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Our House on Caballo: Part 2

We had a fantastic team of people who are honorary members of TEAM SMITH.

First, our realtors and lending peeps. We went with Mason McDuffie Mortgage- Kathy McAlpine is phenomenal! She made sure our budget and paperwork was in order and on point.

Our realtors from Coldwell Banker- Vickie Keever and Shelly Walters! 

They drove us all around Reno and Washoe all times of day and night, all week long. Always happy and we had such a fun time! We laughed so much. And they wrote offer after offer, never complaining, never stressing out. Amazing. 

And check out these pics of the living room and finished kitchen...







Kirby Construction baby!

"After saving and searching for years, we found our first house. Our budget was in line with our wants and needs so we started off right. The house we bought is a little under 1100 sq feet and it needed some work to bring it up to date and put our safety concerns at ease. It was truly meant to be that we would connect with Lance Kirby. Kirby Construction helped us turn our house into a home. 

The 203K Loan process allows you to roll remodeling into your mortgage, but it is arduous. You have to secure a contractor who is willing to provide you a quote in advance, supply multiple permits and references, undergo extensive inspections, and receive payments in installments, which many contractors will not do. Renovation work begins when the house closes and must be finished in a certain time frame, ideally before you move in. Lance and his incredible team had us moved into our home within 4 weeks, just in time to put up a Christmas Tree and set cookies out for Santa. As we started moving our things in, we'd meet Lance's staff. Chris the floor guy was happy to see us and happy to explain exactly what he was doing and how and explained how we should take care of it. Every interaction was like that, from the person installing appliances to the person painting cabinets.  They even did a good job cleaning up, AND the job came in under budget!

Working with Lance was the most wonderful experience! On our first walk through he was patient and he listened to our ideas. He provided great feedback without being condescending. He understood the budget we wanted to stay in and didn't try to upsale us on anything. He really used his years of experience and knowledge to ensure we were getting quality products and materials meant to last and stand up to small kids and pets! 

Lance's assistant Emily was always responsive to our emails and phone calls. Super friendly and ready with an answer, she was the epitome of customer service. We never felt like we were bothering her when we called and we called a lot! As first time home buyers, we had a lot of questions and we didn't know much. Kirby Construction provided us an education and alerted us to things we should be aware of and think about. 

Our home has a new roof, a brand new kitchen, and gorgeous laminate wood floors. It's warm and inviting. I don't believe we would have received this level of customer service or detail had we worked with anyone else. We will continue to sing their praises and recommend their company to anyone and everyone. We could not recommend Kirby Construction more highly"- Team Smith Yelp Review

And I know I already have a pic of them, but we can't say thank you enough to our moving crew! 

We still have lots of fun small projects to do. There's no rush though. The girls' room is almost complete and we'll probably update the bathrooms at some point. We have a beautiful backyard in need of some patio furniture and a playhouse for the girls so we'll take our time building stuff, cruising garage sales, and surfing craigslist.  

Owning a house is awesome. 


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