House Tours Round One

After two exhausting weeks of painting, cleaning, and all the seemingly small house projects that had been ignored for SEVERAL years, we have finally listed our house!

My wonderful sister even came to help me paint! Practically free labor, she only cost a bottle of wine and dinner! My mom has been a HUGE help too along with my aunt who helped us get the house clean from top to bottom. I'm so excited we have actually taken this first step. I don't know if it's really hit me yet that we could, hopefully, be in a new house by the fall. For Joel being there ten years, the longest he's ever lived anywhere, I think it will definitley be emotional to leave. For me, having moved about every two years since graduation, between home, the Pi Phi house, apartments, home again, my Rio Rancho house, and now with Joel, I will be happy to be settled in our home together.

The pup and I were exhausted by the end of the week. (She helped to, such as by sticking her ears in the paint cans, dashing into Jane's room every chance she got, trying to eat screws, and generally following me around everywhere I went and pouting when she wasn't allowed to "help.")

We saw over ten houses this weekend and even had some potential buyers see our house! Yay! Of the houses we saw three are in the top running, so we have some big decisions to make. I won't post anything until it's official, but I will say in addition to the lovely ones we saw there were some horrid ones too. Seeing open houses that were dirty, stinky, poorly lit, and just crazy floorplans with garages and basements that looked like a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre were enough to make me feel pretty good about our house selling! We were also very disappointed in the Spruce Park neighborhood, we had high hopes for houses there, but they ended up having poorly designed floor plans and are really better suited to rent to multiple tenants than as a family home.

Next step is to put in an offer or move on with our search to Round 2! Stay tuned!

Selling and Buying our First Home Together!

We are well onto a major milestone and adventure in married life....buying our first home together! Our dreams of buying a new home have pretty much been just that since last summer, until we received some wonderful news last weekend. Up to this point my home buying knowledge and experience had been limited to touring open houses, so I thought I would share our process and share my learning about everything that goes into buying and selling a home as we go. Its even a whole new vocabulary, and I'm trying to keep up with all the house lingo!

As usual on Friday I was browsing houses and dreaming, and saw a gorgeous house in our price range and called the listing agent to see about touring the home. She offered to do a market analysis on our house first, and when she came to see the house on Saturday we were happy to hear that our upgrades (tile, granite, soon to be new carpet) had paid off. Our listing agent is wonderful, and I felt really good about her marketing strategy and plans for selling our home. But before we could list, we needed to make sure we could even qualify on a new home.

I called the mortgage broker right away, and he agreed to meet us the next day. I like to think we are fairly organized, and we were quickly able to gather all the necessary documents to pre-qualify.

• Bank statements for the past month and listings of all assets and accounts 
• IRA's/401k/CD statements for the past month
• Taxes and W2's from the past two years
• VA paperwork 
• Current mortgage information 

At least for us, pre-qualifying was a fairly easy step. Thankfully with not having anything negative on our credit, paying things off, all of Joel's time with the FAA, and me now having 2 years at the VA, we were happily surprised at our options. We need to have one more meeting with a title officer to go over some other paperwork before we could start our home search. The mortgage lender warned us though, it's hard to see a house and then you get emotional about it when you have to sell yours, so he suggested we don't even look at other houses until ours sells. But where would we live?! It's just too tempting not to start looking, especially since now we are serious buyers. We are considering making a contingency offer if we find something we really love, basically an offer contingent on our house selling.

So the next few weeks will be spent putting together some last minute details, painting, de-cluttering and organizing. Tonight we are supposed to be moving bricks out of our backyard and tidying it up, but when I learned that the price was dropped on one of our houses and it's getting pulled off the market next week, I texted Joel immediately so that we could go tonight and take a second look. We only have a week to decide, so maybe it's a good thing we've already been house hunting for the last year!

I guess our bricks will just have to wait for now!

Happy Birthday Vesper!

Happy Birthday Vesper! We can't believe our baby Vesperoni is already a year old, she has changed and grown so much and become such an important part of our lives, that of course we had to throw her a birthday party. It started out as a small party, but with just my family it quickly grew, and there were even a few four-legged guests. The food was a hit, especially the pupcakes and puppy chow. Here are a few of the highlights.

There were goodies for the two-legged guests

Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Sticks-Go Fetch! 

And a special cake for the birthday girl

I think she liked it!

Even Bella and Charlie enjoyed the party

Both Black and White Babies enjoyed some leftover salmon later that night. They love keeping their coats silky soft!

She was exhausted by the end!

Many of our guests commented they had never been to a dog birthday party before, so I was glad to give them the experience! Next year we hope to have a beautiful back yard and can invite more of our friends and Vesper's friends from Doggy Day Care. This adorable pup really has changed our lives, not only is she one of the smartest, but also one of the sweetest and most loyal dogs I have ever known. She is one Spoiled Springer Spaniel, but we love to spoil her and shower her with treats and love.

There's this adorable pet shop in Nob Hill I need to go back to where I saw a beautiful sign with this quote,
"A home for every dog, and a dog in every home." I love that!

Happy Birthday Vesper! You are so loved!
Licks and Loves,
Mommy and Daddy

Confessions of a Year Old Springer Spaniel

Hi everyone, my mom Lisa asked me to write this post about all the things we've been up to this summer! First and most importantly, on June 15, I turned one year old! Those of you that knew me back when I was a baby can see I've matured a lot since then. I was a mere 8 weeks old when I went home to live with the best parents a pup could ask for, not to mention a sister, who is black and white just like me.When they first came to get me, I was the most energetic little pup there, and they say they picked me because I was so friendly and cheerful. They say I cried the whole way home, but soon I was excited for my new home. After calling me "puppy" for a few days, my new parents named me Vesper, a classy little lady who was also the true love of James Bond in the first book of the series. A Vesper is also a martini, which the parents drank a lot of in my first few days home. Here's a few of my baby pics

8 weeks old, 8 pounds 4 ounces

I love my new home! October 2012

My first visit to the mountains with Mom and Dad, August 2012

16 weeks old, 14 pounds

First hiking trip, 18 weeks old

I knew how to read at only 10 weeks old!

Now that I'm a year old I'm a full grown girl, weighting in at 42 pounds (my goal weight) and about 18 inches tall.  My coat has filled in and I have full feathers on my legs, which my Mom uses to torture me by brushing them. My Dad says I have helicopter ears, though I'm not really sure what that means, but it sure is fun to get them wet every time I drink from my water bowl. My Mom says I'm perfect, and that when I get a little older I can be a show dog. I don't know if that would be as fun as chasing birds and getting into the brush, but I love my Mommy and Daddy so much I'll pretty much do anything for them.

42 pounds, 1 year old, June 15, 2013

 I have to say I've learned a lot about life this first year. I've learned that I have a great home, especially since it comes with a built-in playmate, although Jane's idea of playing with me is scratching me when I get too close.When the parents aren't looking we do like to lay together, and my Mom managed to catch this shot.

My favorite toy with claws, Jane Cat

Well, I should probably go, it's almost time for my walk and then I plan on following my Mom all around the kitchen while she tries to make dinner, or jump in my pool for a quick swim and then roll around in the dirt. Stay tuned for my next post all about my birthday party!

Woofs and Licks,
Vesper