Home Sweet Next Home

I have a confession to make.  I’ve been withholding some info and updates on our next housing situation from you but, in my defense, I wanted to wait until everything was “official” before blabbing to the internet just in case things didn’t go the way we’d thought and planned and I’d then have to insert my seven-and-a-halfer.  It’s a little more than a story of having a contract on a house in which we could share the process as it progressed…or maybe didn’t progress since we’ve been there once already in our house hunting.  Settle in and I’ll tell you the whole, crazy story, seashell version.  Well, maybe ‘crazy’ isn’t the right word?  Ironic maybe?  Or, maybe a spinkle of both.  Yep, I think so.

A month or so before we put our house on the market and while we were in the midst of looking for the next place we could settle into, we came across a little house that was in the exact area we wanted to be.  P R I M E location, I believe is the saying.  The problem with the area that we longed to be was the price.  Most homes in that area were well over the budget we wanted to stick to.  But this little house we thought might just be within our reach a) because it looked pretty small in comparison to others around the area and b) because, as far as we could tell from the outside, it probably needed a good amount of updating.  Problem was, it wasn’t on the market.  *womp womp* 

I’ve heard of people writing letters to homeowners in hopes that they might consider selling their house and moving elsewhere but I really didn’t think we’d ever do it.  But then the interest in this little, what I’ll call from here on out, ‘prime locale’ house, gave us a wild hair and then we did.  We wrote a letter to the owners of this little house, asking if they might be interested in selling their home because we might be interested in buying.  I stuck a stamp on it and away it went, never heard about again. 

The end.

Kidding.

It wasn’t…the end, that is.

Getting slightly crazy, right?

A few weeks later, the people that owned the little prime locale house contacted us and told us “they are interested in selling us their house!  Would you like to come see it?” 

What?!  Would we ever!

We thought this only happened on TV shows…we really weren’t expecting to hear back from them much less hear back what we hoped to hear!  So naturally, we hiked up our hopes and went to see the house.  It was about the size we figured though a bit more cramped than we had wanted, layout-speaking.  But, layouts can change and the plans we thought we’d probably have to make for adding some more square footage onto the house would shortly have to be a reality if we were to be the next owners.

All cool except then we talked numbers with the owners and in the end, we felt that the price they were asking of us was more than the house was worth and would’ve made it hard for us to add on without being underwater on the value end.  So, we walked away…and into a hundred other houses and you know kind of where that story went.

Here’s where irony enters, stage left. 

A certain someone we know found out that the owners of the prime local house were open to selling and that certain someone really wanted the house.  So, they bought it.  They have some pretty big plans for the house but aren’t going to put those plans into action for a year or so but, in the meantime, they asked us if we would like to RENT the house for an insane not-a-lot of money.

Now, I realize this might seem like a no-brainer situation but it was really a tough situation.  At the time that we were asked to rent, we were going back-and-forth on offers on a house we loved, a house that was much bigger but a little farther from where we wanted to be.  Shortly after though, we had reached a point where we just didn’t feel comfortable going any higher on our end and so we ended up just walking away from that house.  This then, seemed our best option.  Still hard though because renting just doesn’t give you the gratification of making a house 100% yours, which is big for me, my obsession with making and doing (see also:  self-care), and this little ‘ole blog and, OH the house is pretty small.  Our whole reason for moving in the first place was because 1) we wanted to get a little closer to where Anthony works and 2) we wanted something a little bigger for our growing up family.  This prime local house has even less usable space than the house we just sold so moving into it (not owning it with the ability to add on) meant downsizing our belongings even more than we just had from moving.  Tough, but very first-world, problems.  (Here I have to give myself an eye roll.)  But, and that’s a big BUT, taking up the offer of the year rental in this little house will allow us to pay off our student loans in the next few months since we won’t need that down payment moolah for a house right now.  And then, sing it with me “debt-freeeeee”!  Yes sirree, I can do small for a year.  Debt-free.  Debt-free.  Debt-free.  Music to mine ears.  (And, I shouldn’t jinx myself but the house that we were going back-and-forth with offers on is still on the market and the owner’s haven’t really lowered their price so who knows?  Maybe it’ll still be unsold in a year. )

Like I mentioned above, the new owner of our new rental has some pretty big plans for the house in the next few years.  Basically, it’s going to become a whole new house.  Which, for us, means we can pretty much do anything to it that we want because it’ll all be replaced after we leave.  It’s the ultimate renters’ dream, right?  No restrictions.  Of course, we don’t want to pour thousands of dollars into a house we don’t own so we won’t be doing any major projects but there will be painting and lots of fun little projects galore.  I’m dreaming of marble (contact paper) countertops and maybe some painted tile floor experiments.  :D  I can’t wait to start and share them and all the tutorials with you!  This is going to be low, low budget and so, so fun!   

Anyway, that’s the story we’re sticking to and for the next year we’ll be living small(er).  As an end cap, how about a little, pre-move tour?

Foyer:

Front living room looking into dining room:


From the other direction:


Kitchen:




Laundry room:


Den:




Hallway:


Kids’/Guest bathroom:


Playroom:


Kids’ bedroom:


Master:


Master bath:

If there ever was a time to say it, this is it…STAY TUNED!  And say a prayer that our second move in six months goes quickly and smoothly!