A positive to having a back injury

A positive thing to having a hurt back and not being able to do a damn thing other then just lay there is that I have gotten a lot of reading done. The bad thing about that is that books are expensive! I have gone through more books in the last few months then I think I have ever read in a year. Hell, I have gone through 4 in just the last week. But to try and keep costs down I cant be going to the book store and dropping $50 on a handful of books every week so last night I made my way to the local library. It is a new library and boasts about having a large selection blah blah blah. I was disappointed.

I understand my favored genera of books, SciFi/Fantasy, isnt the most popular, but I do think it warrants more then three 4' sections worth of selection. Hell, they didnt even have Tolkien or Steven King (I double checked in the normal fiction, just in case).

I am disappointed in you Library. I remember now why I never really bothered with you and just purchased all my books.

Under Contract.

Friday we went to meet with our realtor to put in an offer on the house we saw last week however he had just gotten off the phone with the seller's agent who let us know that someone else had also put in earlier that day. Go figure. The house had been on the market with no offers since January and the day we go to make an offer someone else is interested. Just our luck. Well we decide we really want the house and since the other buyer didnt know we were interested when they put in their offer we went in with our high bid hoping the other offer went in low. Saturday we get the call saying the seller countered to our offer wanting just two thousand more. Deal. We are (or will be today) officially under contract. We still need to sign the changes that the seller made but thats just a formality.

SQUEEEEEE!

I am so excited about this house. Now we just need to apply for the loan, which we have been preapproved for, and then wait. If everything goes according to plan we are looking to close mid July. Again, I am so glad the other house fell through, even if it was hard to handle then. We really liked the other house so the fact that we like this one so much more says a lot about it. In my opinion anyway. :-)

I am so glad

that the last house fell through. We went and saw one last night that I love. I love love love the neighborhood and the home itself is great. A few things would need to be done to make it work for us (new carpet, paint, etc) but really its nothing in the grand scheme of things. We are putting in an offer tomorrow. I have a good feeling about this, I just hope and pray that it will all work out.

When selling a house...

1. Dont be lazy with repairs. The last of the two homes we saw this weekend was "fully renovated." We had high hopes with the quality of the home based on that phrase when we decided to look at the home in the first place. The location wasn't great and the house itself was built in 1901 but we figured those things could be overlooked if the layout was ok and it was, in fact, fully renovated. However "fully renovated" must not mean making sure the 2nd floor porch was actually connected to the house, the doors and windows were the right size and opened/closed, or that the ceiling and floors were even. I think all this guy did to "fully renovate" this home was slap a new coat of paint on the walls (that he textured so wouldn't need a primer or 2nd coat) and lay some new carpet down. Waste.of.my.time.

2. Dont keep 10 billion cats in random rooms. The first home we saw we knew the house probably needed a little updating but the location was great. We walked in and hit the wall of smelly cats. It was almost overpowering. It wasnt like the crazy cat lady's ammonia filled home, but just a combination of multiple cats with multiple litter boxes that needed to be cleaned. The husband lasted all of three minutes before his sneezing started. And that was on a daily allergy medication. The smell aside the house didnt wow us enough to over look the little repairs and updating that would have been needed.

Those were the two most promising listings for our area and budget. Time to expand or compromise on our already small "must haves" list. This whole house hunting thing is hard! But fun at the same time.

Product Reviews: Makeup

Loreal's Bare Naturale: 2/5 - Ok in a pinch.

It was very hard to find the shade that worked for me. I followed their little chart thing and ended up buying three different shades before finding the right one. It was hard to get the right amount of powder on the brush, either I had to much or to little. Either way half the powder either ended up on the sink or on me. The whole time I used it (about two months) I couldn't get dressed before I put make up on. Also I never got what the finishing powder was for. I just use it as a late day touch up to get rid of my nose shines. It works great for that. All in all not worth the money I put into it between the several shades of foundation and the pointless finishing powder.

Pur Minerals: 4/5 - Not perfect but does a great job.

I purchased the Starter Kit about two weeks ago. I had help in the store picking the shade and should have listened to my gut telling me it wasn't right but surprisingly, even with a shade to light, it works great to balance the redness. The pressed powder doesn't get everywhere, unless I go way overboard on the amount I put on the brush, and overall I don't feel like I am wasting any. The "chiseled brush" that comes with the kit I am undecided about, I think I like the full, softer brushes better, but that might change with the right color shade. The bronzer and blush are the same, I don't see a difference or really the point, but that is probably because they are all a shade lighter then what they need to be.

Well, Let the hunt begin!

Again. :-/

We heard from the bank yesterday. We didnt get approved. We followed everything they told us to do but they just "forgot" to mention that we wouldnt be able to reapply for another 120 days. FOUR MONTHS! How do you just forget that part when telling loan applicants what to do to get approved? I am ready to scream.

Our mortgage broker did run us through another program though and we got a pre-approval through them. We are going to go look into it and hopefully it will work out. Some of the houses we really liked but ruled out due to location (1st loan program had limitations on the location of the home) are still on the market. Depending on how the finances will work with the new program, one of those just might be the home for us.

Is it to early to start drinking? 11am? Didnt think so. :slams shot of vodka:

:crosses fingers, toes, and anything else I can:

We found out last week that we managed to make it through the hoops the bank wanted us to jump though to buy a home. We should back hear this week if that was good enough. I really want this to work out. I love the home we found and cant stand living in the house we are in now. It was great when we first moved in but we are ready to move on.

**FYI-hitting enter at anytime when typing up a blog post will actually post it**