Our Chandler house is sold! It really is bittersweet to have it gone. Its sweet since we don’t live there anymore. Bitter because we really loved that house. We thought we would be there at least 10 years. We put so much work into it.
When Chris got his full time job offer at Intel we both agreed that we wanted to move closer to Intel. At the time we were living in East Mesa and on a good day his commute was over half hour. (To Northwest Chandler) On a bad day it was over an hour. We both hated it. We weren’t really actively looking for a house. We had a weird hobby of driving around looking at houses for sale. (We actually still do that.) We found one in Chandler that seemed like a good deal. We had no realtor but we stopped in the front of that house. There happened to be a few people waiting to see the house and one realtor was waiting on a client. She hopped out of her car and came and talked to us. She showed us the house, we put in a bid, but we didn’t get that house. It went WAY over asking and we weren’t even close. The realtor gave us her card and said when we were ready to look at more houses to give her a call. We were impressed with her because there were at least 3 other realtors outside that house waiting, but she was the only one to come talk to us.
A few months later Chris and I were getting more serious about moving. We had made up a map of areas we wanted to live that would be close to work. I was on Zillow and came across The House on Jupiter. Chris and I and Ryan went on a drive and we looked at it. I fell in love with it. I knew we probably wouldn’t get that house because we weren’t quite ready to buy a house yet. We weren’t even sure we could get a loan at that time. We left it and I was a little bummed because I knew it was the perfect house for us. (Chris was looking at dumps, that were tiny, I was looking at already finished big houses. This house was a perfect mix for the both of us! I was looking at finished houses because we had just flipped a house and I wanted to live in a finished house!)
The next day was a Monday. I was sick and puking all day (Lilly was in my tummy.) and Chris called me. He said he talked to the bank, we were approved for a loan, and he called Laura (our realtor) and she could show us the house. Chris was on his way home to get me. I got ready quickly and off we went. We walked around the house and it was in a little worse shape than I thought. Laura the whole time seemed to be discouraged for us that it was so bad. She kept saying she could find us a house in better shape. There were a few sketchy t hings that I thought would scare Chris away, but when we talked we were both ready to put an offer in on it. Down the street there was a house for sale that was redone with the same floor plan as the house we wanted to buy. Laura took us to look at that one. It was listed significantly higher and it showed us what our house could be. We shocked Laura and put in an offer right then and there. Two days later we got the house.
We finished up our fixer upper that we were living in and called Laura to help us sell it. Luckily it went quickly because we needed money to fix up our new house. It even sold to a cash buyer so it closed even quicker.
I can’t say enough good things about Laura, our realtor. She works to hard. She is always available. She gives great advice, but cares about our opinions. I would recommend her to anyone. If you need a realtor let us know and we will get you her info! She really is amazing!
I went and moved in with my parents for a month. I couldn’t live in a house that was being remodeled with a one year old and being pregnant. Chris stayed to work, and fix up the house. (I sound like a lousy wife…sorry Chris.) We moved all our stuff in the garage and that is where Chris lived. He had the fridge hooked up and our bed laid out. It was a mess. It was hard being away from Chris for that long. We’d see each other on the weekends, but by the end I was done being apart. I just wanted stuff done so we could be together again. (During this time we found out Ryan was allergic to penicillin. He had a huge reaction where he was hospitalized for a short time. Chris got in his car and hauled it over to us. He took a few days off work until Ryan was better.)
Chris did a lot of the work on the house, but he also hired out a some too (our first house he did 100% of the work.) He always amazes me with all that he can learn how to do and accomplish!
This house is so special to us. We lived there for three years and have great memories there! Ryan became a big brother there, Lilly was born there, she learned how to walk there. We loved our life there. Its sad that that chapter is over, but I am happy we lived it. I loved that house!
There are A LOT of pictures. These are pictures we took in the process of fixing up our house and the finished product is at the very bottom!
The pictures here on out are the pictures our realtor had professionally done. They are posted on zillow and Trulia.
Original Post: May 27, 2016
