Breaking News!
Okay, not really. But big news for us! Ryan bought a house!
…in a pandemic, no less.
Let’s just say, the past eight weeks have been very interesting.
If I were to write down everything that was involved in our home buying process, first, the post would be thirty pages long and second, it wouldn’t be quite fair because I didn’t buy this house- Ryan did. During the month of March I watched him lose sleep, stress, plan, schedule, coordinate, re-schedule, stress some more, until finally, he closed on our home. This whole thing was quite the whirlwind for him, but honestly, I was just along for the ride!
We had a very honest conversation back when buying a house was becoming a not-so-distant dream for Ryan. When the time came, it would be his house, and we would make it our home. I will always appreciate how much he included me on the process, but in the end, he was the one doing the heavy lifting (quite literally- he and his dad and his friend Jason lifted so much furniture.)
One thing I want to reflect on, especially considering that it might help those considering buying a house right now, is how fast the market is moving. We would see a house on Zillow or Redfin (great resources) that had been listed for maybe a week and would cross our fingers that when we scrolled down the listing, it wasn’t marked as “contingent.” Most of the time, it was. To give you some perspective, our house was on the market for only ten days.
Ryan and I knew right away that we were going to have to make a couple very serious, very quick decisions and in the end, we got very lucky. It’s great that there is so much information online because it really helps you weed out the homes you’re not looking for. In the end, we toured one house and Ryan put in an offer. It checked all the boxes for both his “needs” and his “wants” lists and we drove away talking about all the things we could do- where we would put this, what we would do with that. We had to keep reminding ourselves that nothing was final and that we shouldn’t get our hopes up too high, but when Ryan’s offer was accepted it felt like everything had fallen into place.
So, here we are. In a strange twist of fate, I’m Distance Teaching from New Hampshire for the rest of the school year and Ryan is working from home, out of his “office” in our living room. We are completely moved in, but there is a still a lot on our to-do list. Right now, the outdoors are calling. All 11-acres of it! Who knew that woods came with so much cutting, clearing, chipping…
At least I’ve got my compost bucket going!
All in all, we’re really happy in our new home and I can’t wait to take you along on this journey that is homeownership and home improvement. There is plenty we want to change and while it is going to take time (the name of the game is ‘slowly, but surely’) we’re putting action behind vision. You can find updates here, as they come. Hey, I gotta keep my family updated somehow while we’re quarantined!