Walker and I had been looking at houses online for about 3 years. We had actually gotten an agent and started looking seriously not long after I stopped blogging last time. But a combination of factors prevented us from going through with it at that time. The timing just wasn't right. But we knew that was something we wanted to do eventually, so every few weeks we'd check out the listings to see what was available and what the prices looked like. Then we saw this house.
I fell in love pretty much the moment I saw that bright red door. It was in a neighborhood I had only ever dreamed of living in, it was in our price range, and it was the perfect size for our small family. This was the house that got us talking seriously again about buying. We contacted our former agent (who was more than happy to work with us again) and set up a date to go house hunting. However, by that time this house was no longer listed online, so we chose a few other houses to see. Naturally, we were disappointed, but by this time we'd made the decision that we were going through with it this time, and we would certainly be able to find something we'd love. When we shared our list of houses with our agent, he emailed me back and shared a link to another house, saying "what do you think about this one?" And (since I think you see where this is going) it was this house. He said that there had been an offer, so the sellers took it off the market, but then the offer fell through, so the owners decided to take it off for the holidays and re-list it in the new year. But, since the sellers were also using an agent in his company, it was an in-house listing, so he could show it to us. We met him on a rainy Saturday morning at this house, looked at 5 others, came back to this one, and then went inside to make out an offer. Long (stressful) story short, the house was ours in February.
Some people have been amazed that we chose this house in only one day. And although I had a few doubts as we were going through all the stress of waiting for it to be ours, I am so glad we bought THIS house. All those years of looking at houses online (and watching a lot of HGTV) prepared us. We knew exactly what we were looking for in our first home. We knew what we were willing to compromise on, and what we weren't. We knew what things we could change and what things we couldn't. And most importantly, we knew when we found it.
In no particular order, here are a few things we were looking for, and some pics that show how this house fit the bill. Sorry for the terrible quality. They were just taken with our phones on a very rainy day.
- A fenced-in, mostly-level backyard (or a yard that was already partly-fenced and relatively easy to finish fencing). With a dog, this was an absolute must for us.
- An easily accessible deck or patio area that we could actually use. In our old house, the deck was just on the other side of the kitchen window, but there was no door onto it. You either had to walk around from the back, or go through the front door and around the porch. It was also open on both sides, so we had to find ways to block it when we were outside grilling so that Kirby (and other visiting dogs) couldn't get out and into the street.
- One story. Not that our entire lives revolve around our dog (which you might think from the first two items on this list), but stairs aren't good for dachshunds. Not to mention that we weren't really keen on taking a lot of stairs ourselves, nor lugging a bunch of furniture up stairs. A two-story wouldn't be a deal breaker, but we wanted to be able to do most of our living on a single story.
- Hardwood floors. Look at those beauties! Dog thing again, his black hair would turn our carpet black. And I LOATHE vacuuming.
- 2-3 bedrooms or 2 bedrooms and an office area. This home had the latter, although I guess you could actually call it a third bedroom since it has a closet.
- 1-2 bathrooms. At first, we were adamant about having at least 2 bathrooms. But honestly, most of the 3 bed, 2 bath homes we saw in the areas we liked were just not in our price range. So that was something we had to be willing to compromise on.
- A kitchen that had a decent amount of storage and at least an eat-in kitchen. We don't host dinner parties or holiday dinners, so a formal dining room wasn't a priority for us.
And although I said in no particular order, these were probably our two biggest "musts":
- A home that was move-in ready. Although I love watching a renovation show just as much as the next HGTV-er, we realized that right now, we didn't have the time or money to sink into a big renovation. Instead, we wanted something that was mostly finished and updated, but that we could slowly make our own, too.
- An older house. We didn't want a cookie-cutter house. There were PLENTY of those for sale. We wanted an older home with some character was looking for some extra love to bring it out.
As you can see, this house fit the bill. And it definitely needed some love. It was built in the late 1940's, and the previous owners had started doing some updates (hello, granite countertops!) but it was not quite where we wanted it to be.
And that's where our journey begins. You've seen our before pics, so in the next several posts I'll share some during and after pics to show where we are now. Stay tuned!
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