleum in the kitchens and bathrooms, old lighting fixtures and beat up kitchen cabinets.
House 4
(3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms)
Good
This is actually the same model as house 3, but reversed. So I loved the layout again (although James isn't as sold on 2 level houses). The yard is cute and the house overall is extremely clean.
Bad
Two words: Pink Carpet. Okay actually I have more words than that... almost all the flooring (a combination of pink carpet and linoleum) would be replaced, along with the kitchen counters and appliances.
Another major downfall was that our master bedroom window faces the master bedroom window of the house behind us. We could totally open the windows and have a conversation (yelling... but still). Our windows also overlook each others' yards, and it's just creepy. You can see their window in the yellow room above.
This was my favorite house of the day though, still.
House 5
(3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms)
Good
Great yard - actually it's ideal for us (it looks better in person than in this picture). The bedrooms are good sizes and there's a walk-in closet. Great price too.
Bad
The kitchen, dining room and living room are way too small. I wish they matched the other half of the house because then we'd love it! It's just not a workable space, unfortunately.
Although none of these houses turned out to be our home, today was a success in my mind. We were able to refine our wants and needs and learn more about what we can and can't live with (we can't live with 1.5 bathrooms, but we can live with old appliances and carpet (or replace them easily).
