The tale of a house (1)

...We bought a house!! 

Or, at least, we are in the mid-to-end stages of buying a house. 

Basically, we bought a house! :)

How we got to this point is quite a story (a miraculous story, I would say) so I'm sharing it here for the sake of my memory. Depending on the timing of things and when this baby boy arrives, I hope to share more photos and stories about the process. That's why this is considered part 1... We shall see if any more parts get written. 

We moved to the area about 7 weeks ago, and have been staying with the parents of Joel's college friend. They live abroad most of the year, so it worked out nicely for us to stay with them temporarily while we got settled and explored the area. Almost immediately upon arriving, we started looking at homes online and visiting a few with our realtor. 

As we explored and looked at homes for sale, we also began developing relationships with our current neighbors. We live on a really quiet street, in a town about 12-18 minutes from Joel's school (depending on traffic). The neighborhood is an awesome mix of people from all ages, with a few young families and some folks who have lived here 50+ years! 

Most of the houses we looked at were in other towns, not as convenient for Joel to commute, and not nearly as quaint as the town where we live. They were great houses, though, and whenever something came up in our town (in our price range), it tended to be pretty dumpy and in need of significant work. Twice we made offers on homes that we really liked, but we got out-bid and had to move on. 

One Tuesday morning, as we were considering making yet another offer on yet another house, my neighbor drove by and stopped to chat. She lives three doors down and after asking me about our house hunt, mentioned that her other neighbor (2 doors down from us) was interested in selling his house, and that he would probably be really happy to deal with us privately without hiring his own realtor and listing the house online. 

Over the course of a few days, we had talked with the owner on the phone, walked casually down the street to scope out the house, and coordinated chances to get inside to look around more seriously. Though the house had some quirks and needed a few significant repairs, it seemed really awesome. Naturally, our love for the neighborhood made us a bit biased... 

So things moved forward. We made an offer, it was accepted, and we have signed an agreement of sale. Today a home inspector came and then this evening we met with a contractor to get an estimate for the work we would like done before we move in. As of now, we will settle on the house at the end of September-- about five days before baby 2 is due to arrive. 

Stay tuned :)