Our New House!

And the story of how we got it.

Yep, we are officially homeowners now! We closed today, May 10^th and will spend the weekend and next week preparing the house for move-in. The movers come next Friday the 18^th and we can’t wait!

But let’s back up a little and talk about how we got here.

Last July when it was time to renew our apartment’s lease we knew we weren’t ready to buy a house yet. We briefly debated about moving out of the apartment and into a rental house, but quickly decided we would stay another year. {Our first lease was 14 months from May 2010 to July 2011 and we renewed for 10 months from August 2011 to May 2012, for a total of two years}. But we knew when it came time to renew again that we would be ready to move out and into a house.

So when did the house search begin? I guess we started talking about our wish list of requirements as soon as we made the decision to move after our lease expired, so last July. But we didn’t really get serious until January this year. For anyone who is interested, here is our wish list separated between what we’d like in a house we owned versus what we’d like in a house we rented.

House to Buy Wish List

• 3+ bedrooms
• 2+ baths
• central heat/air
• fenced in/fence-able yard
• open floor plan & big kitchen
• garage/carport
• back patio
• hardwood preferred in main living space
• lots of windows
• separate tub & shower in master bath
• separate closets or large walk-in
• brick/mainly brick exterior
• in a neighborhood (not on main roads)
• sidewalks
• near a park or walking trail
• 20 minutes from our offices (preferably no interstate driving on the commute)
  • East Memphis (north of Poplar, east of Highland)
  • Germantown
  • Collierville (Wolf River/Shelton, near Johnson Park)

House to Rent Wish List

• 2+ bedrooms
• 2+ baths
• fenced in backyard preferred
• central heat/air
• big kitchen
• same locations as “to buy” list, but also open to Midtown (willing to commute a little further if we are just renting since it would be easier to move if we hated it).
• Single residence/townhouse/condo
• Park or sidewalks

We also preferred an older home with lots of charm as opposed to newer construction. So we registered on zillow.com and started saving houses to our favorites to get an idea of what was out in the market, and in our price range. The more we searched for homes, the more we realized we really wanted to purchase a home instead of rent so that we could really make it our own. But the thought of making such a huge decision was pretty intimidating and we were nervous to make a commitment.

We spent a lot of time talking about the pros and cons of renting a home versus buying one, and prayed that God would lead us in the direction of His plan. Through this process it became pretty clear that we were ready to own our own home, and even though we were still nervous about making such a huge decision, we were excited!

Once we made the decision to buy, we edited our Zillow account to reflect only the homes listed for sale. And once we had a pretty sizable list of houses in each of the areas on our wish list, we contacted my grandparents {who are real estate agents—they work for Kaizen Realty if you are searching for homes in the MidSouth} to set up some showings. And so the hunt began in late January this year!

We looked at 3-4 houses in Germantown and concentrated the rest of our search in East Memphis in the Highpoint neighborhood as well as neighborhoods around White Station and Walnut Grove. After just two Saturdays of looking, we were quickly discovering our number one location was in the White Station area and number two was in Highpoint.

We loved different things about each area. In the White Station area homes are built between the mid 1950s-early 1970s. They are typically ranch style homes, in a great school district {for one day in the future when this matters to us as a family or potential buyers when we’re ready to sell}, and really convenient to our offices and the places we like to hang out.

In the Highpoint neighborhood homes are as old as the late 1920s and more of a bungalow style, but most have been renovated with new kitchens and bathrooms and refinished hardwood floors. The area has its own corner market, pizza place, and other local businesses within walking distance. It seems to be a really close-knit community but is further from our offices and the area of town we typically hang out in.

So now that we had two really great locations, we started a list of houses that we loved in each of them. We tried to always keep no more than 3-4 homes on our favorite list at all times so we wouldn’t fall into the trap of trying to combine what we loved about one house into something we loved about another. {That tip can be attributed to my grandparents. They are wise. Give them a call if you need a realtor!}

Once we had these 3-4 homes we began talking about what was most important to us. For me, it was always the number of rooms and the location {good neighborhood, convenient, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and an overall good flow of the house}. For Calvin, it was more of the home’s style and upgrades as well as the location {but the neighborhood and surrounding area’s amenities outweighed convenience for him}. So can you see what happened? Yep, I was falling hard for a house in the White Station area while he couldn’t get his mind off of one in Highpoint.

While we both loved each of the other’s first picks, and ultimately agreed that our number one house was the one in the White Station area, when it came down to ranking the rest, we had problems. I loved another one in the same area, while he was pushing hard for our favorite in Highpoint. But thankfully, since our number one favorite was the same, we were able to agree and move forward while still keeping each of our number two picks on the list as numbers two and three.

Once we had our list of the top three, we continued to look at houses in our two favorite neighborhoods just to be sure we explored all our options. We took our time and didn’t look every weekend, and while some houses we saw seemed to make their way on our list, none of them ever took the number one spot.

By this point it was mid-March and we felt comfortable with the fact that our number one favorite was still just that, and it was still on the market with no offers. So on March 17^th we worked with my grandparents to prepare an offer and sent it to the seller’s agent. And then the waiting and negotiating game began.

This was definitely the most difficult part of the process. The seller no longer lived in the house and it had been on the market for over a year, so when we submitted our offer we were very hopeful. But when he responded with his first counter-offer, we quickly realized this was going to be much more difficult than we thought.

We went back and forth with him for over two weeks before we were finally able to reach an agreement. At one point when we hadn’t heard from him in five or six days, we went back out to look at a couple newly listed houses because we were sure he had enough and was going to decline our latest counter-offer.

But just a few days after we went to look at more houses, we got a call from my grandparents saying he had countered back and they thought it was something we would be happy to sign. We quickly checked our email to review the offer, squealed, did a little happy dance, and called my grandparents back to ask if we could come over to sign it!

And so we did!

We were ecstatic, but tried not to get ahead of ourselves since we still had to have the home inspection and the option to walk-away from the deal if we couldn’t reach an agreement about any necessary repairs.

We scheduled the home inspection in early April and were a little disappointed about a few things, but overall still very happy and hopeful that the seller would work with us to fix the main issues. So we sent a list of the things we would like him to repair and waited some more for his response.

And then things got pretty crazy. It can be summed up like this: we wanted three main things fixed, the seller was willing to pay for repairs but capped it at an amount we knew they would exceed, we couldn’t afford to cover everything but didn’t want to lose the house, there were lots of emails being sent and received {some not so professional}, and then suddenly {and miraculously} the seller agreed to what we had asked!

We were overjoyed and praised God for how evident He was through the entire situation. There were many times throughout this whole process that we could’ve lost the house, but each and every one of them all worked out favorably for us—and that can only be because of God’s providence. Praise Him!

Things have been pretty crazy the past few weeks trying to get all the details finalized before our closing date. There are so many people to communicate with, get forms to, appointments to make, and on and on. It takes a lot of people to buy a house! But we are thrilled that the day is finally here and we are homeowners!

And now that the cat is out of the bag, can we just talk about how much packing sucks? Especially when you’re packing a tiny two bedroom, third floor apartment. So that’s what we’ll be doing for the next week and then the movers come Friday the 18^th.

We are blessed and God is so good. Thanks for reading about our journey; we’re so excited to finally be able to share it!

Tags: first time home buyers, home ownership

Eat Local Round 4 {AKA-the March Edition}

Okay, so let’s just jump right into the March restaurant run down. Shall we?

Early in the month, we met our friends Paul, Diana, and Savannah Jane at Memphis Pizza Café for lunch. They moved to Memphis from NC in 2010, and Memphis Pizza Café quickly became one of their favorites. While it’s no Stromboli’s, we certainly love it too. So when we found out they were moving back to NC soon, we knew we had to have some pizza.

Everything is always delicious—with a yummy crust and a variety of toppings how could it not be? It definitely ranks in my top 5 for Memphis pizza joints.

A few days later a group of us from church had dinner at Central BBQ for Paul and Diana’s going away dinner. Being from NC where barbeque is made with mustard sauce, they were smart to quickly pick a famous BBQ restaurant in Memphis to call their favorite! We had a great evening stuffing our faces with bbq sandwiches and ribs and spending time with such a sweet family before they moved back home. It was a bittersweet dinner, but the food was delicious!

The next weekend Calvin and I made our way to Midtown to meet some friends and try The Beauty Shop for the first time. We had heard so many great things about this quirky, fun place that we knew we had to give it a try. The restaurant’s décor is so unique and made to subtly look like a retro beauty shop. The light fixtures are blown glass that resembles those bubble hair dryers and many of the chairs are barber chairs!

The food is a little pricier than what we typically like to spend on a night out, but it was all very good and definitely a good place to go on a special occasion. {We were celebrating new jobs for Ashley, Brad, and Calvin!} For an appetizer the table shared a delicious cheese plate and we tried a variety of entrees. Many of the guys had steak sandwiches, Ashley and Stephani both had dinner salads that looked huge and so yummy, and I had a very filling and delicious pasta dish.

It was a fun place to spend the evening celebrating with good friends, and we definitely recommend it to anyone who has never been.

And just so you don’t think we went to Midtown without visiting some of the places that are quickly becoming our favorite, rest assured that we did not! The next weekend was St. Patrick’s Day and we decided to spend it in Midtown instead of fighting the crowds and expensive cover charges downtown. But instead of choosing the obvious for the holiday and spending the evening at Celtic Crossing, we decided to stick with our favorites and eat at Café Ole. Margaritas on St. Patty’s Day? Well, sure! Isn’t that what everyone does? After dinner we made our way across the street to Sweet Grass Next Door where we spent the rest of the evening enjoying good drinks and everyone’s company on the porch.

It was fun to sit outside and catch up with all our friends while having some good laughs from the festive people walking by! So even though there was no Irish pub or green beer, I think our St. Patrick’s Day was a success.

As the month began to wind down, our local eating did not but it wasn’t just Memphis local eating. Instead, we traveled to Oxford for a day trip on Saturday to hear our friend Brandon and his band play on The Square. Stephani drove us down {me, Calvin, Gerry, and Clayton} and upon arrival we knew exactly where head to—Ajax!

Ajax is one of my favorite Oxford restaurants. It’s just good, Southern food probably similar to whatever your favorite blue plate restaurant is. I had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. Calvin ordered his favorite—the Big Easy, which is basically everything I just listed minus the mac-n-cheese and on a bun. {Disclaimer: don’t eat here if you are on a diet. But if you aren’t, then dig in because everything is delicious!}

Brandon played at Two Stick which is a sushi bar on The Square. Only it isn’t your typical sushi bar, they have a lively atmosphere and a stage so it was perfect for his CD’s debut! We spent the rest of the evening there enjoying the music and each other’s company. And if you want to check out his album you can buy it on iTunes or contact him for a CD. Calvin designed the album and the music is a fun bluegrass mix, so check it out!

Our last local eateries for March also weren’t Memphis restaurants. We went to Franklin, TN to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins for my cousins’ joint birthday party but also got to see the Myers while we were there! We met them Saturday night at McCreary’s Pub in downtown Franklin for dinner. They claim this to be one of their favorite local spots and it did not disappoint. The restaurant is quaint and the service and food was delicious. Raechel and I both ordered chicken sandwiches and fries while the guys were more adventurous with their choices of fish and chips and various other Irish pub foods.

It was so great to share a meal with them and catch up since we hadn’t seen them since the race weekend. We feel blessed to have met this sweet family and stay connected even after the race ended. It may seem strange that the internet and shared interests were what caused us to meet, but we are thankful for those things because they brought us new friendships! {Race post is here if you want to read about how all this came to be}.

After dinner we parted ways so they could take advantage of having a kid-free night and run some errands. But Calvin and I took their advice and tried JJ’s Wine Bar. This was a fun little place that lets you try a variety of wines by the taste, half glass, or full glass and keeps up with what you’ve tried on your tab so you can just pay for what you drank before you leave. It’s such a cool concept and I think Memphis definitely needs one of these! It was fun to sit on the patio sipping our wine and being able to try so many different kinds without ordering a whole glass. So props to Franklin for a great idea!

And that officially brings us to April and catches us up on all our eat local adventures. {Yes, sadly we have yet to eat anywhere local in April, but we still have half the month to go so we will hopefully remedy that soon}.

Has anyone else tried a local restaurant lately? Memphians: what’s your favorite local spot? We’d love some recommendations!

Tags: Cafe Ole, Central BBQ, Downtown Franklin, Eat Local, Memphis Pizza Cafe, midtown memphis, Sweet Grass Next Door, The Beauty Shop

Eat Local: Round 3 {AKA-The Rest of February}

I bet you thought we just stopped experimenting after our two local date nights, didn’t you?

Well, that’s fair. It has been over a month since we’ve posted and even longer since our Eat Local challenge update. But even though we didn’t write about it, we were definitely still doing it.

So ready for a recap of the rest of the local eateries we visited in February?

After my birthday dinner at Interim and the same weekend as our siblings’ prom, we went to Hernando with our parents and Calvin’s youngest brother to eat at Buon Cibo. We heard about this new restaurant from a few friends and saw it listed on Project Greenfork’s website. And since we were already in Mississippi to see our siblings off before their big night, we decided it was a perfect time to give it a try.

We were glad we made the drive! Their menu is simple, consisting mostly of sandwiches and pizzas, but with fresh ingredients and lots of flavor, it was all really delicious. The atmosphere is laid back and casual, so it was the perfect spot to hang out with our families and just catch up. Oh, and you can even bring your own bottle of wine to have with dinner which we will certainly do next time. And I can’t wrap up this review without mentioning their good design and branding for Calvin’s sake. Even though he is the designer of the family and can’t go anywhere without commenting on an establishment’s good {or bad} use of design, I will say Buon Cibo’s even caught my attention.

So bravo, Buon Cibo! The Morrises give you a thumbs up.

Next up was Las Tortugas for Calvin’s birthday dinner. We drive past this restaurant everyday, but somehow we had never eaten there. Since Calvin loves Mexican food, he decided this was the perfect place for his birthday dinner.

The restaurant is small, but the staff is very friendly. The owner’s father took our order and gave us the history behind the restaurant. Basically, his son lived in Memphis {originally from Mexico} for many years hoping someone would open a traditional Mexican restaurant instead of all the Tex Mex places we all know and love. But years went by and no one ever did, so he decided he would do it himself.

All the ingredients are fresh and nothing is ever delivered to the store. He {Pepe} goes out every morning to local fresh markets to buy all the ingredients, and what he can’t buy they make in house. And you can certainly tell! Everything we tried tasted so fresh and flavorful. There really is a difference. You can follow the link I included to visit their website and browse their menu to see the difference in their selections versus most Mexican restaurants we are used to. Many dishes are garnished with fresh avocado, which I’m typically not a fan of. But for whatever reason it is the perfect addition to these meals and it was delicious! I highly recommend their chicken tortilla soup, and next time we go back we want to try some of their famous juice drinks.

The next day {Valentine’s Day} for lunch Calvin and I met at a Japanese restaurant called Sakura. I don’t think this is a local place, but I’m not totally sure and since it was for a semi-important occasion I wanted to include it in the list. We both love good Japanese food, but for different reasons. Calvin had a couple of sushi rolls and I had one of their lunch specials which was their version of hibachi chicken and grilled veggies. So yum. Who doesn’t love a nice mid-day lunch date with delicious food?

Next up was another Japanese place called Rain. We went here on a weekend date with our friends Ashley and Brad. This was our first time at Rain and it was pretty good. It’s interesting because it’s a contemporary restaurant that doesn’t feel very Japanese at all. But their menu selection was pretty similar to other Japanese restaurants. Everyone ordered sushi except for me, but they said it was good. :) And because I don’t like sushi, I typically end up getting hibachi chicken or steak. Only this time I was able to branch out a little and get their stir-fry. It was really good, and super filling! Basically, it’s a bowl of white rice with everything you’d get when you order hibachi, but mixed into the rice. It was fun to try something new and a little atypical for that type of food, but I have other favorite Japanese places.

As February came to a close, we wrapped it up by visiting two of our favorite local places: Swanky’s Taco Shop and Cafe Ole. Swanky’s is a great place for your typical Tex Mex menu items. It’s a contemporary place and always lively. My favorite dishes are the burrito bowl and any of their tacos. Calvin loves everything, but tends to order mini chimis, quesadillas, or a burrito bowl.

When you order you are standing at a long bar and tell each person at the different stations what you want {think Subway, but way better}. Oh, and they also serve alcohol so that automatically makes it better than Subway! On this particular visit, we ate with Helen and Daniel who were in town for the weekend and some of their friends who moved to Memphis from Jackson. As always the food was great and we had a fun evening with these friends!

Cafe Ole is a fun Mexican restaurant in Midtown. Have you picked up how much we {read: Calvin} loves Mexican food? We went here with Stephani and some of our friends who were in town for the tennis tournaments. Cafe Ole has good food, but great margaritas. We ordered a pitcher to share with the table and enjoyed an evening of chips, salsa {theirs is pretty spicy}, and typical Mexican dishes.

But I think the best memory of the night was listening to Calvin order our pitcher of margaritas. He was telling everyone how Cafe Ole has a huge selection of tequila and because of this they have a variety of different margaritas. Of course, any margarita not made with their generic house tequila is more expensive. And because we weren’t looking to accumulate a huge bar tab, we decided we’d stick with the house. But when the bartender asked Calvin what he wanted he said, “Can I get a pitcher of your house tequila?” The bartender looked at him very strangely and said, “Really? Are you sure you want a whole pitcher of tequila?!” At this point we were dying out laughing because we knew why he said it {we had just been talking about all their tequila}, but of course we didn’t want a whole pitcher of it! So once it was cleared up that we wanted a pitcher of their house margaritas, we were asked to show her our IDs. Apparently 24 and 25 year olds suddenly look a lot younger if you order a pitcher of tequila by mistake!

Note: these pictures were taken later in the night at a local Midtown bar called Celtic Crossing. So don’t let the Guinness glasses confuse you!

Okay, so that wraps up our Eat Local reviews for February. I think we did a pretty good job of choosing local places whenever we were eating out. We visited some of our favorites, as well as tried new places, and were very impressed with most every one! Turns out Memphis does have some great places to eat other than barbecue. Who knew? :)

Stay tuned for the March rundown. There are many more yummy places to explore!

Tags: Buon Cibo, Cafe Ole, Las Tortugas, local Memphis restaurants, Rain Sushi, Sakura, Swanky's Taco Shop

2005 or 2012?

Calvin and I started dating in the Spring of our junior year of high school. It was 2005 and we were seventeen.

Since we dated for so long our families have known each other for a long time and become good friends. Coming from a family of four where there is just me and my sister, and into a family of seven where there are four brothers and one sister, is quite a different dynamic but it is so much fun! I love the relationship I’ve developed with Calvin’s siblings and I’m glad that Abby is friends with them too.

Okay, so you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with the year 2005 and 2012. Well, in 2005 Calvin and I went to our first high school dance together and in 2012 Abby and Zach went to theirs! Technically, ours was just a banquet because it was school sponsored and private Baptist schools don’t sponsor things like dances, but that just meant our parents always hosted something for us after the banquet. But this year the school didn’t sponsor anything, so the parents got together and hosted a winter ball for the juniors and seniors.

And after much back and forth with who was taking who and was so-and-so bringing a date, Abby and Zach decided they would go together as friends. Dresses were bought, tuxes were rented, and plans were made, and finally the night arrived.

Of course there were lots of pictures.

Beautiful sister!

Sibling pic + Lizzy

Proud parents

The fam.

Trying to pin the boutonniere

All the couples

Abby and Zach looking spiffy

The girls, all in blue!

The guys

One of my favs.

So pretty!

Love her.

Another fav, Instagram-style.

And just for fun…Calvin and I before our Winter formal in 2005.

Calling friends to find out where to go next for pictures with my sweet flip phone.

Yeah, we were cool.

Tags: high school dances, SBEC Jr/Sr, winter formal

Birthdays All Around

So many of you may know that the days between the end of January and early March are filled with birthdays in our family. There are six within 20 days plus three more in March! So this basically means it’s like Christmas all over again. We always get together for a big family celebration to commemorate the events.

So that’s what we did a few weekends ago.

The crowded cake

Singing

More delicious dessert

The January/February birthdays

Gift time

Calvin is pumped about our food processor!

So even though my birthday falls around the same time as so many others, I love our big gatherings and fun celebrations! Happy birthday to my Poppy, Uncle Geof, Calvin, Polly Marie, and my Nana!

Tags: 2012 birthdays

An Alabama Weekend

At the end of January, Calvin and I packed up the car and headed to Alabama to spend the weekend at a cabin with some friends. Rebekah and John live in a small town between Tuscaloosa and Starkville and had some family friends open up their cabin on the Tom Bigby River to us for the weekend. Our good friends Haley and Will made the drive from Jackson, MS too!

We are so blessed to have these sweet couples as friends and were very grateful for the time to get away for the weekend and hang out. Rebekah, Haley, and I were all marketing majors and became good friends through our classes and RUF our senior year at MSU. And thankfully our husbands get along great, so when we get together we always have so much fun.

We spent our time relaxing, cooking good food, playing games, and enjoying the view.

Reunited and it feels so good! :)

The lovely cabin and our very dirty vehicles from the trek through the mud the night before.

Mille and her pretty brown eyes

Eli and Mille looking very ferocious

Pretty Haley

It was so good to spend the weekend together!

Going for a walk

Eli after he tried to go for a swim

My handsome guy

We had such a great time catching up with these sweet friends and can’t wait to plan another weekend reunion soon!

Tags: weekend getaways

Eat Local : Round 2

Hello everyone, it’s the reclusive husband here to drop the next post about our date night challenge. Amanda’s birthday was this week, so for date night we went to a very modern and classy little restaurant in East Memphis called Interim. We learned about Interim from the Project Green Fork website, which is a great source for local restaurants if you’re in the Memphis area. PGF highlights local restaurants that are ecologically responsible; so not only do you get to eat local, you get to feel pretty good about yourself because you picked a spot that takes time to do it right.

We got to the restaurant about 20 minutes before our reservation, so in order to pass the time I did what any new media nerd would do with a few moments of spare time: check in using FourSquare. The tips were overwhelmingly in favor of the burgers, and a few folks recommended starting with the mac & cheese.

At this point you’re probably trying to picture the restaurant in your mind, and having trouble because I started by saying it was modern/classy, and I just told you that we were getting pumped up about burgers and cheesy noodles. So here’s how it goes: you enter the restaurant through an enormous metallic door, and everything is shiny. People are a little dressed up, and the lighting is relaxed but it’s not too dark. The main dining room is very open, and the best part is that it opens into the kitchen. You get to watch the chefs cook, and it is intense up in there (yet somehow, I never noticed much noise).

The menu is just as fancy as the chefs’ jackets. The night we went there was pork shank, duck breast, and the fish of the day was something I hadn’t even heard of before. As semi-frugal young married folks, we opted for the crowd fav and got burgers.

I reserve my OMG’s and LOL’s for fitting occasions. But this burger was definitely OMG-worthy. It was seriously delicious. It was probably at least an inch and a half thick, and even though I ordered it medium well it came back really juicy and pink. Thick bacon, garlic aioli, white cheddar cheese, and I’m fairly certain there was half a tomato on the burger. Ooh man.

I skipped telling you about the macaroni and cheese because I got too excited about the burgers, but you need to know about it. It was easily the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had, and has led me to make a resolution. I am hereby determined to become a connoisseur of mac & cheese. I’m not certain where to start, so I’m open to recommendations.

So that wraps up Local Date #2. Interim comes highly recommended, both for the atmosphere and the food. Save your pennies and take your lady there for a fancy night.

Tags: date night recommendation, Eat Local, interim restaurant, interim review, memphis restaurants