We bought a house! (Well, hopefully... as long as the inspection and paperwork go smoothly!)

Welcome to Casa de Geib!

(That's not actually our house though. Same model/floor plan, but ours is tucked away and not on the street with cars and a road right there like that! Our house has a premium lot that overlooks the community park.)

So how did this all happen? Well, we began working with a realtor a few weeks ago and started looking for properties that would work. The San Diego real estate market is unreal! While prices are lower than they have been in many years, competition for houses is fierce. Our realtor told us to expect to put in several offers on different homes before we had one offer accepted. Houses go for typically over asking prices with multiple bids. We thought we were prepared, but when we finally found a house we liked, it was sold before we even had a chance to make an offer! This happened a second time as well and we were feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the entire process. And since we could only househunt from half the world away, we started feeling like maybe we were crazy to be shopping anyway.

We continued to look through the listings our realtor was sending us. We decided on a community we really, really liked in a gorgeous area full of newer homes. Problem was, there weren't many houses there on the market since it's such a high demand area. But there was one listing that caught our eye. In all honesty, it caught Benjamin's eye. I hadn't paid much attention to it because it was at the top end of our goal price range but I knew it was an amazing floorplan due to all the research I had been doing. But the ad for it was terrible! There were only 5 pictures, most of them blurry, and practically no description other than the home was bank owned. We typed the address into google maps and imagine our surprise when we (through some super sleuthing) realized what a fabulous location the house was in! Thank goodness the ad was so bleak because that probably prevented other people from being interested in it!

We decided to go ahead and put in an offer. We got lucky again because they had just dropped the price of the home but had forgotten to update the MLS system. We eagerly submitted our offer and then began playing the waiting game. After a frustrating week of no reply, our realtor called us today with fabulous news... the bank accepted our offer! So now the paperwork process begins and if all goes well, we should close on time for my birthday. That means that Benjamin will escort Caroline and I back around then and we'll begin our new life in our new home. :) And worth mentioning is the fact that we bought the home for just under $300,000 less than what the original price was right before the real estate bust several years ago!

Our new community is fabulous! It's gated, with pools, parks (including the one behind our house), walking trails and gyms. It's a newer community with great shops and restaurants and virtually no registered sex offenders. (Yep, I checked that.)

The new house will need a little bit of work before we move in. Our realtor has suggested having the carpet on the second floor cleaned or replaced (we're leaning toward just starting fresh and getting new carpet) and the whole house (but mainly the stairwell and second story) could use a coat of paint. We also will be planting a patch of grass in our yard for Bentley and buying new appliances like a fridge and washer/dryer. So Home Depot (which is conveniently close by and offers a military discount) will be our new best friend. Oh Home Depot... you're not going to know what hit you, me being pregnant and nesting and all!

The home is about 2200 square feet (huge by Californian standards) and three stories. There are three bedrooms (including the master) and an office on the second story. We're actually planning on putting french doors on the office and making that Caroline's room since it overlooks the playground and is the biggest room besides the master. The other two rooms will be for Baby Boy Geib and guests. The third story is an open loft that looks amazing and will serve as our family media room.

We don't have many pictures at all of the second floor, so we can't really show you what the bedrooms look like yet, but we will.

Here's a picture of the side of our actual fabulous house from the courtyard:

We love it!

Here is the living room, facing the front door. We're not so sure about this paint scheme going on, but it's hard to judge without seeing it in person. We haven't decided if we'll paint it or not, but at this point, I'm leaning toward yes.

Another angle of the living room taken from the kitchen.

Dining room, taken from the foyer.

This isn't a picture taken from inside our house, but it gives you a good idea of the kitchen in relation to the living and dining rooms. And it lets you see what plain white paint would look like. I think it's kind of boring and totally hides the beautiful white baseboards. If we paint, I think I'll go with a warm beige. Thoughts?

Here's our actual home's kitchen. I love the dark cabinets and the color of the granite! The white door to the right of the picture is the pantry and the nook for the fridge is just beside it on the right. The doors to the left of the cabinets are french doors that lead out to our yard.

Here's another view of our kitchen.
This is what the master bath looks like but is not our actual home's. Our home has different, lighter tiled countertops. But you get the idea!

Here's another angle of what the bathroom looks like. Again, not from our house but it will help you see the layout a bit.

This is what the third story looks like! It is a loft that we intend to use as a family/game/play room. It has a balcony too!

This is what our backyard looks out at.