2017 Highlights

Helloooo and happy new year! How the heck did it get to be 2018? I know I’ve been incredibly off the radar with this blog, and in true New Year fashion, I’d like to make more of an effort here this coming year. My word for 2018 is “consistency,” and lord knows there’s plenty of areas of my life that I need to apply those four little syllables to. I plan on making this corner of the internet one of them.

Life got really busy in 2017 (and let’s be honest – the end of 2016 too), and it flew by. One of the reasons I want to write here more this year is in an attempt to remember what the heck happens during the year. It’s truly insane (and scary) how much of my life I just don’t remember unless I write it down.

So speaking of what happened during the year, I want to do a little recap of some of our 2017 highlights…

We got engaged!

Okay, technically that happened in 2016 (December 23, to be exact) but I never talked about it on here so I’m including it. Ryan got down on one knee in our renovated kitchen (which I swear I will show you guys someday soon) and popped the question.

We finally painted the exterior of our house

This was a long time coming, and having people visiting for the wedding gave us the kick in the pants we needed to finally get this done. Painting it only took about 5 hours total, thanks to the help of some great friends, and left us wondering why we didn’t just tackle it sooner! I might be a little biased, but I’m pretty sure we went from having the grossest house on the street to the most badass one. ;)

We traveled

Traveling is something that’s extremely important to both me and Ryan, and despite the craziness of it being “Wedding Year” we made sure to squeeze in some trips. We went to Saint Louis for my bridal shower and for Christmas. I went to Charleston for my bachelorette party and Austin for my friend Brittany’s… we went to Savannah to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, and rounded out the year with a road trip. We hit Atlanta, Saint Louis, Nashville, and Savannah, and drug the girls along with us for the ride. It was fun, and we even got a white Christmas out of it! The hours upon hours in the car weren’t nearly as painful as I thought. Pro Tip: Marry someone you really like and download a bunch of audio books for a smooth road trip. ;)

We got married

Speaking of marrying someone you really like – 2017 is the year Ryan and I tied the knot! We made it official on October 20, and it really was one of the best days ever. It’s hard to beat having all of your favorite people in one place (marrying the greatest guy ever didn’t hurt either).

If 2016 was “The Year of the House,” 2017 was definitely “The Year of the Wedding.” Stay tuned for what we’ve got up our sleeves for 2018…

We're Officially Homeowners!

I have some great news to share - we are officially homeowners! After all of the obstacles we had to navigate on the way, we finally signed a million papers today, and have our very own fixer upper! (With very scary landscaping...eeeek)

And boy, what a fixer upper it is. Every time I walk through the house, I remember just how scary it is right now. It's a little overwhelming, but I can't wait to start working on it. We did a final walkthrough with our contractor yesterday, and he let Ryan go to town spray painting everything that's getting demo'd - which is a lot. 

Don't you love our fancy range & hood? Ha. 

Our contractor is getting started on Monday, and his part of things should take about 4 weeks. We're so excited to get things going, and to start seeing walls coming down!

Now that we've gotten through the insanely painful buying process, it's time for the real fun to start! Stay tuned for a slew of before pictures. 

Won't be needing this anymore...

That Time Our House Fell Through...And Then Came Back

Oh, home buying. What a royal pain in the ass you are! 

If you'll note the date (April 19), we are 6 days after our second supposed closing date. Spoiler alert - we still haven't closed on the house. I originally started writing this post when I was pretty rage-y, but time and a situation change have lead to a more level-headed post. Ha. So, here's the ramble-y story of our current house status. 

Our original closing date was set for March 23. When our contractor didn't work out and we had to hire a new one, our closing date was pushed to April 13. At that point, we signed an addendum to our contract extending our closing date, and the seller...didn't. Which we found out just a few days before our new closing date. Cool. He had gotten it in his head that he could get more money for the house, and wanted to re-list it... even though he was about to get foreclosed on? Oh, and the house has been on the market since July with no takers. (Because trust me, no one is walking into that scary, scary place and declaring it their dream home... except us, of course.) 

Trust me... it is in scary condition right now. Shiver

The whole thing was beyond frustrating and both Ryan and I were so disappointed. We'd already run into so many issues and jumped through so many hoops on the way to closing, only to find out that we'd never actually cross the finish line was enough to make us want to scream. I'm completely of the mindset that everything works out how it's supposed to, etc. but in that moment I was just angry. 

So what happened next? We started the whole house hunting process over again from square one. It was slim pickins out there, but we found one house that we liked a lot. It had tall ceilings, a ton of natural light, and overall good vibes. It was also in one of our very favorite neighborhoods. We put an offer on it, and waited to hear back from the bank, since it was a foreclosure. That was on a Wednesday. 

Can't you just feel the good vibes? The light in there is pretty amazing, and that fireplace?! Love. Let's just call this the one that got away. 

Monday came around and I got a call from Ryan. Long story short, our realtor had contacted him and said that the seller of the original house had thought things over (ahem, come to his freakin' senses) and wanted to offer us the house back. To which my response was - are you freaking kidding me?! We had finally come to terms with not getting that house - we had moved on! And then there it was, knocking at our door again. Ooof. 

Since this is already epically long, I'll leave you with this: after much discussion and ado, Ryan and I decided to go back with the original house. So we are once again under contract, set to close on or before May 16. This is beginning to feel like the closing that will never actually happen, but I'm crossing my fingers and toes that this time around things go as planned.  

Looks like maybe I'll be getting my hands on this ugly little kitchen after all! 

I'm almost afraid to post this because I don't want to jinx anything... but I'm doing it anyway. If you've made it through this very wordy post... bless you! 

Anyone have any good (and by good I mean bad) stories about delayed closings or house nightmares? Let's hear them in the comments! 

Welcome to Homespo!

Thanks for stopping by! If you're here, I'm going to assume there's a good chance you already know us (because how else would you get here?). 

But if not... here's the skinny. We're Ryan and Jamie, and we're buying our first house together. After a few years of renting, we're finally making the leap and couldn't be more excited. We're set to close on March 23, 2016, barring any crazy unforeseen circumstances. *knocks on wood*

Oh yeah, and our house-to-be is quite the fixer upper! ("Do you have the guts to take on a fixer upper?" Why yes, Joanna Gaines, yes we do). We started this site as a way to document our house progress. Gotta make those inquiring minds happy, you know?! Our family and friends are spread out all around the country, so rambling about it online is the easiest way to keep everyone in the loop (Plus, Jamie has a thing with starting blogs sooo...).

There she is, in all her glory...

We picked the name Homespo for a couple reasons. It's short for Home Inspiration - plus, Ryan's last name is Gasparovic, which often gets shortened to Gaspo, which sometimes gets shortened to 'Spo... so it kind of worked on two levels? 

Anyway! I hope you enjoy watching our house projects unfold. We'll be posting about a mix of contractor projects, our projects, DIY efforts, furniture makeovers, and more. It's gonna be a paaaaarty. *insert smirky face emoji here* I anticipate that I'll be doing most of the writing (Jamie, that is), but maybe I'll sucker Ryan into posting occasionally too. 

Until next time...