Present Day

So that brings us to today, August 31st. It was my 6th day on the new job – no comment. I’m mooching off my parents for a couple weeks – not only am I staying at their house but I’m eating their food and driving their car. But Sarah is staying at our apartment, so I figure it all evens out.

Roof in progress

Franco almost had the new roof done by the time I did my daily drive-by. I snagged a scrap piece of the roofing tiles to make sure the shade of gray that we’ve chosen to paint the exterior will work.  Looks good!

This past weekend I had to drive back to Chicago for several reasons: Jord needed the car back and we had previously made plans with The Fun Girls. Jord drove Sarah, my mom and I around Chicago all day Saturday trying to find the perfect 3-bedroom apartment for Sarah and her new roomies. After a frustrating morning of looking at dump after dump, Sarah spotted a For Rent sign and called the number. We met the landlord 15 minutes later and had found the ideal place for her to live, not to mention for us to visit as its only ½ mile from Wrigley. 

The Fun Girls arrived that evening, and we danced the night away in Wrigleyville, followed by Sunday spent at the Drake having high tea. So very contradictory, but I got another thing checked off our Chicago List by going to tea at the Drake, and we had a lovely time.
The Fun Girls, specifically Kelly and Meagan, encouraged me to write this blog. I had been thinking about it for the past couple weeks and brought up the idea this weekend. With their promise that I would have at least three readers, Sarah included, I thought I’d give it a try. Thanks girls!

Background

A not-so-quick synopsis of the last seven months:

Once I finally convinced Jord that this was the year we should move back to Davenport, we started the process of looking for a home. My mom put us in contact with our realtor, Matt Schwind. We met Matt for the first time in late February to discuss the home-buying process and went to look at six houses. Since I was obsessed with looking at houses online, I already had a list of addresses that I wanted to look at. It was an eye-opening experience to compare the details and pictures from online to the actual property.

Of course I fell in love with one house in particular that day, and all we could do for the next month was talk about this house and all the projects we would do should it become ours. Finding this house accelerated our job search, which had been non-existent up to that point. The house sold, and although I was crushed at the time, it just wasn’t meant to be.

The next couple months were spent continuing to look at houses online and viewing a few choice properties every time we were in town. My parents were calling everyday with a new address they had spotted and thought we might be interested in. With the first-time homebuyer tax credit deadline looming, we wanted to try to find a place and make an offer, even though our jobs hadn’t materialized. We watched endless hours of HGTV, and they made the process look so easy! Why wasn’t it working that way for us?

By the time June rolled around, I was fed-up with the job hunt. Nights of searching the internet for any available position in the Quad Cities was wearing me out, but I continued finding houses that look promising so I kept at it. I had spotted a couple properties that I wanted to look at the next time we were in Davenport, but we had things to check-off our Chicago List (more on that later) so we didn’t have a trip scheduled for a few weeks. My dad and sister set-up a time to look at the properties with Matt on our behalf, but I persuaded Jord that we should make a quick overnight trip, not only to see the houses but to go to the annual July 4th Collins family reunion. The first house we looked at that morning didn’t quite match Jord’s criteria, but I wanted to take a look based on the location, but even that didn’t really fit the bill as it was outside our ideal neighborhood. A ranch-style house with 2 bedrooms, Jord wasn’t convinced but my family and I saw the potential. We looked at one other place that day, which turned out to be awful so that helped our case a bit. We asked Matt to send us some comps for the ranch house, just to see what price we’d be looking at.

Per usual, all we talked about for the days and weeks ahead was the house and all the projects that we could do to make it our home. Jord was skeptical, so the next time we made it to Davenport we went through several open houses of similar ranch-style homes to compare. This comparison shopping did the trick, and Jord started seeing the value and potential in the house. There was just one hang up: we still didn’t have jobs pinned down.

The first week of August was hectic. My sister Sarah had come to town for an interview and was staying with us for a couple days, Jord and I both were hoping to get job offers, my sister-in-law was getting married on Friday – just a lot of stuff going on! On the 2nd, Jord got the offer he was hoping for and, although we were ready to make an offer on the house, we thought we should give it a day or two to see if my job opportunity would materialize (for the sake of the mortgage – those guys are particular about this kind of thing). On the 3rd, not only did I get a job offer but Sarah did as well. So Sarah and I were officially switching places – she was leaving Davenport for the exciting city life and I was headed back home – and it was happening fast. On the 4th we got the paperwork for the offer ready and submitted the official bid on the house the morning of the 5th. Matt informed us that the sellers were on vacation, so we prepared ourselves for a couple days of waiting for a response. That evening we went to Meagan and Brendon’s wedding rehearsal and tried not to worry too much. Jord got a phone call from Matt while we were at dinner, so he politely excused himself. He came back into the room with a big goofy grin, so I knew we had some news. The sellers had counter-offered – they agreed to all of our terms, just wanted more money. It seemed reasonable, so we accepted!

Next came the inspections. Since we bought a house that was built in 1950, there were several concerns. It was agreed that there would be a sewer inspection, radon inspection and whole-house inspection as well as an appraisal. The sewer inspection took place almost immediately and that went well – phew. The appraisal came back at the agreed-upon purchase price – this is important due to FHA regulations – phew. We wanted to be present for the whole-house inspection, so we scheduled yet another voyage home and met the inspector on the 14th. The inspection took a couple hours as he reviewed every inch of the house and proceeded to tell us everything that needed to be fixed. This was discouraging as one really important thing needed to be replaced: the roof. To make things more interesting, the roof needed to be replaced before we could close on the house due to FHA mortgage stipulations. And to add to the excitement, Matt was out of town and we needed to work with another realtor to negotiate with the sellers. The finalized inspection report was sent to us on the 16th, and not only did the roof need to be replaced, but the radon levels came back high and a radon mitigation system needed to be installed. Jord worked with the realtor to make an amendment to our purchase agreement asking the sellers to replace the roof and install the radon mitigation system. Of course they didn’t like that arrangement, so we negotiated back and forth for a few days and came to an agreement that they would pay for the roof, not the radon mitigation system, and they would pay for half of our closing costs (originally they were paying all of those costs). The radon problem isn’t an urgent one – my understanding is that you only need to worry about this when you spend a lot of time in the basement. Since we aren’t refinishing the basement in the near-term, we can hold off on this. That worked for us!

While all of this was going on, Sarah moved in with us temporarily so she could start her job on the 9th. We had two weeks together – just the three roomies – before I would be leaving to start my new job on the 24th. During that time we looked at furniture and picked out paint samples. Sarah has a very specific vision for the house that Jord and I will try to abide by, although it doesn’t always coincide with our vision. Jord has been busy as the official contact with all the different people we need to line-up for work before we can move-in. There is a whole list of things that we want to do to the house: at the top of said list is painting, both interior and exterior, landscaping and refinishing floors. Not to mention replacing all the interior doors, replacing lighting and fixtures, buying new appliances and furniture, finishing the basement, etc. etc. Finding the people to do this work has been a challenge in and of itself. My mom made a nice list of contacts and phone numbers of people that she has worked with in the past and other referrals, so we’ve been working with that to get quotes. We will have a tight schedule to get everything done from closing day, September 7th, to move-in day, September 25th.

Intro

Jord and I were married October 8th, 2005. Yep, we’re going on 5 years! Hard to believe that we’re an old married couple and have spent five years in Chicago. We’ve had a lot of fun while living there, from numerous Cubs games, attending weddings of so many friends and family, traveling and, more recently, working on our Chicago List. We’ll certainly miss Chicago, but are excited about all the opportunities that lay ahead! I’m looking forward to getting involved in the community and pursuing my love of event planning.

I’m a graduate of Iowa State University, with a degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management. I joined Alpha Gamma Delta as a student at ISU, and met some of my very favorite gals at Rho Chapter, 2118 Sunset. I am currently on Rho House Association, and am so proud to still be involved with Alpha Gam.

I currently work at Deere as an administrative assistant. I spent four years working at Lincoln International as an executive assistant. Not exactly in my field of study, but it was a good experience and I certainly learned a lot about the professional world.

We’re moving back to our hometown of Davenport, IA to be closer to family. Luckily we have been renters, so nothing to worry about as far as selling a home. We went through the treacherous process of finding jobs, and were fortunate to both get job offers within the same week. Once that was checked off the list, we made an offer on 2132 Fairhaven. It isn’t exactly our dream home, but we loved the location and saw the potential in the house. This blog will chronicle all things related to our home and a new chapter in our lives.