I GOT A NEW JOB

We officially have a reason to live in Seattle now. And let me tell you, it feels totally grounding. 

So what happened: I actually interviewed at this place back in December. I went and the interview went great but the lead dev suddenly decided he wanted someone more technical and the recruiter said she wanted to keep my resume on file. Well she called!! They had a new PM position open and they reorganized so that the director of PMs (who really really liked me) is now the guy with the final say on hiring a PM rather than the lead dev. So I had a pretty good feeling that as long as I went in and didn't fall down drunk or anything I would get the job. And I did! They offered it to me on the spot and we talked terms and I start July 6th. One thing that Jeff and I knew was a risk of me getting an office job was taking a pay cut, but the benefits at this place definitely make up for it (and of course not having to pay our own taxes since I'll be a W2). I am so excited. The recruiter was talking about all the office activities they do and food all the time and I met the team I'm going to be on and I'M SO EXCITEDDDD. And from a career perspective I'm excited to learn how to do internal projects and finally get away from client projects.

Some really awesome interview questions to note:

- what are you reading? (I already knew that one from Ken, but it's the first time I've been asked it in an interview)
- Not a loaded question, but what kind of job would pull you out of here and go somewhere else?
- In one year, we're sitting in this same room, what would you be telling me you're proud of? (I thought this was a really awesome question because it made me think of some goals to have)

Rejection #2...followed very quickly by "we want this one instead!"

Ok so jeff and I have had some serious house identity crisis. If you recall, we started this adventure on the "2 bedroom condo that we can live in a few years and then when we have 1.5 kids we rent it and buy a bigger place." Then we started thinking about (and I quickly jumped on this bandwagon while Jeff was more hesitant) "how about a 1200 sqft 3 bedroom house that is a longer term live in but can still easily be rented out?" And so the identity crisis began. We have literally looked at everything for 800 sqft condo to a 2000 sqft 4 bedroom house - and every type of townhouse in between.

So we took a much needed break when Jeff went to Vegas and I went to San Fran and then we got back and pretty much instantly went of the family gathering so we've had a couple of slow weeks. But on Monday we were back in the saddle. We had a bunch lined up (again ranging across the entire spectrum) and we went looking. And we found two that we liked:

- the turn key Beacon Hill house - http://www.movoto.com/seattle-wa/4886-24th-ave-s-seattle-wa-98108-501_802941/ - completely redone, totally move in ready, with the potential that we could live there probably our whole lives if we wanted to. Only weird factor was that it's in Beacon Hill (good neighborhood just not what we had in mind) and we knew instantly that it would sell for way more than asking price and jeff was basically needing to breathe into a paper bag when he thought about the words "half a million dollars."

- the fixer-upper condo in West Seattle - http://nwhomes.seattletimes.com/homes/for-sale-3435-california-ave-sw-unit-304-seattle-wa-98116-nwclassifieds-nwhomes-798269-d - this would be going back to the original plan (and bonus - the building doesn't have a rental cap so easier to rent) PLUS it would give us an opportunity to dip our toe into the reno arena without using sledge hammers (hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, and the adventure of installing an IKEA kitchen).

So what happened was this: we did a pre-inspection on the Beacon Hill house, and put an offer in for a slightly lowball number (only in Seattle real estate is $501,000 a lowball number for a 3 bedroom house) and figured "hey if we get it then we got a really good deal and we'll see where the neighborhood takes us....and if we dont get it, we're doing anything we can to get that condo." And as of an hour ago, we're moved into the "we're doing anything we can to get that condo" phase. And to be completely honest, we are both really relieved. The Beacon Hill house would have been nice, but I dont think it really hit me at all until we put an offer on it that "lifetime house" meant lifetime. And we would have seriously rattled around that place for quite a few years, whereas the condo will be just right for us now and we can make big life long decisions after we have a kid so we're used to making big life long decisions :]

Family Gathering weekend

This weekend was a bit of a whirl. I'm calling it a Family Gathering bc Andrea, Jessica, and I decided that you can't call it a family vaca bc vaca implies relaxing. So anyway, it started Thursday when I went to a book signing. Mamrie Hart, Hannah Hart, and Grace Helbig are doing a #NoFilter tour right now to support Mamrie's book but the Seattle show was on Friday which I couldn't go to bc of the family gathering. However Mamrie was doing a book signing on Thursday. And bc Jeff knew I was really bummed out about missing Friday, he made it so I could go to the book signing and then he would drive all the way to Spokane during the night. So I went and met Mamrie Hart - who is a person I want to be friends with. I also met an amazing lady while standing in line for the signing and we bonded over the fact that 98% of the people standing in line weren't old enough to drink but were in line to meet someone who does comedy based on drinking.

So then we drove to Spokane to spend 12 hours doing meetings that I couldn't get out of and hanging out with Andrea before we hit the road yet again to drive to Pend Orielle Lake. We stayed at someone's super nice cabin complete with enough beds but no gate down to the dock - which is where the non-relaxing came in because no matter how many times the children were told to either stay off the dock or put their life vest on so they could go onto the dock, they didn't listen. But it was nice for everyone to get together and since we were only going to be there for a short time we kept everything very casual. On Saturday night we went to thai food in Sandpoint, and it was the tiniest hole in the wall place - so tiny that we used every table and every chair for the 14 of us. It was really funny - and amazing thai food. 

Then we drove home Sunday and didnt get in until 1 in the morning and I pulled the second shift

Our first rejection

We have faced it. The first rejection. On Sunday we saw a place we really liked and put an offer in on Monday. They were reviewing offers Tuesday night so we didn't hear until 10pm last night that we didn't get it. The people who got it waived the inspection and offered $50,000 above listing price. But Brian had prepared us for this to happen and so we weren't too devastated. But the process was stressful and lot's of "Oh boys" were said.

We're going out tomorrow to look at more options and Jeff is wanting to open our options to other neighborhoods than West SEattle so we've started looking at other places. So we'll see.

Back in the saddle!!

We're pre-approved to go into debt

It's official. Someone called an underwriter has decided we're grown up enough to give large quantities of money in order to buy a house. We're meeting with the guy tomorrow to talk actual numbers and all the ins and outs and whatnot.

Yesterday we spent a couple hours driving around West Seattle with the realtor and we learned many things

1. We're pretty sure we're over condos. Like to point that if we end up with a condo then it's going to be an amazing condo
2. So that leaves us with either a townhouse or a small house. And I'm yet to feel it for a townhouse. Now that houses are definitely on the table I'm really liking that idea. The other key factor is that townhouses are very close to each other. Even the end units - the other building is 6 feet away. We started asking if the townhouse was in a "Townhouse-ville" or not.
3. We are expanding our price range a little bit. The places we were looking at in our original price range were more in the "best house on the block" range and we're thinking we want more middle ground. West Seattle still hasn't been 'gentrified' in a lot of places so it definitely depends on what part of the block you're on.
4. We're thinking very seriously about the 3 bedroom idea (actually to be completely honest, I've stopped even registering 2 bed places). So what happened is yesterday morning a house that was 4 bed, 3 bath came out. And we really liked it from the pictures but agreed that it was way out of our thought process. So we asked if we could tack it on to the end and we went and looked at it. And after looking at it (for a lot longer than any of the other places we looked at), we realized that if it was seven years from now, we would be all over that house. But it got us really thinking about the idea of staying for 3-5 years rather than less than three years.

So it was a fruitful adventure in that it got us really thinking about things and possibilities.

Other news - I just got home from watching Pitch Perfect 2 and it was acca-amazing. I haven't laughed that hard at movie in a long time and we (the ladies I was with) decided that it might possibly be better than the first one, which is rare.

Buying a House!!

Jeff and I have officially begun the process of buying a house. We've been talking about it basically since we got here and started paying crazy rent. We figured that since we're in the financial position to do it, buying seemed more practical. And we realized we could live in it for 3 years or so and when we have 1.5 kids then move into a bigger place in the 'burbs for the kids and keep this place as a rental. So after doing some research on our own, we've settled on the West Seattle area. We like that it's close but still feels casual. Far enough away from the bustle but still good sushi. Jeff was originally against it because of the bridge, but we've now been back and forth enough to realize it's not that bad and if we were ever to need to cross it during rush hour then we'd probably be on the bus anyway.

So we chatted about it with Grandpa Ron when we were in CA for Britney's wedding (since he's a realtor and knows things). And he hooked us up. Called a few people in the Seattle area and pre-interviewed them for us and found us a really nice guy. So we met with him last Friday. And talked about what we're looking for and he actually suggested instead of looking for 2 bedroom condos we should look at 3 bedroom houses - which works out a lot of the time to the same space (1000-1200 sqft). And he said it was much easier to rent out a house rather than a condo which could have building restrictions. This got us thinking and we actually decided we really liked that idea. It would be a different experience for sure (yard work!) but it would mean that if we wanted to we could stay longer than 3 years. It wouldn't be a "we have to move now!" but rather "well the kids get to share until we decide we're ready" or a "Jeff's office is moved to the basement/another room."

So anyway, the realtor sent us a filtered MLS search and we spent 2 hours on Saturday going through different options. We flagged 4 of them as "love" and about 10 that are "like" and we're planning on going and looking at a bunch on Wed. This is my favorite so far. But we talked to the realtor a lot about the hotness of the Seattle market and the guarantee of doing a bidding war, so be prepared for a little frustration. And of course you never know until you go stand in a house if it'll be a good home for you, so we'll see if I like it on Wed.

The other ball that has to be rolling for this is money. We contacted a mortgage lender and filled out some crazy application that told our entire life story. Now we know the fact that we're self-employed puts some weird parameters on what we can do (for instance we had to wait until now to start because we needed two years of showing we owned the business and were working), but when outlining our situation to people, they've said we really shouldn't have a problem. The only wrench is Jeff's credit sucks from when he was sick and wasn't working for a year so we might not get as awesome of an interest rate as we would like, but we know we can always refinance down the road if we want.

The other crazy thing is the realtor told us that if our offer is accepted, the whole process takes about 30 days. So it's crazy fast because of the crazy need in the market. But we're excited to start this process. Jeff is sitting in a corner saying "Oh boy" Jackson style* but I keep reminding him of all the cool stuff we get to do with our own place - and we can always hire someone to do the yard work :]

*also I'm fully aware that Jeff will be exactly like this when we have kids as well, but I love him anyway

EMP Anniversary

Jeff and I have officially been married for two years (I know, such a big milestone) and we still love each other and haven't wanted to kill one another at least at the same time yet, so I would say we're doing pretty good. We went to the EMP and then to fancy sushi. The EMP has some serious nerd exhibits happening right now. The ones we saw:

• touring Star Wars costumes - super cool. Because I'm a huge nerd, I'd already seen about half the stuff they had but it was still cool. The fabrics and beadwork on all of Padme's outfits are amazing. My favorite was her wedding dress. The beadwork was crazy and the lace was super intricate. The other crazy thing was the amount of people who worked on just her costumes alone was insane - something like 80 people. The other thing that the quotes on the walls and videos kept talking about was how bc of all the green screen that was used in Episode 1,2,3 (which is basically the entire movies) the costumes were really the only thing the actors had to connect with the story so they became really important for them.
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• Infinite Worlds of Sci-Fi - so Paul Allen clearly has way too much money, even after helping Bill Gates save the world. This entire exhibit is literally sci-fi show memorabilia that he has collected over the years. An entire exhibit! But Jeff and I decided that if we had that much money that's probably what we would do with it too.
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• Indie Games - so this was a whole exhibit about Indie video games and how the process of building an indie game rather than big money game is completely different. But the cool thing was there was 20 stations throughout the exhibit where you could play a game. Jeff and I found a few that we like: The Floor is Jelly (this one Jeff really liked and I wanted to throw it), Lumino City (I really liked this one), and Quadrilateral Cowboy (which according to the site is still in production yet we were playing it...)

Then we killed 40 minutes waiting for our reservation by going ot the same bar we went to last year when we went to Shiro's for anniversary sushi (last year was when we came to Seattle for Nickel Creek and stayed in the really nice hotel) - except it wasn't the same bar. It has a new name but other than that we couldn't tell any difference. But anyway, I ordered a "Green Tea Fizz" which is basically this. It was amazing and Jeff was appalled that I would drink a cocktail with a raw egg white in it, but it didnt taste weird - just added a nice creamy-ness to it.

And then we topped it off by stuffing our faces with Shiro's sushi. Always delicious. While we were talking we discussed all the things owning a house would let us do (more on that in the next post) like painting and running wires through walls rather than around them (although we decided that might be a project we tackle later). 

A great low key anniversary.