One Year Later

I can't believe it has been one year since X and I started our journey together - and we have never looked back!

We've had a blast with all the many experiences we've had together, and we've enjoyed every minute of it. I'll tell ya, married life is a WHOLE lot different than dating life - and not in just the most obvious of ways. Everything is really relaxed; there's no more worrying about if I am impressing her or not; and we find so many more things to laugh about together - especially all the embarrassing moments. While I'm not going to delve into any of those special moments that X and I have experience together, I did want to share these pictures of us together, starting at the beginning.
















































I love you X! Here's to another perfect year.

We Have a House!

We got our offer accepted! We've already completed all the necessary inspections (house, roof, and pest), and now we're just working things out with the lender to have everything ready to close and move-in around the middle of June! There a couple small problems discovered in the inspections (some missing window screens, the ridge cap on the roof in need of repair, and some door problems), but the seller has agreed to take care of everything. Also, the appraisal report indicated that the house is worth more than what we offered, so we were happy to hear that we are getting a good deal and that we'll have some instant equity in the home. Everything else has been smooth sailing since the offer was accepted, and it has been very interesting to see how the whole home-buying process works. The only things left to do are to figure out our home insurance, and to hope that everything goes well with the underwriters.

Here are some pictures and info about the house (you can click on the images to make them larger):

This is our house. Unfortunately it faces north (something I PROMISED myself I would never buy), so we won't get any sun benefit to melt the snow in the winter, but with an average annual snowfall of only 22" (the annual snowfall in Salt Lake City is around 60") and an average of 265 days of sunshine per year, I don't think we'll run into any problems. :)

Here are some pictures of the back yard. It looks like we have a play house (we aren't sure if it is staying or not), and we have a dog run also on the east side of the house. Getting a dog/puppy is one of the first things we are looking forward to doing in our new home!

Here is a basic overview of the living and dining room areas. It feels really open with the arched ceilings, and the entire house has hardwood floors except for the bedrooms (carpet) and bathrooms (slate/tile).

The kitchen is newly remodeled with granite countertops and solid wood cabinets. The stove and microwave are a little old, but GE gives their employees a great discount on all their appliances, so we definitely have some options once these one need to be replaced. The kitchen also has a custom-paneled, double-drawer dishwasher (seen in the last 2 pictures), which will make it nice to run small or separate loads!

The living room has a wood-burning stove and corner stone hearth. That will keep us plenty warm in the winter!

The master bedroom's colors match our bedroom set perfectly (our accent color is the same shade of green). We also have a set of french doors leading out to the patio. The master bathroom has slate flooring and the master closet to the right. I think the faucet in the bathroom is kinda cool...

The other two bedrooms are a bit smaller, but we don't need something really big at this point.

The laundry room doubles as a mud room out to the garage. There is also a sink in the laundry room. The 2-car garage is fully finished and has plenty of storage space. Now all I need is a work bench!

This is a basic layout of the house. Overall 1,670 square feet on a 1/5th acre lot.

The house is about 15 minutes away from GE and about 40 minutes away from where X will be doing her internship over the summer. We are so excited to move in and make it our home.

House Hunting

We spent the week of Spring Break in Nevada to look for houses and explore the area. It was perfect timing for us, and we hoped to find something we liked so that we could qualify for the housing tax credit in time. It ended up being quite an adventure, and we saw so many houses they all just seem to run together! There were a bunch we liked, so naturally we've made some offers. Unfortunately we've had a pretty big run of rejections, but these were some of our favorites:

House #1:

• Bedrooms: 4.5


• Bathrooms: 3


• Year Built: 2004

• Sq Feet: 1,960


• Acres: 1/6

 

REASON FOR REJECTION: The bank decided that they didn't want to wait until June to close. Lame!

This house was one of our favorites from the beginning (we were able to look at many of the houses online beforehand) and ended up being our first offer. We liked the area and proximity to my work, plus with the extra bedrooms & bathroom it felt like a house that we could grow into. Unfortunately we got pretty emotionally attached to the house, so when our offer was rejected it was a pretty hard hit. We've learned now to not get as emotionally attached. It's hard!

---

House #2:

• Bedrooms: 3


• Bathrooms: 2


• Year Built: 1999

• Sq Feet: 1,607


• Acres: 1/6

 

REASON FOR REJECTION: Another offer was accepted 15 minutes before we sent ours in. Lame!

This one and the one above tied for our favorite houses on the trip. We really liked the yard and master bathroom of this one. We had a tough time deciding which house to put an offer on, and when we tried to rebound off the rejection of the other house only to find out that this one was already taken, we were pretty sad.

---

House #3:

• Bedrooms: 3


• Bathrooms: 2


• Year Built: 2002

• Sq Feet: 1,344


• Acres: 1/5

 

REASON FOR REJECTION: The bank had already accepted another offer, but had forgotten to change the status. Lame!

This was our "backup" house from our trip; the house that we would fall-back on in case the other two didn't work out. It was a little on the smaller side, but we thought it would definitely work to start out with. When this one also fell through, we began to get worried that we wouldn't even be able to find a house before we needed to move!

---

House #4:

• Bedrooms: 3


• Bathrooms: 2


• Year Built: 1991

• Sq Feet: 1,695


• Acres: 1/5

 

 

REASON FOR REJECTION: The seller thought we "didn't have enough money" because we asked for them to pay part of closing costs. Super lame!

This house was awesome.We didn't actually see this one on our house-hunting trip, but our agent was kind enough to do a walk-through and take tons of pictures for us, and we immediately loved it. Even though we knew not to get emotionally attached, we were still pretty devastated when our offer was rejected on this one. Especially with the seller's illogical reasoning!

---

House #5:

• Bedrooms: 3


• Bathrooms: 2


• Year Built: 1994

• Sq Feet: 1,670


• Acres: 1/5

 

 

This was another that we didn't see on our trip, but our seller sent us some pictures. It has a really nice kitchen and has been very well-maintained. We are currently waiting to hear if they accept our offer, and we have our fingers crossed. Wish us luck!

The Right Decision

Read this article

It's times like these that I'm glad I didn't choose Goldman Sachs.

What the Future Holds in Store

I graduate in less than a month! Because of the current economy and resulting job market, many of my friends don't know what they are doing after college. Fortunately for us I was able to secure a job after I graduate. A few months ago I wrote this post while in Chicago for a job interview. X also wrote this post about my week of interviews. Here is a breakdown of where I was and what I was doing:

Thursday, November 5, 2009

GE Energy - Minden (Reno), NV

GE Energy is associated with all sorts of green energy projects, ranging from wind-, water-, and solar-powered energy, to the Smart Grid projects across the country. The GE Energy division I interviewed with deals with condition monitoring of instrumentation and services, to ensure that all of the turbines are working correctly and smoothly. I would be programming the software for the monitoring equipment, and other projects they are working on.

My interview with GE Energy was about 5 hours long. My favorite part was after the interview I was able to drive out to Lake Tahoe (about 25 minutes away) before my flight. The view was breathtaking, even in November!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Goldman Sachs - SLC, UT

This was my final (of 3) interviews with Goldman Sachs. All of Goldman Sachs' trading software is developed in-house, so I would be creating the software to allow people to trade their assets in the stock market, specifically with Private Wealth Management. Besides corrupt management and high bonuses, other things I would have to look forward to are work hours starting at 7am (to work the same hours as New York), and a free BlackBerry phone. Yipee!

My interview with Goldman Sachs was about 3 hours long. My favorite part was when this Chinese interviewee told one of the interviewers that he was surprised that she could do the job when she was a woman. I don't think he got offered a job...

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

GE Healthcare - Barrington (Chicago), IL

GE Healthcare has a range of products and services that include medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies. The GE Healthcare division I interviewed with deals with the software for all of the above projects. For example, when you used to get X-Rays the doctor would print out the X-Ray onto film and look at it under a light. The new software and technologies that GE Healthcare is creating allows doctors to receive and manage the X-Ray images directly on their computer.

My interview with GE Healthcare was about 3 hours long, however I was doing stuff with the other 25 interviewees all day and the previous evening. My favorite part was the "Dinner & Cocktails" that we had the night before where everyone got slammed except for me.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Clearwater Analytics - Boise, ID

Clearwater Analytics focuses on investment strategy and reporting. It allows a company to get an immediate snapshot of their financial reports & portfolios to let them know if they have any risks or transparencies.

My interview with Clearwater Analytics was about 3 hours long. This was probably my most difficult interview, mostly because everyone was really arrogant. Every time I came up with a right answer they would say something like "That's really good! But that's not how I would've done it..." My favorite part was when I left to go home.

---

All I can say is that was definitely a tiring week! All the interviews kind of get mixed up together, but I can honestly say like I felt like I did a pretty good job in all of them. I ended up getting offers from every company except the one in Boise! (so no real biggie, right?) But now you are probably wondering which job did I pick? Drum-roll please?
.
..
...
....
.....
......
.......
......
.....
....
...
....
.....
......
.......
........
.........
..........
...........
............
.............
..............
...............
................
.................
..................
...................
....................
...................
..................
.................
................
...............
..............
.............
............
...........
..........
.........
........
.......
......
.....
....
...
....
.....
......
.......
......
.....
....
...
..
.

This is where we are headed at the end of May!

I took the job at GE Energy as a Software Test Engineer. I officially start the end of May, but we'll be in Salt Lake from May 7th - 14th to say goodbye to everyone before we head out to Nevada (about 8 hours away from Salt Lake). If you want to see us before we leave you should call or text us so we can do something.