It's Official - We're Moving!!!

For the last couple of months I've been looking for houses to rent closer to work for me.  We knew our lease at our current place was up at the end of September and we weren't sure if we could find a house closer to the college.  Needless to say, any of the houses listed with the rental companies around this area were insanely priced.  Let's just say - 1600 a month for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house (not owning it) was too much for us to pay in this market!

So I got frustrated and then I got gutsy (that's usually how it works).  I found a great house for sale by owner about a half mile from the college campus.  It is HUGE and I thought, no way.  But it was priced under market value and the owners had been trying to sell it themselves for a couple of months.  So I fired off an email letting them know we'd be interested in renting or at least talking about if they would consider it.  I mentioned in the email that I worked at the college and we're originally from Iowa - not sure how long we'll be here - hence the reason we're still motivated to rent.

About a week later I get a call on my office phone from the owner.  They had looked me up at the college to see if I was legit.  They said not interested in renting at this time - I said, if you change your mind, let us know.  They changed their minds about 4 weeks later!!!  We think it didn't sell because it's much too large of a house for an older couple to take care of and the inside needs cosmetic updates that might be too expensive for a younger couple.  That's where we come in.  We rent - so all major things fall to the owner, but they are going to let us change ANYTHING we want about the inside of the house.  Our first priority is to fence off the yard for Bentley and replace the carpet in the living room.  The carpet that is down now is very nice, but it's a hideous shade of red/maroon that HAS TO GO!  Then we'll go from room to room and paint and update as we save.  We're just so excited that it's big enough for our needs for the next couple of  years (Okay, lets be honest - at least the next 10 years) and that we're able to make any changes we want to make it feel like a home.

Here's the run down of what the house has:
5 bedrooms, 1 full bath, 2 half baths, 2 1/2 stall detached garage, a full cellar basement and full walk-up unfinished attic. Other rooms in the house include the living room, dining room, mud/laundry room, sun room/office, kitchen and screened in porch. The lot is a half acre and looks like our very own park (see pictures below).

We're putting fencing up and putting new flooring down on labor day weekend  - will start to move in on September 15th and need to be out of our current place by October 1st.  There will be a massive garage sale in our development on September 18th. So if anyone is in need of clothes and/or furnishings, let me know.  We'll be doing pre-sales in advance like I did before.  Right now I have size 18-28's available.  A lot more 18-22's this time! Everything MUST go - I refuse to move it to the new house!