The house itself is great - 3 levels, 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, one car garage, a huge storage room under the garage, rec room that opens to the back yard, and a deck off the main level. Its 2060 sq feet. I'm not sure if that sq footage includes the storage room or not. It backs up to some protected wetlands, so there won't ever be another house behind ours. The regime covers all lawncare and outside issues. There is also a really nice pool in the neighborhood. Our townhouse is towards the back portion of the neighborhood, so there is next to no traffic.
Ranger will certainly enjoy running around behind the house and in the woods playing airsoft with his friends. Though I seriously doubt Miss Priss will be doing much stomping around in the woods. Too much dirt and too many bugs out there for her! Priss has already decided that her favorite part is the window seat in her room. I think Ranger's favorite part will be that his room is on the bottom level off of the rec room. My favorite part is that the kitchen has a lot of cabinet/counter space and the rooms all have HUGE closests. Well, that and the fact that I got it for a really really great price! And yes, Priss is getting the Master bedroom but only because she currently occupies two rooms (her bedroom and the playroom) and in the new house she will have all of her stuff in her bedroom.
For now the kids will stay at their current school. However, the neighborhood is in a great school tier (minus the middle school). The schools for our neighborhood are Devon Forest Elementary, Westview Middle, and Stratford High.
Let the moving begin :)
The mortgage broker I used was CommonPoint Financial. Sonya Pitt did a great job and helped make the process of securing the loan relatively painless. There is a program in SC for first-time buyers that are single parents. This Single Parent First Time Buyers Program is sponsored by the South Carolina Housing Finance and Development Authority and is pretty awesome. I qualified for a decent interest rate and also get some grant money towards the downpayment. Half of the money is forgiveable after 5 years in the house and the other half has to be repaid. However, the repayment is at 4% and its interest free for the first 3 years. So, as long as I pay that off in 3 years it was basically free money for me to use for 3 years :)
Jeannene Ondrasek of Carolina One is my realtor. She's been great. I've had her meet me back at the house numerous times since the contract was accepted to look at it, take measurements, show my family, etc. She certainly has gone above and beyond the call of duty.
It is a bit daunting signing on the dotted line for a home mortgage. When I looked at the line that details the actual amount of payout if you make your one scheduled monthly payment I almost fainted. Yeah, I'm hoping to make extra payments and knock some years off this loan.
