Heaven gains another angel...

My mawmaw met Jesus this afternoon. As much as we will miss her here, I am very glad that she isn't suffering anymore. I'm flying home Saturday morning and the funeral is Saturday afternoon at 2. Please keep our family in your prayers!

Holly and I with our Mawmaw Kidd, who died last January, and Mawmaw Glenda, who died today. We will always remember them both!

Contract

We reached an agreement on the house! I just signed my part and sent it off. Tomorrow I'll go and drop checks off at places and I just scheduled the inspection for Saturday! If all goes as planned, we will close on April 20th. They have asked for me to lease it back to them for a few days, which means I would be moving in on April 28th! That gives me two weeks to move stuff over to the new house and clean up the apartment. I can't believe it! I'm going to be a HOMEOWNER soon!

As exciting as this all is, there IS a part of me that is missing my mom even more than normal. The only reason I'm able to afford a home right now is because she passed away. There is so much going on in the Harwood family right now, and I know she would so enjoy being here for all the different excitement-- me buying a house, Holly getting ready to plan a wedding, Chase graduating highschool, along with lots of other things. These are the times she lived for- the times to live life with her kids. I miss her so much. I can only pray that I use this house to keep her memory alive.

Life outside of homebuying...

Although looking at houses, preparing things for mortgages, home searching, and being addicted to pinterest for home ideas HAS been taking up most of my time lately, there are other exciting things going on in my life! So I thought I'd do an update post on what's been going on lately!

Last Friday night, I went to happy hour at Ian's patio. Ian is one of my best friends in Dallas-- I couldn't say how much I adore that kid! And patio parties are my favorite. We then headed to dinner. After that, I went to Plano to stay with Lacey and Charlie! We had a slumber party. :) Saturday was Lacey's birthday, so I took her and Charlie bear to lunch. We then went fabric shopping, and then headed back home and played in the back yard with Charlie for awhile. That kid is so wonderful. I can't imagine a better way to spend an afternoon then pushing him in his swing, sliding with him, and just running around the backyard laughing. He makes my heart SO happy! That night I went to dinner with Lacey and Charlie too. It was a fun, simple way to spend her birthday! I was super glad to have a day with them since Baron was out of town. :) Sunday I went to church, napped, and went to Will and Alex's soccer game. They lost, but we still had a lot of fun!

This past week was a fairly busy one. I had stuff going on every night, and it felt like the week was never going to end! But I feel like weeks are typically like that right before spring break. It finally ended, and another weekend was upon us!

Friday afternoon I had happy hour with the girls at Chuy's. I am so blessed with friendships in this city. My friends are the funniest, most amazing women in the world. After dinner, we invited the boys over and watched the new "Footloose" at our place. After the movie, we just sat around and talked and goofed off. I could go on and on about how amazing my friends are, but if you read my blog, you should already know how I feel about them!

Saturday was a day full of house searching. You can read about that in my previous post!

Yesterday was church and then more house searching. After house searching, I took a quick nap and then headed up to Alex and Will's soccer game again. They lost, again, but we still had fun. :) Then we all went to Kona for Zack's going away party. He is moving to Oklahoma today. :( :( :( I'm super sad about this, but not as sad as I'm sure Holly is. It will be a test for their relationship, and I pray that they pass it because I love that boy with my sister!! After dinner, we went to Ian's for more hang out time. Seriously, my friends are the best.

Today I'm spending the day by the pool with some friends and some margaritas! Tonight I'm hanging out with my sweet friend Valerie. Tomorrow night, I'm catching a movie with Ty, which I'm excited about. I haven't seen that boy in a long time!

And if you could keep my grandmother in your prayers, it's greatly appreciated. She had a stroke last week and has regressed daily. Hospice told my dad yesterday that she could go at any moment, so please keep my family in your prayers as they deal with that loss, make arrangements, and the rest of us plan to fly home. Thanks! :)

We found it!

Saturday was a rainy day, but we headed out anyway to begin the house search. (When I saw "we", I mean me, Holly, Kevin, and Alicean!) We looked at about 8 different houses. I was able to veto three right away. The other five were all really nice though! We then narrowed it down to three, but we kept going in circles about their pros and cons. There was one house Holly and Ali really liked, but it had a tiny master bath. There was one house Kevin really liked, but it was huge and I just didn't feel like I needed that big of a house. Then there was one house that I really liked that no one else liked. Saturday night I was just really overwhelmed with all the options. I had no idae how to make a decision!

Sunday morning I woke up and realized there was one house that I loved in the pictures that we didn't go see on Saturday. So I texted Alicean and she got it set up, and we headed there after church. And we all fell in love. It's perfect. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. It has a beautiful landscaped yard. A red front door. (I told John last week that I wanted a red front door!) You walk in and it has a beautiful sitting area. A huge, gorgeous kitchen. Vaulted ceilings in the den. A fenced in backyard with a patio. A big two car garage. Two big spare bedrooms. A beautiful master suite. (With a big closet!) Beautiful floorings throughout the house and beautiful paint on the walls. We were all in love. This was it. This was my house! We all agreed on it.

So this morning I put an offer on it! And now I'm nervously waiting for their response and for negotiations. I want this house! I am praying and hoping that it all works out. Cross your fingers for me! I'm not vey good at this waiting part. If you know me, you know I have NO patience!!

I'll post pictures of the house soon, if it all works out!! Trust me, it's gorgeous!!!

Excitement

I am so excited about tomorrow! Tomorrow I officially start the search for a house. I have been pre-approved for a mortgage at two banks, so I'm ready to go! I am so excited, but also nervous! I hope that I find the perfect house for me!

Pinterest has been my new best friend lately. There are so many things on there that I want to do in my future home! Some examples...

Baskets for towels... I think these are adorable!

An office closet... this is genius! (However, I have way too many clothes and would never REALLY be able to give up an entire closet just for an office!)

This amazing craft room in an old TV stand! I NEED to make one of these!! Does anyone have an old TV stand like this laying around?!

This pallet table for the patio. I think it's adorable!

I love the idea of using two curtain showers for the curtain. I think it looks so elegant!

And I am also a little obsessed with the idea of a book shelf as a door! Isn't this amazing?! I don't know how to get one, but I love it.

Of course I have some other ideas floating around. Like I want my guest room to be a guest room/craft room. I would love to find a houndstooth bedspread for the bed with a crimson bedskirt, and then hang my ActionSportsArt in there. And then seriously somehow make one of those craft stands to go in there. I would want it to be black, not yellow. Those are just a few ideas floating around my mind! Obviously I won't be able to do all of these things right when I buy a home, but I'm seriously looking forward to making my new home exactly what I want over the years!

Now, to just find the home....

Step One- Prequalifying!

So since this is my first adventure in buying a home, I thought it would be fun to record the process here in my blog! I'm super excited about this process.

My sister in law is a realtor in Austin, and I think that without her knowledge I would be way too scared to do this! I am using her realty company, but the one that is based in Dallas. Alicean is helping out in the process though, and I am so thankful for her guidance!!

So far, I have started looking at different homes online in the area that I like. I really like some of them! Some things that I really want in a home is 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, an updated kitchen, and a nice big fenced in backyard! I have found a few that I am really excited about seeing. We are going Saturday after lunch to start looking!!

Last night, I sat down and filled out all of the paper work for pre-qualifying for a mortgage. I applied with two banks, and to be honest, I was super nervous about it! I haven't bought much on credit, so I wasn't sure if I'd be pre-approved or not. One of the banks just emailed me and said I'm pre-approved though! Yay! That makes me even more excited!!

Some of you may be curious as to how I'm suddenly able to buy a house. If you know anything about me, you know that I've wanted a house for a long time. Like, probably since I moved into my dorm room in college. Ha! My mom passed away when I was 18, and she left her money to us. However, she made it so that we couldn't take the money until we were 25. She wanted us to use the money as a down payment on our first home. Well, the time has come where I am about to turn 25! Which is how I am really able to afford this at this moment in time. There are some other reasons as to why I've decided to do it now, but that's the major one.

Mine and Holly's lease is up on May 9th. My goal is to have a house by then! That's super soon, I know. But I'm praying that God leads me to the right house and that it all works out! Holly will be moving to Oklahoma sometime in the next year (I haven't mentioned that in my blog yet! I will do a post on that soon!) Anyway, she will be my roomie in my new house until she decides to move to Oklahoma. This will work really well for her, because she won't have to worry about getting out of a lease whenever she decides to move. And it works really well for me, because she will pay me rent that will help pay my mortgage in my first months as a HOMEOWNER!

Since my mom left me this money, it's even more special for me. I would trade this money for my mom any second of any day. But I'm very thankful to be able to use the money she left me for the reasons she wanted me to use it. I hope to find a home that reminds me of her. And I then want to use this home as a way to show hospitality to others, because that would honor my mom in so many ways.

So that's where I am right now! Saturday I will be looking at some houses. I will post more then! This is such an exciting process and I can't wait to have my own home. I am seriously ecstatic!!

Home is where the heart is!

Big news!!!

I've decided to plant my roots in Dallas and become a home owner!! Long story of how it all came about, but I'm hoping to be an official homeowner by the beginning of summer!

Let the search begin! I'll keep you all updated. :) :) :)