Ironically, I have heard myself saying ” this is not something I thought I would be saying/sharing/doing” a lot lately. 2020 is the year of unpredictability.

So, back to things I did not see myself saying for $500….. We bought a house!

Originally, Greg and I planned on starting our house hunt around October or November of this year when things start to cool off a bit. We thought if we bought by January/February 2021 we would be good. Even though we planned to wait we would still periodically check Zillow to see what was out there, but it was more prep work than anything serious. With the COVID pandemic going on and the uncertainty surrounding that, we were still VERY reluctant to do anything other than browse. Especially since I lost all but TWO of my weddings this year. I even had a conversation with one of my good friends the week before saying how there was this house we loved, but I was just too scared to buy during COVID.

So we just watched the house on Zillow. Three houses popped up that we liked. I thought I would watch them for a few days, see they had an offer, and then move on like always. However, a week passed and those houses were still there, plus a bunch more of ‘back on market’ houses too. Another week passed and all the houses were still there. We decided it wouldn’t hurt to look at the houses in person… I mean, we didn’t HAVE to put in an offer, we were just looking.

We looked at one of our top picks, but there was something off about the house, plus we HATED the basement. It seriously creeped me out. We just got such a bad feeling about it. After deciding that this house was out, we skipped viewing our top pick because we just decided that if we didn’t like this house in person, then we REALLY wouldn’t like the other house.

A week went by a few new houses popped up and our top pick was still on the market. We decided to go look at three houses “just to see them”.

We viewed one that was nice but did not give us the space we wanted. It was also a split level, which was something we wanted to avoid if at all possible. We then looked at another that we liked again, but it just didn’t feel like it had the space we needed. Our last house of the day ended up being the house we had our eye on the entire time. It was in a great neighborhood, it had room to grow into and the layout was perfect for us. We knew from the moment we stepped into the house, it was ‘our house’. I could see us growing as a family in this house.

We put in an offer that night, and things started to feel VERY, VERY real!!
It truly felt like everything kind of fell in place for this house. Especially seeing that the day after our offer was accepted, showings started again and houses were selling in the usual 3-4 days.

Our new house is not the most updated, but it just felt like home from the moment we walked it. It has a great layout and the best part is that it is just 5 minutes away from my parent’s house! Also, it’s NOT a tri-level, which honestly we thought would be the only option in our price range!!

The one downside to the whole process was that the seller asked for a 6-week close. This is something we would NEVER do again. The wait felt like forever, especially during a process that is basically “hurry up and wait”.

We officially got the keys three weeks ago, but are still in the process of moving in. We wanted a few slight things changed before moving and as I am learning when you do the work yourself… If your husband tells you it will take a week, add two to that. 😉

So far we have redone the flooring upstairs, painted the entire inside of the house, and changed some lighting. It is amazing how each change makes it feel more and more like our place.

This moving process has been pretty tiring this time around. Being 38 weeks pregnant probably doesn’t help, but also the fact that this is our THIRD move in THREE years, we are just ready to be settled into a place for a long time.

Can’t wait to do a house tour and share more with all of you!!