Putting all our eggs in the Golden basket

We got a house!! Yesterday was an exciting day because we actually got two houses! Both our offers for the Pine house (the Frank Lloyd Wright-esque house) and the one on Golden were accepted! We did the obligatory pros/cons list for each and talked a lot about it. Luckily Jeff and I were on the same page and felt the same about the drawbacks to the Pine house (alley adjacent, needs new windows and a lot of kitchen updates) and all of the pros with the Golden house. So we let go of the Pine offer and are moving forward with Golden. Because it's a short sale though, the bank still has to approve our offer (which Noelle doesn't think will be an issue based on the comps and the seller having agreed to the price and sale already) and they can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks to approve it. We're SO crossing our fingers for two weeks because the 30 day escrow after that will close right before the tax credit expires on November 30th. If they take four weeks, we'll be out of luck. $8,000 in April would be pretty sweet so we're praying the bank expedites things.

Pictures!!

Our plan right now is to convert the garage into a studio for Jeff. We want to take out the garage door and frame in a couple of windows (there's a door on the backyard side), insulate and get an electrician to wire everything properly for an office, drywall and paint! Easy, right?
This is the view right when you walk in to the living room. The windows on both sides make it nice and bright, and of course we're thrilled with the nice hardwood floors.
This is the dining room right off the living room and the little nook off the kitchen. We don't know what we'll put there yet but we'll figure it out!
Plenty of room for our dining table... perfect!
All new double-paned windows in the house too, a HUGE cost savings. Mandy told me what their quotes on those suckers are and it scared me. Pine would have needed all new ones so that would have gotten pricey.
The kitchen is pretty sweet and was a major advantage over the Pine house kitchen. This one has new appliances (gas stove! dishwasher!!), corian countertops, brand new cabinetry (that we'll probably paint, way too much wood going on in this space for our tastes), recessed lighting, and the wood floors extend into the kitchen.
The 2 bedrooms in the house are on the small side so we're going to have to get creative about furniture placement and closet space. I have a few ideas and 4 years of back issues of Domino to help.
The "master" bedroom. So little! Or cozy? Let's go with cozy.
The bathroom is great, and the only thing I want to change is the flooring. No more linoleum. I'm going to bribe Seth and his tile-laying skills to come and help remedy the situation. The shower stall which you can't see in this picture is pink tile with a black tile border!! So cool!!
The lot is really big, about 6500 square feet (big for Southern California at least!) and the backyard has a nicely built and sturdy storage shed behind the garage. I want to put my raised planter beds for my vegetable garden on the side wall over the gravel and Jeff wants a fire pit in the middle of the lawn. As long as it's far away from a structure, I'm okay with that. :)

I hope hope hope everything goes smoothly with this house, but until a clean home inspection bill of health and the keys are in our hands, we're not holding our breath. Closing on the house by Thanksgiving (and my 30th birthday!) would be amazing though.