The New House! (and the story behind it)

So last weekend we headed up to Edmonton knowing we needed to buy a new house. We are heading up for Jeb's job as he is being transferred to the refinery between Edmonton and Sherwood Park. So he starts December 2nd and that's the same date we get possession of our new house!. But before I put pictures up of the house, I have to tell the story of how we almost didn't get it! (It's kind of a long story....)

Because Jeb's company is relocating us they said they could refer us to a realtor and it may be easier to use someone they referred to minimize paper work etc, (because the relocation company takes a 30% cut of the realtor's commission as a referral fee) so we said sure and started using the realtor they referred us. So I sent him a list of properties I wanted to see. We had some pretty specific conditions, so in all of Sherwood Park and Southeast Edmonton there was only a list of about 10 properties that we thought we may actually like. When we went to meet with him on Thursday and start looking at properties, he informed us that about 5 of them were either pending sold, or he couldn't confirm a showing with them for the weekend. I couldn't believe it! Half my properties including one of my favorites weren't going to work out! I was pretty choked, especially about this one property that I really liked. He had complied a list of about 10 others we could look at, but I knew most of them we probably wouldn't like for various reasons (layout, location, finishes, etc). So I pressed him a bit to find out what the conditions were on this property that was conditionally sold. He said it was pending until the 31st. So we went and saw houses and liked 1 or 2 of them, but they had their cons. We went home somewhat discouraged about the prospects, but we still had one of our favourites to see the next day. Friday we went and saw more houses and we saw one we really liked. It was in a good neighborhood in Sherwood Park, and the finishes we really nice. And it had a nice big bonus room which Jeb was really excited for. The problems for me was the dining room on the main floor couldn't really be used for anything but a dining room because it was very open and the eat in kitchen really only had room for a 4 seater square table. Also, it was only 3 blocks from a great elementary school but it wasn't zoned for that school and kids would be bussed 3 communities away, which is just kind of annoying! Anyways, I spoke with our realtor again and asked if the one house I liked was still conditionally sold, and if he could just get a hold of the realtor and see if we could go see it anyways. He said he had contacted the realtor "multiple" times and cannot get through to him, and that he normally doesn't show his clients conditionally sold houses because he doesn't want them to be disappointed when they can't get the house. I just had a feeling that something was up, so that night I decided to call the realtor myself. He picked up on the first ring and I asked him if the house was still for sale and when would be a good time to see it. He said it wasn't sold and the owner was open for showings almost any time. Now, at this point I still thought that maybe there was a conditional sale on the property and the realtor was just hoping to be able to show us the house and possibly gain a client out of the deal. OR to have someone else interested in the property in case the deal fell through. But we decided to insist with our realtor that we see the house the next day. He again claimed he couldn't get through to the realtor but was somehow able to get a hold of the owner and arrange a viewing with him. We showed up to the house and the owners mother was just leaving, and she said her son had asked her to come over and just get the house ready for the showing. I found this a little strange because if I were selling my house, I probably wouldn't even let people come have a viewing if it was conditionally sold because it seems like too much work. But I definitely wouldn't call in a favor from my mom to come over and clean the house. Anyways, I really liked the house, but we went through it quickly as I thought it was conditionally sold and didn't want to waste too much time on a house we couldn't get. We saw a bunch of other houses and saw our favourite one from the day before one last time to make sure it was still our favourite and we wanted to put an offer in on it. We decided it was still our best option and we could put an offer in. Our realtor said he couldn't do it Sautrday night as he already had plans but they could do it first thing Sunday morning. I asked him again if he could please just try hard to get a hold of the realtor of that conditionally sold house and ask the specifics of conditions and make sure it was still conditionally sold. Then my realtor gave me attitude and said "that's kind of beating a dead horse, I told you, it's conditionally sold, we can't do anything about it" to which I said "can you please just get that confirmed with the realtor, as in actually get a hold of him, it would make me feel much better." He then said that when he booked the showing with the owner he had it confirmed it with him. He also started throwing the listing realtor under the bus. He was like "those 1% realtors just can't offer the full service we do, they often just stop replying to calls once they have a conditional offer". You see, with a 1% realtor our realtor would only make $3000 in commission, as opposed to more like $12000. But hey $3000 for a weekend of work is not too bad! Anyways, I was super suspicious, so we got Jeb's dad, who is a realtor, to call the listing realtor that night and inquire about the property. Well 8pm Saturday night we find out that in fact it is not conditionally sold and there has never been an offer on the property. So after not getting much sleep on Saturday night, and doing the pros and cons of each property we decided we liked the second one much better and wanted to make an offer on that one. We also didn't want to work with our realtor anymore. So Sunday morning he wrote us an e-mail saying "Hey, lets make an offer on that property in Sherwood Park this morning, let's meet at 10". We e-mailed him back the following with his reply.

Hi (realtor)

It has come to our attention that the house in Charlesworth that we were really interested in does not have a pending sale on it. We feel that you have mislead us concerning the status of this home multiple times. Because of this we have lost faith in our relationship with you as a realtor and trust has been broken. You told us multiple times you could not get a hold of the realtor and that the house was pending sale, although the realtor has confirmed that there is no pending sale on the property. We feel you were purposely diverting us away from the buying of this house, and have not had our best interests in mind. We do not feel comfortable with you brokering a home purchase on our behalf. We are ending our relationship with you as our realtor.

Jeb Molcak

Hello Jeb,
I apologize that this matter has escalated to this point and I am sincerely glad this is now in the open. It has been bothering me and I was hoping the fact that the home was not as good a property as many others we had seen would have been the end of it.
In truth, I did have it marked in my notes as pending but there was obviously a regrettable miscommunication on that point. I was arranging a large number of appointments that day and obviously erred in my notes.
I did find out late last night, through a text message received directly from the seller of that property, that he was still hopeful you were interested. This gave me enough indication that the home was in fact still available.
The fact is I was genuinely concerned that Relocations would be disappointed in the purchase of a property where they could not recover enough of their costs on the file and it would negatively impact my future business with them. In hindsight I should have simply done what I have  always done and worry solely about the needs of you and your family regardless of how it would be perceived with our corporate client.

I sincerely apologize for the irreparable damage I have caused to our relationship with respect to your purchase. It was completely out of character for me and I do not have any means to rationalize why I made those poor decisions.

That Charlesworth property represents a reasonable value compared to the many others we have seen though it may be priced a touch high for the community.
I am a good person with good intentions and I would ask for an opportunity to make it right.
If you would like to make an offer on that property I would be happy to represent you. In turn I will donate 100% of the commission I earn to a registered charity of your choice.
This is not an attempt to 'buy back' your business but my sincere effort to apologize and make things right.
I have cc'd my broker on this to advise him of the situation and provide you with his direct email should you wish to proceed with another agent, which would be completely understandable.

Sincerely, 

(Realtor)

Gah, such a liar! Drives me crazy!!!! Ya right he was thinking about the relocation company, he was thinking about his own pocketbook. The relocation company is paid by Jeb's company so they don't really care how much it costs. And they spend so much money on relocations anyways! Gah! But, it all worked out and we got Jeb's dad to put our offer in for us so we wouldn't have to deal with anyone else!

Anyways, here's the house!!!

 The front. It has a slight greeny tinge on the garage and siding. And it is a 2.5 garage which Jeb is excited about. We are on a cul-de-sac with a large grassy area at the end which is supposed to get a playground soon (who knows if that will ever happen but we love the big open field for now) And it is walking distance to an Elementary/Junior High.

 Front cubby area in the front entrance.

 The half bath to your left.

The "mudroom". The door on the left is the garage door and the door on the right is the pantry door. I want to install cabinets above the washer and dryer to hide all my cleaning stuff. And we would put a tall cabinet at the right with doors.

The walk through pantry

 The Kitchen. I'm happy to have an island. The eating area is on the right. I'm not sure what I will do with decorating now as the coloring is much different than my house now (white and black and blues)

 Eat in Kitchen Area

 Family Room. We would mount the TV centered over the fireplace. On the right there next to the chair is where the entrance to the "flex room" is.

 The "flex room". The flooring is the same hardwood they just have those foam pieces over it. I am SOOO excited to use it as a play room. I love that you can close it off with the french doors. And you can't see right into it from the kitchen etc. But it's on the main floor still! Love! It could also be used as an office/ music room if we choose to have the playroom downstairs or upstairs later on.

 The bonus area upstairs. the stairs are to the left. It's a decent size but not large enough to use as a full on tv room like we do in our bonus room now.

 Bedroom 1

 Bedroom 2

 Bedroom 3

Main bath upstairs. 

The Master Bedroom. It is a great size. We have room to put in a King Bed! (I've never wanted one before I got pregnant, but now there is just not enough room for pregnant me and all the pillows etc. I think Jeb is just banking on me cooling off on the need for a king bed when I'm no longer pregnant :)

Master Ensuite. Jeb is excited for his own vanity (so I can't complain about his hair all over from shaving)

On the left is the toilet that closes off with a pocket door, at the right is the shower, and the end is the walk-in closet.

The Backyard. It's a good size and we are keeping the play structure! Wahoo! Jeb is excited to back onto an alley.

So that's it! That's our house! We are excited about it! And excited we actually got it despite our realtor being a total idiot!