The House

Our realtor had gently reminded me a few times...we need to get house hunting. I know, I know, we only have about 45 days to find somewhere to live. But nothing was standing out to me. After months of perusing the mls listings suddenly everything on the market RIGHT now was just ok. Nothing that I was super excited to see. There was one house I lovingly called The Big Ugly and I was hopeful it would be a good fit for our family.

Before we headed out I had this gut feeling (again) that our house wasn't even on the market yet but I knew we had to start looking and at least I could eliminate some from my favorites list.

So I finagled some kid care and took Max along and we headed out for a day of house hunting with our realtor. We looked at 8-9 houses that day and only 2 stood out to me as possibilities. The first one was an older home with lots of fun updates and finishes but I didn't LOVE it. The 2nd was a great house, we even went back to see it again on our way back but it already had 2 offers in and I KNEW it would be gone. Sure enough it went under contract the next morning.

After a full day of house searching I was discouraged that Rob didn't jump to make an offer on the house that I had liked. So I went back and looked at houses again and there it was, a new listing. You see, we live in a busy suburb full of families and 4 bedroom houses sell fast. If you look at 3/2/2 houses there are around 400 on the market at a given time. If you look at 4/2/2 or 4/2/3 suddenly your pool narrows to around 70 choices. If they are nice, they move pretty fast.

And then I found this...a simple little ranch, 4 beds, 2 baths, 2 car garage on close to THREE acres. In our same great school district, close to our friends from Life Group and a hop skip to the highway for Rob's commute. This was something special and I had to see and I had to see it fast. I worked with our realtor and showed the listing to Rob and he wanted me to go that day if possible. Finally around 2:30pm he called and said we could do a 3pm showing. We (my mom and the kiddos) hopped in the car and headed that way.

I loved it. The second we got in the neighborhood and I got out of the car I told my mom "I love it" It's in an older neighborhood with full tall trees, shade, squirrels and well maintained houses, most of which sit on an acre or acre and a half. We pulled up and there it was, a cute little ranch with a normal sized front yard and in need of some color. A long S shaped driveway led to the house and I was excited, our realtor walked out and said "Rob's going to like this place"

We walked in and it felt like a home. It was cozy and comfortable and big enough, but not too big. And then we walked out back into the park of a backyard, completely fenced in, backed up to a nice neighborhood with a fenceline so far away I had to squint. I was sold. I didn't even have to see it all, but I looked and I liked.

I called Rob on the way home and we knew, this was the place and we didn't want to lose it. We put together an offer, got a counter back and accepted it and in less that 48 hours we were under contract on a 1974 half remodeled, half in desperate need of a makeover 2200 square feet ranch on 3 acres. We were in love.