Life As A Wertzbaugher: Home Owning

In February 2009 we started the process of buying a home. We met with a mortgage broker and found out how much the bank would loan us and our price range for buying a house. We started looking and came across this four bedroom, two bath home in Brighton. The only problem was, it wasn't on the market. In fact, most of the previous owner's belongings were

still in the house. Our realtor, who is also our best friend (Brendan Winans) noticed the papers on the window and checked to see if his HUD key would open the door...and it did! We looked around and realized it would need work, but it would be perfect for our growing family.

In June the house came on the market and since we had already lost a bid before on a different house, we wanted to make sure we put in the best possible bid. I did some research and found that in Brighton most people bid pretty much at the asking price, where in Thornton they bid WAY above the asking price. The house was priced at $109,000 and we wanted to place a bid at $120,000 to make sure that we would get it! Well as we sat down with Brendan to write the bid he noticed in the fine print that if you're applying for an FHA loan (which we were) if you bid higher than the asking price you would have to bring the difference in cash when you closed on the house. Well we didn't have $11,000 laying around.. so we put in the best possible bid we could. We would bring $1,083 to the table and our bid would be $110,083.00. The $83 was Jordan's idea... :)

So we waited and when they posted the results our name was second on the list... I could have cried and Jordan was totally bummed we didn't win. But there was still hope because if something were to fall through with the winners than we would get the house! Well with my heart full of faith that God would move on our behalf, the first place bid fell through and it went to us!! We got our house.

There were so many obstacles before we even closed on the house because some of the pipes above the kitchen were broken so we had to hire people to come in and fix them and Jordan would go straight to the house after working a 10.5 hour day and work on it until 9pm.. By the time we finally got everything moved in I was so happy!!

Anyways, I say all of that to say this.. Owning a home is a lot of work!! All of the sudden you have to become an electrician, a plumber, a painter, a landscaper, etc... My husband continues to amaze me every time something comes up. So far he's learned how to fix broken pipes, drywall, paint (he already knew how to paint), fix our furnace, replace faucets (indoors and outdoors), rototill, plant grass seed, etc... the list goes on and on!! I never knew how much he was capable of.

It's very gratifying owning our home because when we first bought it needed a lot of work. We are no where near being down with our to do list, but we're getting closer. It's a huge improvement from what it was. The day we get carpet, tile and lay hardwood, I'll be a very happy lady!

Moral of the story: HGTV makes buying and owning a home look too easy! :)

Below: Brendan (left) and Jordan (right) patching holes and replacing the door handle/lock