Buying a home???

Okay so the most random, exciting, and scary thing happened to Jason and me this past weekend. For the last 1 1/2 to 2 years, Jason and I have been talking about buying a home. We actually tried to apply for a loan several years ago, but were denied as we were told that Jason's income counted as zero as he was a graduate student at the time and could not prove that the money he was receiving for school would be permanent. So, we put the home buying process on hold and focused on planning for and welcoming Brianna into our family. Every once in a blue moon, Jason will look at several real estate websites to see if there is anything on the market that we could afford. We would like to live closer to Jason's work as right now, Jason has an one hour commute and as of next month will also be adding child care to his honey-do list as we are planning on using his work's child care facility. The problem with moving closer to his job, is that it pulls me away from my job as it would be a horrible commute....or so we thought. Well, last Saturday, Jason pulled up a website and showed me this home that has been on the market for several months but whose price was recently reduced. The price put this home right in the middle of our budget. It looked nice on the computer and was in a nice location. Oddly enough, the realtor was hosting an open house on Sunday afternoon. Before we got too worked up about the house, I reminded Jason about the commute and how much I really don't want to leave my current job. On a whim, I typed in the address of the home with the address of my office and it turns out that the commute is long but doable (about a 50 minute commute, which is what Jason does now). The commute route would not have me going through Hartford like we originally thought. So with that worry off the table, Jason and I loaded Brianna into the car and went to the open house.

We loved the home and are seriously considering putting an offer on the home. It's not a perfect home and does have some things that I would like to upgrade in the next 5 years or so, but it's a huge home, with a great yard, hot tub, close to great schools, in our price range, and only a handful of minutes away from the ocean (which we have both badly missed since leaving California - not the same as California beaches, but still the ocean nonetheless). Several other families were touring the home during the open house, so of course I'm anxious to see if any of them put in an offer. We talked to our realtor last night and it doesn't appear as if the seller's realtor has had any serious offers. We meet with our realtor on Saturday to talk about placing an offer on the home and to go through the paperwork side of home buying. Part of me feels crazy for doing this as this is the only home we've seen on the inside. We've looked at a ton of homes online and even did a driving tour of 5 or so homes about a month ago and cut them all for one reason or another. Usually, Jason and I are both so meticulous and reserved when it comes to big purchases, so this feels like a completely impulsive move, even though it's really not. I kept having to tell myself that we've been talking about and saving for this moment for the last 6 years of our marriage. We always knew that we didn't want to buy a starter home, but instead wanted to buy a home that would allow us enough space to grow as a family. And this house would do just that. So I talked to my parents and got the green light from them as long as the house passes inspection and as long as we are sure that we can afford the home. They are really excited for us and think the home is a good fit for us. I also talked to my best friend, Kirsten, who validated my feelings of impulsiveness and craziness as apparently I will have to sign away my life when we do sign the paperwork. I still find it amazing that we need to sign a million pages of paperwork to buy a house but one piece of paper to have a child (and that's just if we wanted a birth certificate)! For all my friends and family who are home owners, if you have any suggestions or tips on the home buying process, please pass them our way. I'll keep everyone updated on this process, fingers crossed we'll be home owners in no time!!