We started in Little Elm. The first two houses were really nice size 1 acre lots. I really liked the 2nd house we saw, but unfortunately it had foundation problems. The 3rd house was on a smaller lot, but backed up to the lake. Unfortunately the listing pictures were a "LITTLE" bit deceptive. It looked like the property was right at the edge of the lake. It turned out that you had to go down a ramp (like from a UHaul) which was precariously perched! So yes, you had private lake access, but it was pretty scary access! lol The house was in very marginal shape, so that was a definite no for us. We ended looking at 10 or 11 properties that first day. We really liked another one on St Remy Drive that was also on a larger size lot. It would have been great except there was only 1 tiny bedroom on the main floor, no closed study or anything, so it definitely wasn't Grandpa friendly! We looked at a house on .67 acres in McKinney, bordering Melissa and loved it. It had a swimming pool in the back, the neighborhood was tree lined and felt very comfortable. The house wasn't perfect as the kitchen wasn't open to any large family room space, the bathroom we would've used would need to be painted it had pink striped walls and the house was built in 1997, and you could tell in the bathrooms. But, there was plenty of room for the kids, dogs, Darvin's 4 wheeler and it had a huge covered patio by the pool along with sound piped throughout the house and yard. This was the priciest home at $350,000 that ended up on our '3 finalists' list.
Unfortunately Nancy was working with another out of town buyer that weekend, so we had to split time with them. On Friday she was only able to spend the morning with us. We power shopped and were able to see 10 properties with one of those on Axis Drive making it to our '3 finalists' list. It was on 1/3rd of an acre, had 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and was over 4,200 square feet. Darvin initially didn't care for the back yard because it was sloped and had a man made pond water feature. The house was built in 2010 and was very nice. The kitchen was open to the family room which was on my 'must have' list. The house was listed at $340,000.
Friday afternoon we were supposed to go to the zoo with Erin and her kids, Ashley and Vona, and Briana and her boys. Erin and Ashley both begged out so we ended up stopping at Five Guys hamburger joint and then headed over to meet Briana at her place where she picked us up before heading to the zoo. Friday night Erin hosted a family game night. Bethany came as well as the Pascual's, the Rush's, Vicki, Rob, Chloe and Bob, and Kristen Soller (Thomas's sister) and her family. Everyone brought snacks to share and then we played the 'Things' game. It was a fun evening.
On Saturday Nancy couldn't meet with us so she gave us information to drive by one home in Prosper and go look inside a couple of new homes there. We were able to get into the two vacant homes, one on Sandstone Dr was a bit on the small side for our needs. The other at 1631 Greenwood Court was open as they were working on the hand scraped floors in the front hallway. I think I liked this one better than Darvin initially. It's on a .26 acre lot which was a bummer as there wasn't enough room for Darvin to ride his four wheeler on the property, but it's on a corner lot and backs up to the greenbelt, so there's only one neighbor on the side. The master suite is HUGE with a 21x17 bedroom and very large bathroom and walk in closet the size of a room. As we were coming out of the house the neighbor across the street, Jen, was just leaving her house to take her to labs on a walk. We sat there for a good 10 or 15 minutes talking to her about the neighborhood, the builder, the HOA, etc. She even took us in to look at her house and told us that she'd had the builder take out the carpet on the main floor and install hardwood floors, had them put in blinds on the windows, etc. She was a plethora of information and a very nice lady! So we had our 3rd finalist.
We met the Rush's (including Dolly who shares the same birthday as Darvin) who were treating us for Dolly and Dad's birthday at Big Ray's BBQ. Margaret and Doug, Bethany and Huey, the Chatwin's and Pascual's joined us. Poor Briana. While we were traveling to Big Ray's she texted wanting to know the location. Dad used my phone to text the address back to her. Unfortunately he didn't watch as he was texting and it auto-corrected adding an additional 0 to the address. So they were WAY off base and couldn't find us. By the time we figured it out and they found us Briana was quite upset. I felt terrible because we were the ones that had led them astray! After they got their lunch and settled in we all felt better and had a really nice visit with everyone.
Saturday night Erin and Russ took us to a concert at the Granada Theater. Vicki, Rob and Justin's ska band Rude King were the opening act for The English Beat a british band. They did a great job!
I got ahold of Nancy Saturday to tell her that we'd narrowed our choices down to three and wanted to give the girls a chance to see them. Erin indicated that she didn't need to be included in the search as they were happy with whatever choice we made. So we met Nancy, Ashley and the Pascual family in Murphy on Sunday morning. Ashley and Briana both really liked the Murphy house.
Dad indicated that the backyard wasn't as sloped as he originally thought.
Next we headed to the McKinney/Melissa house.
Ashley liked this because she said she'd come soak in our jacuzzi tub upstairs! lol
I think Darvin and I both felt this was the best property including the salt water pool,
The living room was beautiful but wasn't open to the kitchen which was one of my main 'must haves'!
Briana didn't like the home because it was so far away from them. Bless Dad's heart, he said he wouldn't buy the place because he wanted everyone to be happy!
Our last stop was to 1631 Greenwood Ct in Prosper.
The house is not yet complete but is far enough along to be able to see the quality of the workmanship. I think everyone was pretty well sold on it not long after stepping inside. Although the lot is small (.26 acres) since it backs up to the greenbelt it feels larger.
a nice size laundry room big enough I hope to fit one of my food storage racks, hand scraped hardwood floors, etc. It seemed to be the best compromise, at about 16 minutes from Erin's house, 29 from Ashley and 25 from Briana. So we all came to the consensus that this was IT! lol
Monday morning I was feeling pretty tired and very stressed. I knew that we were doing the right thing, but I think I was getting cold feet or buyers remorse in advance! So I laid down and took a short very much needed nap and then woke up and lay there thinking...
Nancy scheduled an appointment with the builder representative for Monday at 3 p.m. We met with her beforehand at 2:30 and chatted a bit, discussing with her the changes that Darvin and I wanted the builder to make. Pops went to work measuring the upstairs for me and then the builder rep Frank Parli arrived at 3. Some of our changes were pretty expensive ones, so we weren't sure what the end outcome might be on the price, but we figured 'you don't ask, you don't get'. Worse case scenario we could decide not to have them do some of the upgrades.
Our list of upgrades:
Probably the most expensive one, no carpet on the main floor. Adding hand scraped hardwood floors in the study, the formal dining room, living room, family room, master bedroom and master closet. Nancy had told us that was about a $6/square foot upgrade (minus the cost of the carpet of course).
Add ceiling fans in the study, the three bedrooms upstairs and on the back porch.
Extend the concrete patio in the back yard to the end of the house (about 7 ft by 18 feet).
Remove the existing 4 ft wrought iron fence along the back of the property and replace it with a 6 ft fence with a gate.
Add 2" faux wood blinds to all windows and the patio door.
Add a fridge that matched the other kitchen appliances.
Extend the chair rail and picture frame trim from the dining room through the formal living room.
The original list price on the home was $334,900 and Nancy had told us that if we didn't make any changes at all we could probably get it for $320,000. When all was said and done Frank said the price would be $339,000. I asked him if he would come down to $337,000 and he said no. So then I said, well how about $338,500 and then we'll feel like we got a deal. Who can resist making the buyer feel good? LOL! You could tell throughout the process that Frank liked us, he has two bulldogs and had shown us their pictures and waited for me to find and show him the pictures of our dogs on my camera, we'd chit chatted through out the process...So he said he'd take $338,500, we shook on it and started completing the paperwork.
Nancy had to leave, but made sure we were on track and that the items he'd agreed to add were included in the contract. We were there until after 5:30 filling out paperwork and chatting. I was getting a little anxious as we wanted to return the rental car instead of having to wait until Tuesday morning before we headed to the airport. Turns out it didn't really matter as they have a night drop off box.
Russ had really wanted to go to MacDadddy's in Denton for his birthday dinner. So we dropped off the rental car on the way. Then headed to MacDaddy's which is a macaroni themed restaurant. We ordered family style, getting a number of dishes to share. The two favorites were pulled pork and lobster mac and cheese! We'd ordered some plain mac and cheese for Jackson and Karlee. Jackson didn't want to eat it and kept gagging. Erin insisted that he take one too many bites and the poor kid puked all over himself. He looked up at Pops who was sitting next to him and in a super sad sweet voice said "Sorry Poppa", it melted Dad's heart! Afterwards Russ wanted to go to Beth Maries Old Fashioned Ice Cream, so we stopped there and had homemade ice cream cones. It was all very tasty.
We headed back to Erin and Russ's and then Tuesday morning Erin and the kids drove us to the airport. Where Jackson indicated that he wanted to fly on the plane with Nana and Pops!
I'm so glad we get to move to Texas to be near most of the kids! The final step, a 'minor detail' Darvin needs to find a job! lol
I am SO SUPER EXCITED that you're moving here! And I like the house! Now to keep y'all in our prayers that uncle Darvin finds a job! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Bethany! It will be so nice to live close to you guys too! I'm glad you like the house! Thank you for the prayers too, I hope he's blessed to find a good job from the start so he doesn't have to worry about changing jobs down the road!
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