House Hunting Trip Part II

{on one of our drives}

As much as we prepared, and prepare we did, there is nothing like going through the whole experience of finding your first house. Granted, there are still what feels like a million steps before the home we found will truly be ours, but for once in my life I'm optimistic and hopeful. I feel like we went from being totally unexperienced homebuyers to now feeling like I hold a wealth of knowledge (all of which I am happy to share - since I picked so many of your minds and experiences to begin with).

To make a long weekend short, we travelled non-stop for a day, slept for a few hours and then got up bright and early to browse the neighborhoods of our new town and check out all the homes on our list. Some of the neighborhoods were just not for us, others had too much traffic (we were out and about during the morning work and school commutes), and some homes were easy to rule out based on proximity to other homes, lack of backyard or just the appearance. Our list of 21 homes quickly went down to 10 - and even two of our most favourite homes that we had sworn to see and even made appointments to see were no longer on our list. It was admittedly discouraging, and we openly wondered if we were being too picky and would be leaving homeless.

But not so. We met our agent (love him) and after some initial paperwork and discussion started looking at homes. We hit six on the first day, and then re-visited one of the six. We also visited the university during our lunch break, and Mr. Man had a real estate decision to make there as he picked out an office - with a view! We had two homes that we really liked. One was huge, but also a short sale - don't get me started! The other we could totally picture our family in and only had about 5 projects for Mr. Man to work on (but he likes projects). Really it was a great home.

{coming out of our bed and breakfast - we found snow in JUNE!}

I woke up feeling certain that the short sale house was not for us. We arranged to see the other home we had liked again along with the other four on our list, plus another that had just come on the market. Most of these homes we had to "try" really hard to make feel like they would work for our family. They just didn't fit. Either there weren't enough bedrooms, or not enough living space downstairs. Another one just felt dark to me and also had NO backyard! While another would need to basically be torn down and rebuilt it was that old, that disgusting and that unlivable. Mr. Man was up for the challenge, but I was ready to cry - view of the mountains or no. Then came the big brown house.

Let me back up for a moment and tell you that this house was one that when looking online I had omitted from our list because I thought the exterior was so ugly. Brown and ugly. For some unknown, to us, reason, Mr. Man snuck it back on our list. We hadn’t scheduled to see it, but during our drive-bys I admitted that it looked better in person than in the pictures and so I consented to taking a peek inside. One peek was almost enough. This house was AMAZING. The front entry is to die for, the window views spectacular… it has soooooooo much storage, a great pantry, HUGE master bedroom, four upstairs bedrooms with 3 same-sized rooms for the kids, front porch... the list goes on. Then came the challenge of deciding between this amazing home, and the one that we liked from the day before. We did a lot of comparing, a lot of thinking, praying and discussing with a great sounding-board family member, re-visited both houses and finally made our decision to go with the second one. The one that felt like ours from the first step in. The one that had enough room for us so we wouldn't need to upgrade or move in the future unless we wanted to (since we wouldn't EVER need to). We picked the one that had no projects for Mr. Man to work on, so he's been given landscaping, or any projects that could brighten up a big brown house, or how about making tenure?! It was also the more expensive of the two and we knew that if in our counter-offering we met a certain number we would have to back down and comfortably go with plan B.

Now Mr. Man knows numbers, and, though I'm also considering it being an act of God, I won't dismiss his God-given number talent. Our agent and I wanted to offer a similar number... but Mr. Man pushed a bit higher, countering that it was psychologically much higher. And, while I know this doesn't seem like a long story made short (it really is... you should read my journal) our original offer was accepted! The only change they made was to the closing date, which will be fine - we'll just move when we want to and close at the earlier date that they want (since the home is vacant.) So hurrah! We can't believe how blessed we feel to have that agonizing money struggle over before it even started. Our agent and the sellers' (there were two) agent couldn't believe that there was no counter offer - as it so seldom happens that way. We are thrilled!

Of course I have some pictures to share of our new home. All the exterior photos I have of the house show the street sign (since we have a corner lot) and I'm not comfortable posting anything close to that on the internet. But enjoy and imagine and I'm sure I'll have more to come!!!

{my laundry room - no longer IN the KITCHEN!!! The door to the left is storage, door the the right is to the garage - a GARAGE - WOW!}

{check out the pretty trim and great laminate floors... this room is meant to be the dining room, but for now will hold my piano and books... and perhaps host a future book group or recital!}

{my pretty kitchen}
{the front porch and beautiful front door... I guess I'll try picturing lovely snowy days spent watching my husband shovel the driveway versus the summery sit on your porch reading days!}

{part of our backyard - fenced in, and yes, they HAD a dog!}

{taken from the living room into the kitchen/eating area... love the little window nook and that door goes out to the deck and, ahem, hot tub... I know, I feel spoiled and bratty, but if just happened to be there... I'm sure the cold long winters will make it's presence felt in our family}
{living room and fireplace - every house there has one, it's a given - but still will be such a treat to have in our home}