Short story: we went from 'casually looking' to 'building a new home' in about 2 weeks.
Long story: this story actually begins this past summer. We always knew that we weren't going to be in our current house forever. The original plan was to wait until Carter was in kindergarten before we moved so that he could go to my alma mater Hoover Elementary! But after almost 7 years and 2 children, things seemed...cramped. So I had been casually browsing real estate sites for what our home could sell for and what a new home would look like in our budget. And then it happened...
I found a house and totally fell in love with it. But I knew we really weren't in any position to put our house on the market and buy it so I stayed quiet until I couldn't stand it anymore and showed the house to Matt. One thing about Matt is that it doesn't take long for him to jump into action. Whereas I just sat obsessing over the pictures of this house for days, Matt immediately drove by it and called our realtor for a showing. Um, what?! Well, it was all for not because the house already had an offer on it and just like that 'our' house was gone. We decided that we should probably wait to move and the house wasn't meant to be etc and so on.
Well, I still would browse the Internet for houses just to see what was out there and, to be honest, there just wasn't anything I loved enough to sell our current home for. So we just went about our daily lives until...Christmas. Which is when we have to completely re-arrange our house for the tree, get things out of our tiny storage space, and make room for new toys for the kids. It was around Christmas when Matt was completely over our house. So over it in fact, he told me that he wanted to get an 'exit strategy' in place.
After the first of the year, Katie and Ryan started looking for their new home and that really got Matt thinking and looking for us too. So much so, that we got pre-approved just so we would be ready to jump on anything that came up. We had a basic idea of what we wanted in a house: 4 bedrooms, 3 car garage, preferably in Bettendorf school, preferably updated. Easy, right?! Um no.
You see there wasn't anything out there that fit all of criteria...in our budget. Matt wanted to see some houses anyway and what money could buy so one weekend we met up with our realtor. We looked at one house and Matt fell in love with it. Slightly out of our price range but hey, the builder still had lots available! So we sat down with the builder, picked our floor plan and upgrades and left about 45 minutes later with an idea of how much the house would cost. Oh and because lots were going fast, we put money down to hold one.
Now generally, we would have had 30-60 days to decide what we were going to do with the lot (build or not build) and could have walked away and gotten our money back if we decided against it. But because the lot Matt want was 'technically' sold so the builder could put up a spec house our 30 days became 14. Yikes! We discussed our options: waiting until spring to see what houses come up for sale or just building the house we want.
True to form, Matt obsessed over this decision for about 48 hours. While I was content waiting until Spring to see what came up, Matt really wanted to build and have a mostly maintenance free home for several years to come. And once Matt decides on something ~ good luck trying to change it :). So not quite 2 weeks after our home search began, Matt and I were signing papers to build our new house! Breaking ground on our new house starting the week of February 18th and closing on it no later than May 31st. I know!
Did I mention our current home wasn't even on the market yet?!
So for the past couple of weeks we have been cleaning out and fixing up the little things around the house to get it 'market-ready.' And today it is on the market! Check it out here!This has been such a whirlwind that I am in complete denial that we are even moving....even though we have picked everything but floors and lighting for the new house.
I am really excited about our new home but a little sad to be leaving our old one too. Truth be told, I have already shed a few tears about leaving it. This is the place where I brought my babies home, the place where we walk to Hoover park with the kiddos, and the place where Hayden flying off our deck when we let her out back. Not to mention, all the blood, sweat and tears it took the past 7 years making it a home. How did I forget that when we moved in the house had a jungle room?! Luckily, these are all memories that we can take with us to our new home and that is where our future memories will be made.
So wish us luck!
"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams." ~ Unknown
No comments:
Post a Comment