Back toward the end of July last year, Josh and I were discussing the value of our home. I never thought in a million years that we would be at a point in our lives where we could afford to start looking for our "forever" home. As much as we LOVED our home, our neighbors, and living in Simpsonville so close to all of our friends, my heart ached to be closer to my family and our country roots were calling for some space for a little hobby farm. I thought for sure acreage and a bigger house would be at least another 5 years down the road. However, we
-and by we I mean Josh because I SUCK at Math- crunched some numbers and realized that it just. might. could. happen.
So, I started looking for land. We thought maybe we could get some land and then build a house. A few timid steps into that process and we knew we'd definitely be biting off more than we could chew. We also knew that for our budget, we could afford more land if we could find a house already built on it. I began stalking the Realtor and Zillow websites, trying to keep an eye out for ANYTHING in our price range. There were pretty slim pickings in the area we preferred. August arrived and school started, and the search continued on the back burner because #iteachmiddleschool. Whew.
On August 28th, I stumbled upon a listing that had just been reduced to our price range. As I scrolled through the pictures, I saw more and more potential in the sweet, secluded brick house. I wanted an old farm house, so the idea of a brick ranch wasn't very appealing to me. However, when I saw it came with two outdoor buildings (Josh was immediately interested), an in-ground pool, a chicken coop, blueberry bushes, blackberries, apple trees, and 3.5 acres, my jaw hit the floor. Alllll of this, IN our price range, ALREADY established? I immediately contacted our agent (who is also a college friend!) and asked her if we could just look around. I thought, okay so maybe this won't be for us, but at least we would have a good idea about what we would be getting into if we went the "fixer upper" route.
As soon as we pulled up into the driveway, I was hooked. Beautiful trees led to a peaceful, rolling front yard with a giant front porch that made me swoon. As we made our way through the house, we realized it would be work, a lot of work, to get this 1977 diamond in the rough back in ship shape. What was encouraging was that at least the potential was there, and as far as the outside land goes, it was perfect.
That day we decided to get our house ready to put on the market. In a week. Gulp. I was thrilled and excited and so so scared. Holy cow, could we really do this? No, no we couldn't. Thankfully, though, God could. And did. Yes. Our house was ready to put on the market in 7 days. It was the cleanest, neatest, least cluttered it had EVER been. I almost regretted listing it because I wanted the chance to live in it and enjoy it all clean and de-cluttered and looking the way I had wanted since we had moved in, haha!
So, we officially listed it. Our parents thought we were crazy. We thought we were crazy. We had an offer in less than a week. It fell through, and we were sorely disappointed. However, we continued to pray that God would bring our neighbors and our house the family meant to call it home. 12 days after listing our house, it went under contract to the perfect family. We celebrated by purchasing a special Christmas ornament while in Pigeon Forge, TN on vacation with family. We were so excited!!
The following weeks were
very stressful and involved paperwork, financing, inspections, repairs, and lots of packing. However, I had a quiet confidence. After all, we knew from the start (ahem, submitting an offer on the house we wanted BEFORE we had even listed our own home) God would have to work the details out, because on paper it shouldn't, couldn't, work. Finally, October 28th arrived. Exactly two months after I first spotted our new home. Closing day.
 |
| busiest week ever. |
 |
| my brothers are amazing! |
We got to sit down with the sweet family buying our house to sign papers and exchange hugs along with house keys. We also got to chit chat one last time with the very nice man we bought our forever home from. Then, it was time. Time to go home.
The next day, we had our first overnight guests come to stay for the wedding of a childhood friend. 2 days later, we enjoyed our first Halloween in our new town. Dax loved parading his Marshall costume in downtown Easley, and I loved decorating my new front porch. Since our closing, life has been
nonstop, but we are so in love with where we live and are slowly making this house our home.
I'm looking forward to sharing some progress we have made on updating the inside of our home, but it's slow going since we both work full time and chase a toddler. (: I'm sure there will be plenty to share over the summer!
Until next time,
A
