Homeowners for a year!

On October 15, 2009 Jake and I signed our lives over to the mortgage company. I can't believe it has been a whole year since we bought the house! The process was all such a whirlwind anyway. To sum it up - 

1) We decided to buy a house after looking at the tax credit and interest rates
2) We looked on the MLS online (I had actually looked for a long time because I love looking on the MLS so I knew what was out there and what was reasonable/etc) and started sending each other endless links
3) My mom got in the game and sent us even more links!
4) My mom and I found a foreclosure house we liked in Evergreen Historic District. We called my parent's agent (who didn't even know we were looking) and she met us at that house that afternoon
5) We put an offer on the foreclosure house but were competing with 2 other bids
6) They turned down our offer
7) We kept searching and found our house within two weeks.
8) The day we were going to take our parents through the house to see if we should get it, the foreclosure house called back, wanting us to offer again.
9) We toured both and finally decided for the money this was better (the other was a major risk but was in a great neighborhood and had a lot of character). 
10) We offered on this house and got it!

Den before and after:

 Dining Room before and after:

Living Room before and after:

Here's my posts chronicling come of our house projects over the past year:

• First blog post about the house, with the original MLS pictures

• Just moved, so much to talk about!
• The one where we painted (and repainted) the living room, our first paint project
• We painted the paneling in the den
• Hosted a little Christmas party, which kicked us into gear to get the house done - living room here, dining room here. 
• Started to dream about kitchens
• Took down the wall cabinet in the front bathroom and painted it Drizzle (which still makes me think of early Glee).  
• Had our pipes freeze (twice, I think). 
• Created an idea board for our kitchen project.
• Took out the carpet and uncovered the hardwood floors.
• Brought the den into the 21st century. 
• Created a laundry room out of a hall closet.
• Bought appliances on the cheap from US Appliance online (that proceeded to sit in our garage..._)
• Our AC went out in August
• We picked the flooring for the kitchen and den. 
• We built a desk and fixed up the office for my new med student husband (still need to take a picture of the desk...)
• Painted and fancy-ed up the back bedroom. 
• Created an outdoor sitting/ facebooking area on the front porch
• and got a brand new HVAC system for free!

We've still got a lot of work to do but I can't believe how different things look a year out. My favorite improvement was ripping out the carpet, closely followed with the laundry room. It is finally starting to feel like home! Now... on to that kitchen project that has been in the works for a while.