Again, we had an interesting home buying experience, that we feel fortunate about. I've talked about my love of houses, real estate etc, and sometime in January I came across our new home online. I love to look at what's on the market, how people decorate, etc. Offered at a very attractive price, on a cul-de-sac with lots of space, this house was immediately appealing to me. When the first open house popped up, I twisted Brian's arm for a visit. I had to know more, and see for myself, if it was as good as I thought... The girls immediately went running through the house, as if we owned it and I was very drawn to it. It's called a colonial split, and the floors go from front to back, rather than sideways. It needs mechanical updates, A/C and a new roof... but I loved the unique floor plan and space. Brian, on the other hand was very quick to dismiss it... he called it a "triple-split" and said "no way, don't like it."
As winter turned to spring, almost weekly I watched the house online for updates. There were open houses often, as the owner had moved and the house was empty, and then the price went down. Sometime in early June, I bugged Brian to go back so I could get it out of my head. I wanted to see if I felt the same pull towards it, and if it was as great as I remembered. It was, and to my surprise Brian's attitude on did a total 180. This time, he walked out saying... that's a really great house. If we could sell ours, I'd buy it. Hold the phone... really? I couldn't believe he was interested.
The next few weeks/months were a little insane. Connecting with a realtor, the paperwork, the prepping of the house for sale, listing our house and 2 different offers falling through on the house we wanted. Everything was happening at the right time, allowing us to actually make this possible. Sometimes, it's truly amazing how things work out and it reaffirms my faith that if it is meant to be, it will be. We put an offer on our new house, with a contingency that we had to sell our house first. Typically these offers aren't strong in a buyers market, because there is competition. Our seller was an older woman, recently widowed - who lived in the house for 50 YEARS and raised 5 kids there. Amazing right? Anyway, she learned some about us and our little ones, and I think the idea of a "young" family was appealing to them. They agreed to our offer and very patiently waited as we anxiously hoped ours would sell.
And here we are :) We had the chance to meet our seller last night at our walk through, with one of her daughters and for some reason I was so teary (yet again) when meeting them. Their love for the house and obviously all the wonderful memories they had there, was written all over their faces. I think its so neat when there is history like that, and I'm so excited that we're the lucky ones to get to make memories there too! It's like the passing of the torch :) So much potential for this house, I can't wait to get started. Although, I keep being told "you dont have to do it all at once, wait to live in it for a while." Wait? Nope... I'm not good at that. Tomorrow is a big day, painting bedrooms, hanging all new light fixtures, getting cable and all of our furniture... and hopefully this weekend we can start to settle in. Next Tuesday Miss M turns FIVE! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh - so my goal is to be fully moved in and ready to celebrate her - because she is SOOOOO excited for her birthday.
Don't you worry - I'll be (over) sharing lots of pictures and before-afters of any projects we may do in the (hopefully) near future! Until then, I'll be buried in boxes :) Have a great weekend!
XO
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