Commitment

Chris and I are about to make a huge commitment.  And no, I’m not talking about getting married.  I’ve been holding off on writing about it because I wanted to wait until after we’d made a decision and were fairly certain about the outcome, but today at 3:30pm, we have an appointment to go over the contract and put down the earnest money on our new home!

I’m so excited and nervous that I can barely contain myself.  Chris and I knew that we wanted to buy eventually, but we honestly weren’t planning to do it this soon.  However, right after we signed another year on our lease to our apartment townhome last October,  our property was bought by a new management company.  Chris lived in one of their apartments just before moving in with me, and he was never really happy with them.  We started keeping an eye on the new property management website, and lo and behold, they’ve raised the price on our townhome about $400/mo (it’s already increased $200 since I first moved in).  So, come October, we would be in for a hefty rent hike if we signed another lease.  Honestly, I wouldn’t mind paying the extra rent (which would still be significantly lower than our mortgage) if I felt the property were worth it, but there is nothing fancy about our place.  It’s a decent size and it has a garage, but the interior is pretty cheap and outdated.  The appliances are ugly, everything is contractor grade (the carpet is disgusting), and I’ve had to call maintenance due to applicances breaking more often in this apartment than in all of my other apartments combined.

So, we started house hunting.  We’ve looked at both resales and new construction, and we went to plenty of open houses.  Because our lease doesn’t end until October, though, it made the most sense to seriously consider new construction, and after searching through and visiting several properties, we found one we fell in love with.  It was one of those moments where we literally gasped as we walked through every room of the model home, and the area is perfect for us — National Harbor, MD.  If you’re not from the area, you’re probably not familiar with National Harbor, but it’s a 300 acre waterfront development on the Potomac River.  Chris and I actually spend a lot of time there in the summers.  It’s almost like a resort with exclusive shopping, restaurants and bars, and public piers.  They have community events all year long, like a summer concert series, ice skating in the winter, morning yoga on the docks, and fireworks shot from water every Saturday night.  You remember me telling you that the moment I fell in love with Chris was sitting on a rock on the bank of the Potomac watching fireworks being shot from a boat?  Yeah, that was at National Harbor, and all of this will soon be viewable from our rooftop terrace and just a few blocks away from our front door.

We did have one little hiccup with the timing of the lending.  Chris is prior service and eligible for a VA loan, so of course, that’s the route we want to take.  Unfortunately, we can’t apply for a VA loan together until two weeks before we’re married, which isn’t happening until November 29th.  That scenario puts us closing and moving in December, in between getting back from our honeymoon and Christmas.  Plus, we would have to extend our current lease on a month by month basis paying full market rate, and I don’t even want to know how much that would be.  But we got some good news yesterday afternoon!  Chris was actually pre-approved for the VA loan on his own!  We’ll both be on the title of the house, but the loan will be solely in Chris’s name.  I’ll be added to the mortgage after we get married in November.

Of course, all of this is assuming everything goes exactly as planned at our meeting this afternoon.  Although they have already started building, they don’t have much more than the foundation at this point, so we should still be able to make all of the customizations that we want.  The builder should be paying $15k of the closing costs (which is nearly all of it), and they should only require 5k earnest money since we’re financing VA (as opposed to 15k financing conventional).  Keep your fingers crossed for me that it goes smoothly, cause I do have my hopes up.  I’d hate to have them dashed this late in the game!

Anywho, we’re looking at a 2500 sq ft townhouse condo, four floors, 3 bedroom, 3 full bath, 2 half bath, rec room, loft with wet bar and rooftop terrace, two car garage.  And I know what you all really want.  The goods!  Or at least some pictures of the goods.

This is pretty much the entirety of National Harbor. See that space between the patch of trees and the wooded area to the right of it?  That’s where the new housing development is.

And at night.

The townhomes! The larger, 3000 sq. ft. units are on the ends of each building.  We’ll be in one of the four middle units, each 2500 sq. ft.

First Floor.

Second (main) floor.

Third Floor.

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pg” alt=”Fourth Floor” />
Fourth (loft) floor.

This is the kitchen of the bigger model, but the options are similar to what we will choose.  These are the standard appliances, but we like the color of these cabinets and floors, the back splash, and the granite counters.

Better view of the back splash and cabinets.

Dining/Living Rooms of the model of our actual unit.

Living room of our model.  This one shows the media center built ins options.

This is the living room of the larger model, but we’re choosing this built in option — fireplace with shelves on each side.

Master bedroom in larger model, but I can’t find a picture of the one we’re actually buying.

Again, this is from the larger model, but I couldn’t find a photo of our unit.  We would choose similar options — granite counters, espresso cabinets, upgraded tile.  The shower is almost identical to this one, but the tub is a huge corner tub.

And now we’re getting to my favorite part, the loft!  Those doors lead to the rooftop terrace.  And yes, that’s a fireplace that opens up to the outside, as well!

And the wet bar!  Such a great entertaining space.  I hate that the perspective is all screwy on these photos because it’s making the space look smaller than it actually is.

And the selling point for me?  This terrace with this view.  Chris and I will be able to sit out on this terrace on Saturday evenings and watch the fireworks that we fell in love under last summer.

  And here are just some random photos of the Harbor.

Well, I’m about to head out to meet Chris for our appointment.  Wish us luck that all goes as planned!

Cheers!
Felina