More date nights

Just a quick post since we have been so busy unpacking in our new house!
I cannot take credit for finding this cute and fun website: ICTOAD.  A friend on Facebook made a post about it, and it stands for I Can't Think Of A Date. You go to the website and pick a category for the type of date.  You can also pick the price and duration.  It isn't specific to a certain area of the country or zip code either.  SUCH a great resource for thinking of fun things to do with your significant other!!  

Frazier and I on a date a few months ago at the Capital Hotel in Downtown Little Rock.

Share your fun date nights or date ideas with Arkansas Bride at Info@ArkansasBride.com or comment below!

Moved In

Whew!  Moved into the new house, thankfully!  I couldn't have done it without the help of our whole family. Big thanks to Frazier's sister Stephanie and her husband Sam though.  They definitely helped with the moving part and unpacking.  Obviously, my parents deserve much credit too.  I'm extremely blessed to have such a great family to help in this transition.  

Beau taking a nap...the move wore him out.  :)

We still have a lot of work to do, but it's fun work.  It is nice to have your own place to take pride in and spend money on!  I'll be better about blogging too.  These past few weeks have been crazy!!

SOLD!

Well, exciting news everyone....Frazier and I closed on our new home today!  We are officially homeowners and are moving in this weekend!  I feel like the whole process took a while, but honestly, we moved through pretty quickly.  Remember when I posted a month or two ago about placing an offer on a house but the inspection showed some costly repairs?  If not, then click here: Searching for the Nest.
Yeah, so that house didn't work out.  Some major items in the house need replacing along with a few repairs, and the costs were starting to climb.  We didn't expect the seller to pay for it all, but they weren't even willing to meet us halfway.

Obviously, that was not the best choice, and we chose to walk away.  Fortunately by that point, I think we were ready to move on since we had spent a few days going back and forth.  I knew to not get attached to a house, and I tried to think of it purely as a business deal.  I also did not stop looking for houses so when we walked away from that house, I already had about 5-7 other houses I wanted to go visit.  Frazier and I viewed a few more, and then found one house in West Little Rock that seemed to stick in our minds.  It was newer (about eleven years old), didn't need a ton of work, and in a good location/neighborhood.  We talked back and forth about it, and after a few intense discussions, decided to place an offer.  After the seller countered, we managed to meet in the middle!

However, once again, we weren't celebrating since we had the dreaded inspection coming up.  The inspection showed some repairs might be in order but not near to the degree that our previous house needed.  The seller also surprised us and quickly agreed to fix the issues.  After choosing a title company and signing away our souls (well at least it felt like it!) in paperwork, the house is now ours!!

I am by no means a home buying expert, but I'll just share a few thoughts that might be of some help to any first time home buyer.

• Get pre-approved.  That will eliminate a lot of "what-ifs" and stress.  It will also help you know your price range to start looking.
• Crunch the numbers.  Just because you get pre-approved for a $300,000 loan doesn't mean you should go buy a house for that amount.  We tried to be as conservative as possible so that we could still save plenty and have some disposable income.  
• Talk to your lender about your loan options and rates.  If they seem unhelpful, annoyed, or pushy, they probably aren't the best lender for you.  This is what they get paid to do so you are not inconveniencing them.  
• Ask for advice from people you trust and are financially sound.  I definitely asked my parents' opinion since they have bought four houses and sold three.  
• Don't get attached to the house until everything is completely checked out.  For some people that may be a bit more difficult, but trust me, it will help you tremendously in the long run.  Just remember that it's an investment for you and your spouse.  
• Use the inspection report as a bargaining chip to get important items repaired or prices lowered.  

Now it's on to packing up some more, getting ready to move, and celebrating a new address to call home!

Thanking

I think I may be done.  Hallelujah!  I'm not talking about a 500 page thesis or month long work project.  I'm talking about thank you notes for all my wedding gifts.  That's right.  I got married in April, and it's August.    I have no idea why it was so hard and difficult for me to finish them.  I never dreaded thank you notes like some people do.  If someone has taken the time and used their own money to purchase me a gift, the LEAST they deserve is a heartfelt thank you.
I was moving quickly through my list, taking time for each one to be sincere.  But once I was a month away from April 9th, it started getting a little hectic.  Thank you notes were replaced by parties, showers, and planning.  Once I returned from Mexico, the pile had substantially grown.  I started on the long list again, but the numbers slowly started to dwindle.  Then I ran into a problem when I lost a part of my list.
However, I eventually found it and found the time to finish.  Yet, if you are reading this, and you didn't receive a thank you note, just know that I either a.) didn't manage to write your gift down, b.) you didn't attach a card to your gift, or c.) the note got lost in the mail!

• Some tips for writing thank you notes to any bride would be to keep your list in the same notebook.  Don't take one notebook to a shower and then take piece of paper to the next party.  I ended up misplacing a few pages that way.  
• Another tip would be to keep the list right by the front door.  Once gifts start arriving, it's easy to quickly write them down.  
• Try to write at least five notes a night.  I tried to only write when I knew I would have several hours available.  However, if I would have just done a few whenever I had a brief moment, I could have covered a lot more ground.  
• Write meaningful notes no matter how many more you have to go!  Seriously, even if someone bought you a $5 candle, they still made the effort to give a gift.  

The gifts were fun to receive, but I am definitely glad that the thank you notes are wrapped up!