Tuesday, April 29, 2014

We bought a house!

With so many military moves under our belts, it has been difficult to purchase our own house.  Living overseas didn't help.  From one rented place to the next, Nick and I were quite ready to be in a place that was all ours!!

After three years in Japan, Nick got orders to San Diego, California.  The state he was born in and where his family still lives, seemed like the perfect place to buy our first home and settle down for a few years...or until the military moves us again :)

We used a realtor that was referred to us by our good friends, who also had just moved from Japan to San Diego.  She took all of our requests seriously and showed us exactly what we were looking for.  We got lucky and found a perfect little house in the neighborhood we were hoping to live in.  We were the first family to look at the house and put in an offer immediately.   The California market is intense and competitive, but we feel very fortunate that the owner chose us over the other offers, despite ours not being the highest bid!  A huge blessing.

The house might lack the Texas-sized floor plan and the walk-in closets that I am fond of, but it has the California charm that we are getting used to.  Complete with a fenced in back yard, underground pool, two car garage, on a quiet street in the perfect family-friendly neighborhood.  Our 3 bedroom, 2 bath, fully renovated 1950's home is ALL OURS!   (Oh and I can't forget to mention the palm tree in our front lawn :)  It isn't a Cali house without one!)
Gotta love those California palm trees :)
Our back-"yard"
The best part of our house is the, "Great Room," as we call it.  A large room that is most of the floor space of our house.  It's the kitchen, dining, and living all in one big room.  It is the very opposite of what we had in Japan and exactly what we were looking for.