We Bought a House!!!

Well, we bought a house! A townhouse that is. This happened rather fast. Back in December 2016, we decided that with my husband's non traditional work hours, our little rental was not working out anymore. Even with the cheap rent, we still can't sacrifice our sleep for it. I called my up old agent and soon after the new year we were house shopping every weekend.

Our requirements:
It must have an attached garage- I use to bring my daughter to my mother in law to babysit, and it's hard carrying my purse, my lunch bag and a child to the car while fumbling with the keys. And that's just one kid. It would be a struggle every morning to bring an infant and a toddler to the car. Plus, it just makes shopping easier and less likely to have our car broken into if it's safely parked in a garage steps from our house.
2 bed 2 baths-2 bathrooms is essential :)
Private patio- for the kids to safely play outside 
Low HOA fees- I think HOA fees are stupid. You get so little for your buck.
A nice kitchen- we love to cook.
Laundry Hookups- we've been doing our laundry at my mother in laws. It's such a hassle.
Guest parking- We want our friends to come and visit. They can't come if they can't find a place to park their car. There were a few places that we had to illegally park just to see the place. Needless to say, we didn't make an offer on those townhouses.

What we bought:
A 1200 sqft 3 bed 1.5 baths 2 story townhouse in a quiet complex. It has a private patio with direct access to the garage. With a HOA fee of $214 a month, it was the lowest we've seen.  The house has not been updated and the listing price reflected that. We made an offer $9k over the asking price, I believe it's still a good deal considering it was appraised at $10k more than what we paid for and that's before the renovations. There is a laundry area next to the kitchen which leads to a half bath.

Renovations:
Kitchen: we had the kitchen repainted. The cabinets were old and falling off, I can't fathom putting anything in there until it's covered in several coats of paint. We over paid on this though, I should have negotiated but I was naive :(. This will not happen again.
Repainting the cabinets: $1500
Flooring: Luckily, my brother in law and his friends do flooring as a side hustle and was able to give us a good deal. We decided to get rid of the old and gross carpet and put in laminated wood.
Labor: $1000 ( we might pay more for their good work)
Material: $1800 (nice hookups)
Recess lighting: Please don't be naive like me. When you're shopping for a house, take picture or videos of the house and review it after you get home. Mostly likely you'll be seeing so many houses in one day, you can't remember all of it. Most people only spent 5 mins seeing a house and then make a decision that's worth a few 100ks. I spend more time trying to decided which yogurt I want to buy at the supermarket. I did not know that this house doesn't have ceiling lights. I wasn't paying attention since we were viewing houses during the day. And let me tell you, putting in ceiling lights is not cheap since they have to do wiring. We put in a total of 10 LED recess lights down stairs and 1 regular ceiling light (I'm not sure if that's the correct term) in each of the bedrooms upstairs. With some hookups, the total cost was: $1300.
Electric oven/stove: Another thing I did not pay attention to was the oven. It's electric and I prefer gas. Gas cooks a lot better. ANDDD the stove is located on an island. I hate that. The oven they had was extremely old and we have to replace it. Electric oven $634.
Windows: This has not been done, being part of an HOA, such exterior renovations requires approval.  We have a total of 5 large windows and the estimated cost to replace is $2000-$2500.
Bathroom upstairs: The layout of this restroom is rather odd. It has two entrances, one through the hall and another through the master bedroom. We decided to close it off from the master bedroom. It has two large sinks, a shower and a tub. We paid my dad $1000 to close off the entrance from the masters and $550 for one of the counter top and cabinet. 
Total:$1500

There are probably more items that my husband bought along that way that didn't get recorded. There is  still a lot we need to do. Things like, getting a vanity mirror for the bathroom upstairs, curtains or blinds for the two of the bedrooms, clean out the patio and organize the garage. Our master reach in closet still needs doors, and what would be my daughter's room has an half finished closet system. The coat closet a door, maybe some shelves and also the stuff in it needs to be organized. 

Owning a house is not fun, but looking at renting a place like ours would easily be over $2000. If we sign a lease for a year, that's $24000, which is a nice chunk in down payment. We're the kind of people who believe paying this much on rent is throwing away money. But to be honest, this isn't our forever home.The kitchen is far too small and when the AC is running, it's extremely loud. The walls are thin and I don't believe it's very well insulated. The upstairs is always a few degrees hotter than downstairs. We now think of this home as more of an investment. We'll do little upgrades when time and money allows. My hope is to have this home as rental, But realistically, we'll most likely need the profit of this house to put down on our next house, a single family home. It's my husband ultimate dream to own a single family home, I can't deny the appeal of it neither. I've grew up in a single family home and really prefers the convenience of having a yard and not having to keep my voice down. Plus, I can finally have a garden like I've always wanted and maybe even have a dog again. 

Stop Trying to Impress People- Rant

I find that the less I worry about what other people think, the happier I am. That isn't to say that  I give up on how I look, or dress. But I have stopping buying thing just so other people would be impress when they see it. I'm writing about this is because I'm a bit irk about a family member and his lack of money management. My paternal side of the family doesn't talk about money like my maternal side does. I wouldn't have known about this if I wasn't somewhat involved. I don't want to go into details of course, but I do want to discuss how a combination of bad money habits get him in to this position.

I must disclose, I don't know everything. This is more of a general rant. Said person started making  a little bit of money, and next thing you know, he's pulling up in a shinny Mercedes. Seriously? In that moment, I just knew, he bought this car to impress people. He's driving it so other people see him as a BOSS, a success. This car is probably on a payment plan that's too high for someone of his income. And how do I know that this person isn't managing his money well? Well, he's in a bind, and is having trouble making certain payments on time.

I'm not against having nice things IF you can afford it. Why do you want to impress people when they're not the one putting food on your table, the clothes on your back, or take care of you when you're sick? Why do other people impression of you matter so much when they're not helping you better yourself or career? Those who truly care about you don't care about your material possessions. If someone only wants to invite you to a party because you drive a fancy car or wear designer stuff, then they're not your true friends. In fact, they can be toxic to your bank account, because to be in their circle you continuously need to have the newest and the greatest.

This person would have been in a better position if he would choose an affordable $20k car  he can pay with cash over a $50k car that he must put on a payment plan.  I bet his one car cost as must as two of my cars combine.

This person has a family and the kids are of working age, it seems like the kids don't have any monetary responsibilities to the household.  I get it, being a parent you want to provide for your kids, but they need to learn about money  and contribute when they can. It serves the kids to know how much things cost and teach them to manage their income.

I honestly believe he doesn't understand the concept of emergency funds. I think once he sees money coming in, the stream of cash will never stop. I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time he's gotten himself in a bind.  You think after a time or two you learn that money doesn't grow on trees. We share the same background, came from a third world country with nothing. I only wish he knew how much he has and doesn't need to impress others by buying more. Happiness is found from within. Like Oprah says, be happy with what you have and you'll always have more.

Family Planner and More Goals for 2017

I'm adamant about getting our finances in order this year. I even bought a personal planner to plan my life out. Made a family planner to keep track of everything. Today, I'll focus on the family planner. This planner only contain a few page as I'm still trying to figure out what works for me. This is just simple 1/2 in binder I got for $2.59 at Target. I printed the dividers with the cardstock papers I already have. It's not super decorated as I am artistically challenged. 

One of the most important page I think is our GOALS for 2017 page. Looking at this page really helps to curb the urges to buy things. If something isn't helping me reach these goals it's not worth buying. This isn't complete but it's what I have so far. I included the long terms goals here to make sure I keep focus. Some of these goals seems pretty ambitious, but not unattainable. Even if I don't succeed in all my short terms goals, but if I keep working towards it, I'm still better off than I was yesterday.  This isn't all or nothing. If we're not able to buy a house this year. It's fine, it only gives us more time to save money. Not like because we didn't buy a house this year, we're going to squander all of our savings. To me, goals are a destination that keeps you moving forward.

Behind my goals page is this spending log. I'm writing down everything we spend on this month, and hopefully every month. It would be interesting to see where we spend our money.

Under the HOME category I have a few house hunting evaluations. I got this from

scatteredsquirrel.com. We have not seen any houses yet, hopefully soon. I'll be sure the bring this along with me.

 I also have this BABY section. There is nothing set up yet. But there are a few things we need to do before the baby's arrival. The baby shower planning will go here. We also need to create a list of things we need buy for example a co-sleeper or a bed side sleeper. It's still too soon to set up a hospital bag, but that list will go here as well.  With two kids, I'm sure this will get fill up fast.