The Road to Home

Soooo, in late April 2019 we did a thing....

We settled on our "forever house" that we have fondly dubbed ' Falconhead Manor'.

..I'm not gonna let this Falconhead thing die, everrrr.

I talked a little about what made us decide to list our first home here, (along with some before and after photos), and then I just kind of bailed on this blog.  Sorry ya'll, two kids, a career and living in a house that is not yours does not make for a lot of blog fodder.

But in the ten months that we lived with my in-laws, we looked at nearly every single house that came on the market trying to find the right house.

In August 2018 I was having breakfast with ladies from a local mother's group and the woman knew we were house hunting and began telling me about the neighborhood she walks through and how she met an older gentleman who was  thinking about selling his house.  I asked her a couple questions about the location of said neighborhood and I quickly realized she was talking this area that JEGs and I had been low-key stalking for years.

About four years ago JEGs and I went to a pool party at a friends house and we instantly fell in love with the neighborhood; it had large lots, mature trees and it was in the exact school district we were looking, right down to the elementary school I really liked.  A bunch of houses came on the market but got snatched up in days, so we never had a chance to jump on them.

When I realized what neighborhood this woman was talking about at breakfast I shoved my card in her hand and said "if you see this man again, please have him call me. I don't want to sell his house, I want to buy it for myself".

A couple months passed and I didn't hear anything, and one day in October I got a text from the woman saying that here is the owner's phone number, give him a call.  I was SO FREAKING EXCITED.  The housing market had been savage over the summer  because there were a lot of buyers and very little inventory; houses were getting multiple offers and going thousands over listing price.  I was excited to not have to deal with the bidding war because I figured this gentleman and I could keep this as an off market deal.

I call and get sent to a voicemail that says "I'm sorry I can't come to the phone, I am showing a buyer the house.  Please leave a message to schedule a showing".

I'm sorry.  Come again?

I quickly googled the address and the owner had listed the house For Sale By Owner (FSBO) on Zillow.


#$&@*$^@(###!!!!

The owner did call me back, we had a lovely conversation and had scheduled a time to see the house.  Unfortunately, we ended up cancelling because after discussing it with JEGs, we were not comfortable with the price the owner had listed it (it was significantly higher than we wanted to pay) so we walked away.  A couple days later the house was pulled off Zillow and I figured we had missed our chance.

Cue sad music and me walking around dragging my feet.

Fast forward to March 2019 and JEGs mentioned that he saw a house listed in that neighborhood.  I looked at the address and realized it was THE house.

Initially I didn't even want to make an appointment to see the house.  NO, I thought, this guy had the chance to sell it to us straight out and he didn't.  I don't want his stupid house anyway.  Right?   Besides, it was a traditional colonial and we had walked through (what seemed like) a thousand of them and had decided the floor plan wasn't what we were looking for.  The only thing this house had going for it was the location.  You know, next to a horse farm and walking distance to a park.  Sitting on a cul-de-sac in a lovely neighborhood.  But, pffft... who wants all that lovely stuff, right?

For closure's sake, we looked at the house with all intentions of not liking it.

 As soon as we walked through the door, it  felt like home.

We got home and wrote up a full price offer and I included a letter that basically said "hi.  Remember me?  I am the lady who wanted to buy your house six months ago and I still do".  Of course there were multiple offers and for some reason (hopefully guilt, just kidding) the seller picked us.

We settled in April but the house was in a different school district, so we waiting until the end of May to move.  This way I was only trucking The Boy back and forth to school for two weeks.

We have some big plans for this house, including how we are going to make this floor plan work for our family.  I can't wait to share what we have done so far and what we plan to do.

It feels so so so good to be settled and in our forever home.

ME