moving

2016: A Year of Wonderful Milestones

/ azlotnik / 1 Comment

2016 has been an amazing year for my family and me so far. I can’t believe how lucky we all are and how many good things we have had happened to us. Things keep getting better and better. There are a lot of changes going on, but they are all positive ones.

i-can-t-keep-calm-i-m-going-to-be-an-aunt-2Earlier this year, we found out that my brother and sister-in-law are expecting! I am going to be an aunt to a sweet baby girl! Plus, the baby is due on my birthday in September. Imagine that! At least we’ll share the same birth month if not the day. I’m very excited about what this means for my family. My parents are overjoyed to be grandparents and we’re deep into planning a baby shower for her this summer. But that’s not all….

As you may have read in my last post, we found our dream home! I won’t go into that in detail, but you can read all about it here. We plan to move into the house in a few weeks. First, we need to put carpet in. We’re so happy that we found a wonderful place to live and plan to stay there for many years.  It sure is a great looking house on the inside and out! It feels strange to be a homeowner but also very good. We’re really grown-ups now!

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Two days after they accepted the offer on our house, we were given a huge opportunity. To give you some background information, my husband and I applied for a trip called Honeymoon Israel (HMI) at the end of last year. Honeymoon Israel is a guided trip to Israel with 19 other couples, all from the same city, mainly geared at interfaith couples. We really wanted to go, and went through the interview process. There were two trips going to Israel from Atlanta through HMI this year and we really wanted to get on the May trip. We didn’t get picked to go on either trip, but we were put on the waiting list. We thought that we would never get to go this year. But, lucky us, a couple cancelled and they offered us the spot! When we first got the email that we could go on the trip, I was very doubtful. I mean, we just went under contract on a house. But, my husband assured me that it would be OK and that we couldn’t pass up this trip of a lifetime. We got the deposit paid and registered to go. Honeymoon Israel was an amazing experience and I’ll blog about it soon. But, it was awfully strange and crazy to go on a trip like this the day after we closed on our house. You can find more about Honeymoon Israel by clicking here.

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honeymoon-israel

If you think it couldn’t get any better, we have more great news for my family. My dad, who lives in Texas, had planned on retiring from his job in March of 2017. He was there with my mom temporarily for a job transfer. Well, his company decided to do a voluntary layoff. That means he’ll be able to work until November of this year and then get “laid off” with severance pay for a while.  My dad was very glad to be giving this opportunity, especially with the baby coming. So, at the end of November, my parents will move back to Georgia for good.

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Well, 2016 has been a fantastic year, and we’re only halfway through it. I can’t wait to see what else this year brings for us and for many more great years to come. May they keep getting better and better!

Buying our Dream Home

/ azlotnik / 2 Comments

 

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The summer before we got married, my husband and I moved into my parent’s house while my parents were living in Texas temporarily for my dad’s job. It put us in a nice situation to save money and we didn’t have a huge rent bill each month like we did in our old apartment. Now, my parents are coming back in November, a bit earlier than planned, so we started the process of looking into buying a home of our own. We already knew of a realtor, our rabbi’s wife, and we got recommendations for lenders. We got pre-qualified and began looking at houses.

We had wanted to live in the East Cobb area of Marietta, Georgia, but we quickly found that with our budget, we could only afford a ranch style house and not a big home like we had dreamed of. We then decided to look in the Kennesaw area. We looked at three houses and didn’t really like any of them. We decided we were going to stop looking and save up money for a few more months. Then, oh a whim, we decided to look at a house in Kennesaw a few days later that had really great curb appeal. It was kind of on the top of our budget, but it looked promising. We saw the house and slowly began to fall in love with it. It had a great kitchen, a semi-open floor plan, a decent-sized living room, plenty of room upstairs, a sunroom, a wrap around porch, a nice master bath and a fenced in yard.

I was a bit nervous to make an offer because I didn’t think we were ready for that yet. After all, we had just started looking and still had plenty of time before my parents moved back. But, we decided to put in an offer on this wonderful house. Our realtor called the listing agent and there were already multiple offers on the house, so we had to move quickly. We went back to our realtor’s office and filled out the paperwork. My realtor thought it would be a good idea to write a letter to the seller about how much we liked the house. We sent off the paperwork and waited.

At about ten o’clock the next morning, I got a call from our realtor saying she had good news- they had accepted our offer! The selling agent told our realtor that they had higher offers than ours, but they decided to go with us because they thought we were the perfect people for their house thanks to that letter. We were overjoyed!

Next came the contracts, the inspection, the paperwork from our lender, negotiation, the appraisal, etc. I would have to say that the amount of time it takes daily for correspondence when you have a house under contract is way more than you would think. Usually the paperwork or document needed is urgent, so it can be very stressful.

Everything came together and we had all our ducks in a row for our closing. It actually was a very smooth process and everything got done on time. We wired our money to the closing attorney for the closing, had the final walk-through, and before we knew it, closing day came. Closing took about an hour and a half and was surprisingly an enjoyable process. The sellers were really nice people, so that made it that much easier. It was a little daunting to see on the papers that we would be paying off our loan until 2046! Can you imagine? We’ll be paying off our 30 year mortgage until we’re in our 60’s- that is if we’re still living in the same house then. We plan to stay in the new house for at least 10 to 15 years. It’s big enough for us to raise a family there and is in a good school district.

We got done with the closing and were officially home owners! It was so nice to receive housewarming gifts from family and our realtor. We brought our parents over to our new house and showed them around. We also took pictures in front of the house and posted them on social media. It was so great to finally get to tell people that we bought a house!

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When we got to our new house, we discovered that the sellers left us sparkling cider, candy, and a folder with all the manuals for appliances in the house as well as a six-page hand written letter describing everything we needed to know about the house. It included what was planted where, when rooms were painted and what color, when certain things were installed, etc. They even gave us restaurant recommendations and their email address in case we had questions. That was a nice surprise!

Next, we’ll have to carpet the house and epoxy the garage floor. Our house is essentially move-in ready, so we don’t have to do much to it before moving time. Luckily, we like the colors the sellers chose, so we don’t have to paint the walls. We’ve been going over the house and doing things little-by-little and plan to move into our new house in July. There’s no rush, since we don’t have to be out of my parents’ house for several more months. Now on to packing…

We’re so excited to own a home of own! With that comes a lot of responsibly and a lot of financial obligations. We’re officially adults! I can’t wait to be all moved in and settled. Here’s to owning and no longer renting!

Cha Cha Cha Changes!

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A while back, I wrote a piece I was very proud of for my blog. Then I read about a writing contest through “Narrative Magazine” where I could potentially win a lot of money and get my name out there. I was not able to post it on my blog until the decision was made on the winner. Unfortunately, I did not win, but now I get to share it with all of you! This is the story I wrote in early March:

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Merriam Webster dictionary defines change as: “to give a different position, course, or direction to.”

We all go through changes in our lives, sometimes they just happen more often than you think. Personally, my life is changing right in front of me and in a big way. These changes not only affect me, they affect my family and my soon-to-be family. Change can be hard, but sometimes it is for the best. You have to embrace change and deal with what you have. After all, you only have one life and you must live it fully in the best way possible with whatever hand you are dealt.

I am having a very exciting time in my life — I’m getting married. Marriage is a change that you can only know once you have experienced it. So who better to ask about marriage than my married friends? Marriage changes your outlook on life. Instead of thinking about just you and looking out for number one, you are now a “We.” What’s his is yours and what yours is his. Marriage teaches you to be less selfish. It allows you to feel more secure in your relationship because it is going to last forever (ideally). It opens the lines for communication and allows your partner to share more than they would before. This is because of the bond that is now formed because you become one.

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Planning a wedding is a full time job in itself. And I’m not even hiring a wedding planner! We do have a month-of coordinator, but I am mostly doing all the work myself.  Finding and contacting vendors, getting recommendations, etc. I get a lot of help and opinions from my mom and friends, but it is mainly all on me. Its work, but it sure is fun! Less than 7 months to go! But our planning has to be in full swing much quicker because of some other changes going on. Due to my dad’s job transfer, my parents have to move to Dallas, Texas a few months before the wedding. That kind of threw a wrench in our planning, but we are making it work.

One good thing that will come from my parents’ temporary move is that my fiancé and I will be moving into their house in Marietta! We will get a chance to save some money and put those savings toward a house of our own one day. That will be a big change for us too, especially since the move is for only a year and a half. Most of their stuff will stay in the house but we are bringing some furniture with us. It may be a bit weird at first, but I think this is a good situation and we are very grateful to be able to do it.

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My fiancé’s parents are also going through a similar change right now. His dad came out of retirement to move to Homestead, Florida and work at the nuclear power plant down there. He and my future mother-in-law moved into an apartment and had to undergo a lot of changes for the 9 months or so that he is working down there. The work requires him to work six 12-hour shifts. Seventy two hours a week, which is the maximum hours a person is legally allowed to work. It is taking a lot out of him and I know it is also hard on my fiancé and his mom. My fiancé and I have been checking on their house in Buford to make sure it is being kept up. Too bad they don’t have relatives living in their house like my parents will when they move.

If you didn’t think that was enough change- think again! My big brother recently got engaged! He and his fiancée (my future sister-in-law!) have been dating for almost three years and he finally popped the question. He proposed in the middle of the sidewalk after eating a nice dinner in their old neighborhood. I’m so happy to have her as a sister and excited that she is also one of my bridesmaids in my wedding! We are very excited for them and look forward to attending their wedding, which will probably be held early next year.

So, we are adding new family and merging families through marriage, and family is moving and dealing with different situations at the same time. But in the end, my family will be stronger and grow larger. Changes are hard at times but it is a fact of life. I’m looking forward to what these changes will bring in the years to come.