ALERT: First time home buyers buy a house!! Ahh we are officially home owners!!

PS – this is a pretty long post so bare with more, or just scroll for pics!

I can’t believe I’m typing that! We bought a house!! Michael and I have talked about this for a long time and we finally did it. To be honest, it wasn’t as crazy as everyone says it was. Yes, the market here in Austin is absolutely insane and you really need to move fast, but the whole process was pretty painless (at least from my standpoint). We were lucky enough to have my friend Ashley as an awesome realtor who made the process go pretty smoothly. I feel like after we signed the papers/moved in is when some of the stress ensued for me. But more on that below!

To take you back some, Michael has wanted to buy a house for awhile now. When we did the math on how much money we have spent on rent since moving to Austin, it was a little depressing. The place we were renting was getting a little small and cramped and after 3 years it was time to move on, although it is in a baller location! Our lease is technically not up until April, so now we are in the process of trying to find new tenants so we don’t have to pay rent and our mortgage. So if you want to move to Austin or know someone looking, let me know haha!

We started to look at houses some in September I would say. I had been looking online for awhile as I find it fun, but seriously started looking around then. The first house we looked at was awesome, but a little over our price range. We were then traveling for a bit and took some time off looking. We started again in mid October and this was the second house we looked at! We looked a few others after, but none that we loved.

To be completely honest, when we looked at this house we didn’t absolutely love it. We weren’t like OMG I NEED THIS HOUSE. But the more and more we sat and thought on it, the more and more it grew on us. And I mean sat on it for about 2-3 days…the market here in Austin is crazy, you don’t have much time to think.

I think the main things that were holding us back were the yard and the location. We were living in such a desirable area, it’s hard to go from that. And the yard is nice, but not huge. But we also had a budget and most houses in the other areas we were looking were probably 15-50k more and not as nice as ours. And Ashley told us there is no such thing as a perfect house and to look at it like the 80/20 rule – if you find 80% of the things you are looking for you are in good shape. There will always be a few things you won’t like, but unless you are a millionaire and building your own house, that is what you have to accept.

So after thinking about it for a few days, we put in an offer. And then other people put offers in. So we had to raise our offer some, but we won! Props to Ashley and a little love letter I wrote the seller. If you are looking to buy a house and are in a crazy market, write the seller a letter on how much you love the house and how you can see yourself there and what not. It’s the little things I tell ya!

Now that we have been living here for a few weeks, I am so so happy we picked this place. It’s a 4 bedroom 2 bath with an open kitchen and living area. The 4th bedroom is off the living room and will be my office!! The house was a flip so it’s completely redone on the inside and out. We went back on forth on this, but in the end I am somewhat glad we did. The kitchen is completely updated, new flooring, windows, bathrooms, carpet, drywall, paint…pretty much new everything.

pictured above is my office!!

So it was move in ready and we didn’t have to do any updating. While it would be cool to buy a fixer upper and get to design your own house, we don’t really know anything about that and I am really trying to focus on growing ETG. Michael is somewhat handy, but I’m sure we would of had to hire out all the updates too, which can get pretty pricey. We will still be doing some updating to some things (painting an accent wall, adding a mantel over the fire place..), but no big construction.

open kitchen and living area!

Now that we have been living here for a few weeks, we are so happy here! This kitchen is seriously the kitchen of my dreams – it has so much storage, white countertops, counter space, huge sink, natural light, a breakfast bar, and is open to the living room. Michael thinks that the kitchen sold me on this house and it’s why I pushed for it so much, which is so not true. Only like 85% true HA. But in all honestly, I love that we have 4 rooms – a guest room, one will be my office, and one is going to be Michael’s “man cave”. We have a 2-car garage that we will turn half of it into a home gym. A yard that hopefully I can put a tiny garden in and we can get a puppy!

It just feels like home.

That being said, we have had a few things that haven’t gone our way. With the house being a flip, no one has lived in it since it was updated. So you don’t really know if everything is working right. Turns out oven was not hooked up right and the first night we went to use it we blew the circuit for it and the microwave. An electrician had to come out for that. Also the gas for the dryer isn’t hooked up right so we are working on getting a plumber out to fix that. Nothing too crazy, but things we need to pay to get fixed relatively quickly.

We are in the works of buying furniture and figuring out where we want everything to go. Stay tuned as I will be posting how we decorate and what not after we are done!

I would also like to say thank you for everyone that has followed along for the last couple of years. Eat the Gains is my passion and it’s because of you that my dreams are slowly coming true. Because you make my recipes, share my posts, engage with me on social media…you inspire me everyday to keep doing what I love. Also a huge shout out to Michael for being so supportive in allowing me to pursue this path. It’s because of you that I get to continuously pursue the career and life I dream of. I know I don’t give you nearly enough credit, but I am forever grateful for you and all that you do.

Here’s to #homeownerlife!!