Ahhhh! I'm so excited to announce we bought a new house! I shared 11 days ago about our decision to start house hunting, and the ups and downs that come with it. I said in the end that I thought it would take a long time...HA and here we are. Today I'm sharing how we found our dream home and the decisions we made leading up to it.
First, let me say if there is one thing I stress it's finding a realtor you trust. Our realtor, Stephanie, used to be a co-worker of Alex at Apple and helped us find our current/first home 5 1/2 years ago! I feel like I have dragged Stephanie all over town the past month, but she's always been so positive. She was even sweet enough to bring me flowers and chocolate when our first offer wasn't accepted. She was always quick to respond to any questions we had or appointments we wanted to make, and was very friendly and professional with the realtors we negotiated with.
Once we decided to start looking we originally only wanted to look in the neighborhoods nearby since we love our location and school district. We discovered most homes that had what we wanted (4 bedrooms, 3 baths) were built in the 90s and would still need some renovations. Think sea shell sinks, gold showers, weird colored tile. We put an offer on one we really loved. The layout was perfect, but it would need updating. I was OK with that because again it was the perfect location, and walking distance to my old hood so I could see my friends. We lost to another offer and I was CRUSHED. We looked at a couple more that popped up in the area, but nothing worked out.
Then one day I started looking at homes outside our zip code. I started seeing beautiful homes for the same price but were very modern and needed no updates. That become very appealing. I messaged Stephanie two houses I wanted to look at in a neighborhood 7 miles north of where we live which is in Georgetown. We set up an appointment and one afternoon after work I went to look. This was the first time I toured a home without Alex (he couldn't get off). We toured the first home, but I wasn't loving it. Then we toured the second home which was a brand new build. I LOVED it! While we were touring it the realtor told me he had another house that was just completed he could show me too. Let's see it! It was very similar to the one I had just toured, except it had a 3 car garage and less square footage. Both kitchens were breathtaking, and both had faux wood tile.
I took some video footage and showed Alex that night. He liked it and made an appointment to tour it the next day. All night I tossed and turned thinking about it. One of our college friends lives in the neighborhood and told us it takes him an hour to get to work and he doesn't work much further than I do. I also went back and forth about leaving our current home. Could we renovate and get what we want?
The next morning I told Alex not to go (he also had mixed feelings about the commute) so we cancelled the appointment. It was around 6pm later that day when Alex got off of work and called me to say he wanted to see the house. He went and loved it, more so than I thought. Over the next couple of days we searched some different neighborhoods with new homes (Cedar Park/Leander area), but ultimately kept comparing them to the house in Georgetown.
We decided on the drive home from Cedar Park we would put an offer on the Georgetown house. This was all within 4 days! We were both so excited, but I still worried if we were making the right decision. I prayed for clarity. The next day our realtor got to work negotiating and ultimately we got the home for $10k less than asking and they threw in some blinds ; ). The windows are AMAZING! Honestly building or renovating a home doesn't seem like fun to me, so the fact that this home was everything we wanted and had just been finished was perfect timing! After work we grabbed all the kids and drove them to see it for the first time. Their eyes lit up and they ran around like wild animals. I felt so much comfort once we were all there together, and knew it was right.
Later we drove around and looked at the nearby park and pool. We then stumbled upon the elementary school with a beautiful playground and basketball court. The kids were itching to play so we all got out. There were families playing basketball, baseball in the nearby field, and there was a Camp Gladiator fitness class going on. Kids played while their parents worked out. I ultimately worry about building community again because my village has been so helpful these past 5 years raising children but I felt comfort in that moment. It will be hard, but it will work out.
We close April 22 and will likely move in the weekend after since we'll have to work. We will be selling our home, but will likely start showing it once we move out. I'm already purging and starting to pack things up. Thank you for following our journey, and I can't wait to give you a house tour! For now here's a sneak peek of the kitchen. I can't wait to host friends and family here!
No comments:
Post a Comment