On Buying a House

Yesterday at 5pm, I officially closed on the house here in Redmond.  Only about 6 minutes from Microsoft campus and great views of the Cascades and Lake Sammamish in a very quiet neighborhood.  The process was neither easy or straightforward and due to the complexities of new lending rules following the mortgage meltdown, I had to go through a number of hoops and cross high hurdles to get to closing.

The sellers were great, this was a second house for them as they live in eastern Washington and they had done some great improvements inside and the three decks.  I’ve got some thumbnail pictures below for context via Flickr and will add some more high-res pics in the coming days.  It’s about 2800 sq ft on three levels including “daylight” basement and I lucked out with it being close to work – avoiding massive commutes to other neighborhoods I looked at.  Now, if it can avoid being one of those movie houses (think Tom Hanks) where everything self-destructs after moving in  —-> Hopefully the inspection report and the work done will make sure this does not happen!