It's been a while since I've written any longer updates. I think about it quite often but then just don't sit down to write. The past few months, many thoughts have come to my mind. It was a year ago that we felt God leading us in a new direction. It was scary to put it out there when it was all so new and so far away but now everything is really falling into place! We will officially be moving in just a couple of weeks!
Buying and selling a house is a big emotional roller coaster. It felt like it took so much time and effort just to get our house ready to sell. It was like crawling through mud. Then it was real and on to the wait. There is no way to know how long it will take to sell a house. It could be days, weeks, months. Every time we had a showing we wondered if this would be the buyer. It was a strange feeling knowing that someone was walking through our house, judging it. Would they appreciate the work we've done to it? Would they notice all the things we don't like about it? Would they like it for the same reasons we bought it for? Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long for a buyer. Then comes the negotiating process. We spent a day going back and forth. Wondering if we'd get our rock bottom price or should we just let it go for less now that we had an offer. Ultimately it wasn't the price we wanted but we were ready to part with it. In the end when the deal was done I was left wondering if we should have fought harder on some things or held out for more but I was also totally relieved that it was over.
Then comes the buying phase. We had already been looking. Mostly online but also a little in person. Now it was real though. I felt very nervous because there weren't any homes in our price range that really stuck out to me. We had already seen several before our house sold and the one that we liked ended up selling. We assumed that must not be the house for us but it was back to square one. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted. We knew it needed at least two bathrooms but I was dreaming of my own master bathroom. I also really like having a fireplace so I wanted to make sure we had one. I wanted a finished basement or at least flexible space that I could use for the kids or guests or whatever. As we were looking, one house had all of those things. It was a nice place and good location. It had a fireplace. It had a master bathroom. It had a finished basement. It even had a fenced in yard and a swing set that was staying. The one thing that bothered me though was the space on the main floor. It just wasn't as functional as I wanted. The eat in kitchen wasn't actually big enough to hold a table that would fit our family so we would have had to use the front room as our dining. That left us with our one living area which was a decent size but just not very open. I had to try and decide if I could get past that to get all of the other things I wanted. Then we saw 2 other homes. Very similar. Both were in nice neighborhoods. Both were bi levels (which was something else I was trying to open my mind to) and both were in the school district with people we already know. One was very pretty and had nice updates but was much smaller. It also had the master bath I wanted. I just couldn't get past the space issue though. The bedrooms were very small and the space over all wasn't as much as I wanted. The price was very good though. We ended up with option 3. The other bi level. It does not have a fireplace. It does not have a master bath. Apparently space and location ended up being the winning factors with me. When I would think about the first house that had all of the things on my check list, it still just didn't feel right. But there we were with the third house. It is in very good shape and the bathrooms it does have are very nice and updated. The back yard is amazing and my kids fell in love right away. It also has a swing set staying in the fenced in yard. It has a fourth bedroom downstairs and an extra living area which I plan to use as a play room for now. The school is within our view and our boys can easily walk there so no hassle of driving them every day or having them catch the bus. I feel that it must be God who led us to that place considering it doesn't have what I considered at first to be my non-negotiable list.
We are excited and ready to move and see what God has in store for us there. I'm not liking living in transition very much. I also don't like that moving is taking up our whole summer but I'm trying to make the best of it. The boys are really excited and can't wait to be in our new house! The countdown is on!
Buying and selling a house is a big emotional roller coaster. It felt like it took so much time and effort just to get our house ready to sell. It was like crawling through mud. Then it was real and on to the wait. There is no way to know how long it will take to sell a house. It could be days, weeks, months. Every time we had a showing we wondered if this would be the buyer. It was a strange feeling knowing that someone was walking through our house, judging it. Would they appreciate the work we've done to it? Would they notice all the things we don't like about it? Would they like it for the same reasons we bought it for? Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long for a buyer. Then comes the negotiating process. We spent a day going back and forth. Wondering if we'd get our rock bottom price or should we just let it go for less now that we had an offer. Ultimately it wasn't the price we wanted but we were ready to part with it. In the end when the deal was done I was left wondering if we should have fought harder on some things or held out for more but I was also totally relieved that it was over.
Then comes the buying phase. We had already been looking. Mostly online but also a little in person. Now it was real though. I felt very nervous because there weren't any homes in our price range that really stuck out to me. We had already seen several before our house sold and the one that we liked ended up selling. We assumed that must not be the house for us but it was back to square one. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted. We knew it needed at least two bathrooms but I was dreaming of my own master bathroom. I also really like having a fireplace so I wanted to make sure we had one. I wanted a finished basement or at least flexible space that I could use for the kids or guests or whatever. As we were looking, one house had all of those things. It was a nice place and good location. It had a fireplace. It had a master bathroom. It had a finished basement. It even had a fenced in yard and a swing set that was staying. The one thing that bothered me though was the space on the main floor. It just wasn't as functional as I wanted. The eat in kitchen wasn't actually big enough to hold a table that would fit our family so we would have had to use the front room as our dining. That left us with our one living area which was a decent size but just not very open. I had to try and decide if I could get past that to get all of the other things I wanted. Then we saw 2 other homes. Very similar. Both were in nice neighborhoods. Both were bi levels (which was something else I was trying to open my mind to) and both were in the school district with people we already know. One was very pretty and had nice updates but was much smaller. It also had the master bath I wanted. I just couldn't get past the space issue though. The bedrooms were very small and the space over all wasn't as much as I wanted. The price was very good though. We ended up with option 3. The other bi level. It does not have a fireplace. It does not have a master bath. Apparently space and location ended up being the winning factors with me. When I would think about the first house that had all of the things on my check list, it still just didn't feel right. But there we were with the third house. It is in very good shape and the bathrooms it does have are very nice and updated. The back yard is amazing and my kids fell in love right away. It also has a swing set staying in the fenced in yard. It has a fourth bedroom downstairs and an extra living area which I plan to use as a play room for now. The school is within our view and our boys can easily walk there so no hassle of driving them every day or having them catch the bus. I feel that it must be God who led us to that place considering it doesn't have what I considered at first to be my non-negotiable list.
We are excited and ready to move and see what God has in store for us there. I'm not liking living in transition very much. I also don't like that moving is taking up our whole summer but I'm trying to make the best of it. The boys are really excited and can't wait to be in our new house! The countdown is on!
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