Here ya'll go ....more house details

Ok -- Everyone is asking us about more details on the house. We are doing home inspection on Thursday. We are also going to have a contractor come out and give us a price on a few of the small things we want to do. The guy my realtor is have do the home inspection used to be one the hosts on HGTV House Detective.

As far as the house -- it was built in 1969 -- at sits on 1/3 of an acre of land. It is 3493 sq ft --2328 above the grade (including sun porch) and 1165 in the basement. We are buying it from the original owners who are now retiring to Sarasota. The house has been very well maintained throughout the years. It is half wood/half brick and the tax assessments listed the construction quality as a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10. It was along one the first groupings of houses built in the planned community of Reston - which is why our HOA fee is so low. It is grandfathered in :) The roof is 8 years old and has a 25 year shingles on it.

It has a brand new Carrier AC/Heat unit that is also energy star. All the windows and doors have also been replaced in the past two years and it has Anderson windows and doors with double paned glass that fold inside so you don't have to get on a ladder to clean them. All three and half bathrooms have been updated -- with new sinks, toilets, tubs.

The area we will live in offers four lakes covering 125 acres, 15 pools, 49 tennis courts, 55 miles of paved pathways, 26 ball fields, 2 community buildings, 6 picnic pavilions ( 3 can be reserved for a cost ), 39 tot lots,Walker Nature Center, RV storage yard, and over 1,350 acres of open space. And garden plots near our house so we can do a garden for the summer. It is one of the largest planned communities in the country and home to more than 50,000 people.
To learn more about the area you can go to the Reston website. Or see a map of the area.

The schools are some of the best in Fairfax County. Katy and Gabe will attend Hunters Woods Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences through 6th grade. For junior high they wil attend
Langston Hughes Middle School - which is a gifted and IB middle years school. And hopefully a long way off but sooner than we think is South Lakes High School. All of the school are less tham 1.4 miles from the house. Close enough to be an easy drive but far enough away to be able to catch the bus.

So...hopefully this will tide everyone over...:) I will post more info as it comes in.

Thanks,
Jennifer

House vs home

From the film Garden State --

"You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? Even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.

You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place."

I can't wait for the house Mike and I are buying becomes our home. :)

Yea!! We got it !! I can't believe it !

“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”




Yes ! We got the house ...the owner accepted the terms we wanted plus they are paying half of closing costs. I have to say we are getting a really, really good deal. It is about $100,00 less than the original asking price. Got to love buyers markets. :)

We close on the house April 23rd -- we wanted to close May 10 th -- so for getting a good price we had to make that concession. The only bad thing is that we will have to pay the mortgage in June, my rent, and the wedding . So if you see me standing on the corner in June with a tin cup -- you know why. ;)

The owners are leaving us lots of furniture in the house including all the sun room piece. Some we will want -- others will we Craig's list or donate.

Mike is going to go ahead and move in after we close. We do need to get some work done of the house before we move in so he will watch over that. Me and the kids will not move out there until school is out for the summer.

All I can say is that I am so glad we got something with 90 percent of what we wanted. :)

Here is a link to the gallery with phots of the inside and outside of the house:

Sweetbay House Gallery

Could we be homeowners soon ??

Keep your fingers crossed -- Our realtor is presenting a contract
today on a house in Reston we really like. It is a 4 bedroom 3 1/2 bath brick and wood house that backs to the Reston Nature Preserve. It is a couple of minutes walk to 4 tennis courts (yea!) and the neighborhood pool. And the bike/running path is right across the creek in the back. The house is 1.4 miles from all three schools -- Elementary, Middle and HS.

It is a great house -- it has a sun room across the entire back and a big deck (for BBQ's).

We are going to offer a pretty aggressive offer but the couple has owned the house for 36 years and has already bought property in Sarasota, Florida -- where they plan to retire too. Jane, one of the owners, even told our wonderful realtor Bonnie, that we could have most of the furniture. They are ready to move on. :) So, we hope they take the offer --- but if they don't -- just was not meant to be.

All about Reston

YES !! The condo sold !

Finally, finally Mike's condo has sold. I am very happy about this because this will make it much easier for us to buy a house. And we will not have to deal with renters.

Of course Mike was not so thrilled -- he wanted a higher offer and he does not like our real estate agent so he was not happy to have to pay his commission. The listing was going to expire next week. We are closing on March 12th -- 3 short weeks away. So, lots of packing going on -- both at his place and here to make room for some of his stuff.

Plus -- I wonder if also there is a touch of bittersweet regret of moving out of the bachelor life and into married life. ;)

One of my favorite Sunday websites....

Post Secret is a very cool little site. It is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. They update the site every Sunday and post new secrets.

Of course you mail them to a mailbox in the suburbs of Wasinging DC -- a fitting place to send secrets since this town is full of them. :)

To learn all about it:
Post Secrets Info
Post Secret

It's pretty but.....

The kids are out of school .....again. This makes the thrid day in a row they have called classes off. Of course part of the problem is that when it snowed it also sleeted for 5 hours and then the temps dropped to the 20's -- so everything is a sheet of ice. I you could skate on my front yard.....really, you can.

And they are also out for President's Day so we are having a bit of cabin fever here. We are going to take them to Chuck-e-cheese for lunch today just so they can run around for an hour and get off some energy.

Sleet, Freezing Rain, Snow, Rain...You guess it -- we got it !

One thing I love/hate about living in the DC area is that wht are always on the dividing line between ice and snow. Right now it is sleeting like crazy at my house -- so instead of fluffy white snow to play in we are going to get a nice layer of ice on everything. Fun ! Fun ! I would say that there wil be no school/work tomorrow for us.

Can you say downed power lines ?










Capitol Weather is doing a great job keeping us informed ...much better than te news outlets.

It's official -- Mike and I are engaged !

Yea! Finally got my engagement ring -- so I you can say it is official ! I think Mike did quite well with this. :) I love it !

Even though we decided before Christmas to get married and have started planning the wedding -- Mike officially asked me Friday night -- also my birthday. It was very sweet -- he told the kids beforehand what he was doing. After we had dinner and birthday cake he came up behind me with one more present. He put his arms around me and gave me the box. When I opened it he asked me in front of the kids to marry him. Katy was jumping up and down going Say Yes ! Say Yes ! Say Yes !! So of course I said YES!

Also got gorgeous tulips too......

Ok -- Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I will try to do better. :)

Our wedding website

Here is a link to our wedding website

http://www.mikeandjennwinerywedding.com

Sean's Photos from Greece

My lucky little brother got to spend some time in Greece in January. This was part of a school trip. Now me....I got to go to big Jackson, Mississippi on a school trip growing up. Sean -- I hope you know how lucky you are. ;)

Notice him wearing the Southern Mississippi jersey. :)