Introducing our new house

Here is the report on our successful house hunt last weekend.

We looked at 14 houses on Thurs. and Fri. Most were not that special and had some features we didn't like. A few were really nice. ONE really stood out.

We went back to see it again on Saturday, and decided to make an offer on it. We were told there was another interested buyer, so we got our offer in right away. We had to wait for 24 hours for an answer. Sunday was a long day, we took a ride up into the Jemez Mountains past Los Alamos, NM, and the higher we got the harder it snowed until we were in a whiteout and had to turn around and go back down the mountain because we couldn't see any of the scenery anyway. All day waiting for the cell phone to ring….

Sunday night we got a counter offer from the sellers, and then we counter-offered, and they accepted it. We were really so stunned I don't think it has sunk in yet.

The house is on a 1.73 acre lot, and is 2071 square feet. Not huge, but just the size we were looking for. The sellers had it priced to sell, and took an even lower offer so we got a very sweet deal. It had only been on the market for 8 days.

The house is situated on one of the higher lots in Eldorado, so there are incredible views - the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the north, the Jemez Mountains to the west, and the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque to the south.

The house is gorgeous. It was built 14 years ago by a builder that we are familiar with who is now building million dollar homes. The house looks brand new. It has all the features we wanted - vigas in every single room of the house, including the bathrooms and the laundry room. Most of the house is tiled with Mexican Saltillo tile. There are two fireplaces, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. All the bathrooms have colorful Mexican talavera tile, even the bowls of the sink in the bathroom. The entire house has radiant heat under the floor. Makes it really warm to walk on. There are arches and touches of decorative tile in various places. The living room is mostly all windows and has a high 15 foot ceiling. There is a spectacular view outside of every window. The kitchen is great - big enough, large pantry, new stainless steel appliances, tiled counter, a nice sized island, lots of counter space. Outside, there is an enclosed walled courtyard across the entire front of the house, and a long covered brick portal the length of the courtyard. There is also a large enclosed yard in the back, so Starman and Sugar will have a nice place to play.

The house was just stuccoed last year, so the exterior looks brand new. There are some trees and other landscaping in both of the courtyards, and the rest of the lot outside the courtyard is covered in juniper trees and cactus and there is privacy from traffic on the street.

The ONLY negative is a very small dining room, but we don't have huge crowds of people to eat at our house, so we can live with it.

This is the part that has me believing that God picked this house for us: It went on sale just a week before we arrived last Thursday, so hardly no one else had seen it and were ready to make an offer on it. The builder is a man we are familiar with and have talked to about building us a house, so we have researched his work thoroughly in the past. And the best part is that it is six doors down from the property we already own.

It seems like we were given the opportunity to own this house after being so disappointed that we could not build a house on our lot. This turns out to be a better deal, because this house is just loaded with features that we could never have afforded.

We are very relieved and excited, and I still don't think this has sunk in yet. It's been such a long process it is hard to believe we finally made it to a decision.

The home inspection will be next week, the closing on April 11, and we can move anytime after May 1.

WOO HOO!!! Like I said, this has just not sunk in yet.