What I have been doing lately

So, we have been in Texas for 11 days. We have unpacked our PODs and set up our house. I have found us a new house, started the financing process, got the house inspected and insurance secured.
I should back up. Basically the Monday after we flew in, I had found a realtor and started looking at houses. The weekend before we looked through model homes. That was really fun. There is nothing better than going through beautifully decorated homes and imaging living there. The only problem is that they don't let you buy that particular house right then and with the furniture already in it. Buttercup and I are going to go back to some to take pictures and steal ideas for her new room.
So, we figured that it would be cheapest to build and then add in a pool. The only problem with that is all of the upgrades just nickel and dime you and the price of pools is ridiculous. Did you know that most houses here don't have pools? How weird is that in the weather down here? Most come with community pools, but those can shut as early as Labor Day. So, we could've picked out that $172,000 model with a bonus room (an add'l $18,000), a cul de sac lot (another $18,000 but we were building a dream house, we might as well get all we wanted), that included a larger lot for the pool. Then the cost of putting in a nice pool ($25,000) and we haven't even started with the better tub (whirlpool of course, $800) and we are already over $230,000!!! I found one I really liked, it was $266,000 but the kitchen was perfect, like I had designed it myself. We toured it Tuesday and we were ready for Hubby to tour it the next night. The next morning our agent called and said they had accepted the contract they had been negotiating since the weekend. We walked through while the owner was working from home and we talked to her about a few things and she never mentioned there was a contract in the works!! I couldn't believe it.
That was pretty disappointing. Then we viewed the house shown. It wasn't too inspiring, although, when we were leaving our agent hit the brakes and said, what was that? She had found a small path through to the elementary school less than 100 yards from the house. The house is on the corner of a cul de sac. Hubby still wanted to see it. As we walked through it, I figured out my indifference to the house was due to the lack of color.It was perfect for us. It wasn't too big. It's really easy, down here, to get used to the bigger house. I don't think we toured anything smaller than 2200 sq ft.
So, our house was $240,000...which was nice to have a ready made house less than what we could have built it for, in a nice neighborhood and an exemplary school within less than walking distance. Plus, we don't actually have to see the school.
We felt really good about not overspending on a house or buying a house bigger than we needed. You would not believe the property taxes down here. In Oregon we have property taxes and income tax. Our total tax bill from both was about $5900. Here we have sales tax and property tax. Before exemptions, taxes here are about $7,000. That's property alone!
Gosh, I feel like I am babbling. SO much has happened in the last 11 days, I can't believe I have accomplished it all!PS, here is my new kitchen. I can't wait to add some color to it