On May 25, 2006 Sherry and I officially became homeowners. Yup, it’s been three whole years since we moved into our humble abode and we can’t believe how time has flown. Despite all that’s happened (renovations, redecorations, and even a backyard wedding), it seems too soon to be celebrating our third anniversary at this address.
In honor of our milestone, we thought we’d give you guys a look back at how we ended up here. Because as much as we think time passed incredibly quickly between then and now, wait ’til you hear how speedily our house hunting weekend – yes, one single solitary weekend – went. And we’ve peppered our timeline with some photos that we took during the first few looks at our home (FYI – all of our House Tour “before” photos are from our first walk-through or they day of our inspection).
February 25, 2006: Sherry and I ditch New York City and relocate to Richmond, VA in my parents’ minivan (full of only a few essentials) in search of a slower pace. We happily move into a one-bedroom apartment to get a sense of the city before choosing a neighborhood to buy in (watch a video tour of that apartment full of free hand-me-downs). We figure we’ll spend a year renting before taking the homeowner plunge.
March 18, 2006: I propose to Sherry on the top of a mountain after a 4 mile hike (Sherry always jokes that I really made her work for her ring). She says “yes” after a bit of speechless arm flapping. Our parents feel much better about the whole living together thing.
Mid-April 2006: Friends advise us that “it’s never too soon” to start house hunting, just so we can get a sense of what’s available and what we can afford. Sherry consults our bank to learn how much of a loan we’d be approved for… just in case.
Friday, April 21- 6pm: I come home from work to learn that Sherry has arranged for us to see a nearby house that fits our budget. We decide it’ll be good house hunting practice. We hate the house, but love the agent and ask him to help us find other options (that’s his backside below).
Saturday, April 22 – 8am: It’s raining, but that doesn’t slow us down. Armed with a bunch of listings, we begin driving around checking out neighborhoods to get a sense of what our money can buy (so we’re better prepared when it comes time to “seriously” look in down the line).
11am: Don’t like most of the drive-by options, but decide we should at least go into one for the experience. Our agent first gives us a tour of a recently renovated, two-bedroom. Neighborhood and location aren’t the best for us, but the inside is nice and new. We tell our agent that we like it, but don’t want to pay for all the renovation work that we could do ourselves (although we literally have zero experience). Agent suggests we see one other house which is a bit more of a “fixer-upper.”
Noon: At other house. Had driven by it earlier, loved the location but could barely see the darn thing through all the trees. Another couple is already there touring it. First impression: very outdated, the exact antithesis of the previously renovated house we toured. Walk through the humble brick ranch, laughing/cringing at several features. Love the backyard and the price (which is over 30K lower than our budget- lots of room for renovations…). Start to realize the house has potential. But we’re not seriously looking. Right?
1:30pm: Back to the apartment. Sherry professes her love for the house we just saw. She wants to put in an offer on it. I express my hesitation – we’re just looking right? Sherry counters – it’s only been on the market for two days. What if that other couple takes it? What if we never find anything else that’s a great deal in a great location. How does paying rent for a year when we could be paying down a mortgage make sense? This continues for a while. I start to see her point.
2:30pm: We call our agent and tell him we’d like to put an offer on the house. I pace nervously.
4pm: Agent arrives. We fill out paperwork. He leaves to submit it. My pacing continues. Sherry prefers to jump around giddily saying it’s gonna be great. “We’ll love that house and it’ll love us back” she promises.
Sunday, April 23 – 10am: Agent calls. Offer is accepted. Mix of disbelief and excitement floods over us. Did we really just buy a house? On the very weekend we started “casually” looking around? Start calling family and try desperately to explain our “guess what? we got a house” news in a way that doesn’t make us sound completely out of our minds…
Saturday, April 29th- 11am: Show my parents our future home. They love it so much they suggest that we get married in the expertly manicured backyard. We had already decided on an outdoor ceremony at a gorgeous stately tudor on a big grassy lawn, but this suggestion sticks in our heads and by the time we get the keys we’re sold on a backyard wedding at our new house.
Thursday, May 25 – 4pm: House inspection goes off without a hitch. All the financial stuff checks out too. Meet attorney for the closing. Sign a bazillion pieces of paper. Get keys handed over to us. Sherry & John Petersik = homeowners. Do the (seated) happy dance in the car.
6pm: Like two crazy people, we begin shuttling whatever belongings fit in our tiny Nisaan Maxima from the apartment to our new house (we don’t have the patience to wait until morning when we’ll have a UHaul). We have officially begun “moving in.” That night is spent on an air mattress in our soon-to-be bedroom even though we have a perfectly serviceable bed back at the apartment. Why shouldn’t we sleep in our new house?
Friday, May 26 – 9am: I leave for work. Sherry pushes all of her meetings and conference calls until next week and begins decorating (she claims she can’t sleep let alone work until she gets to repaint a few rooms). She hasn’t stopped fixing things up since (1094 days and counting)- and I’ve gotten in on the demo/reno action quite a bit since then as well.
That’s my cousin in the photo above helping Sherry paint our living room (the first time around). That was taken the Sunday after our closing (the only reason it wasn’t on Saturday is because we were in New Jersey for a wedding that day, but we drove home that evening- through the night- just to get back to our new house and whip out our paint brushes the next morning).
So that’s the story of how Casa Petersik came to be. We’d love to hear how you guys found your current homes. Was it a long process? Or a whirlwind like ours? Either way, we hope you’ve enjoyed celebrating your homeownership milestones as much as we have. Happy anniversary, house!
Anna says
I loved reading this post. We’re in the middle of buying a home, and this post just clicked. Our new home (*hopefully*) is a bank owned property (foreclosure), so everything won’t happen as fast as it did with you guys, but we have our fingers crossed!
Babs says
I love your story! I think it’s great you guys knew you had found the right place when you saw it!
My fiancé and I are closing on our first new house this coming Friday and we couldn’t be more excited! We put an offer in on the second place we looked at. Sometimes you just know when you know :)
It was a bit of a struggle in the beginning because another couple put in a better offer than ours 10 minutes after we signed the seller’s counter! Because of that, the sellers (at first) refused to do ANYTHING we asked after the inspection, hoping we would walk away. Ugh–talk about stress! But we knew this was the perfect place for us so we dug our heels in, and the other couple eventually withdrew their offer :)
Lori says
We found our house on the same day we were “just looking” too. Although, we already knew the neighborhood and had walked through it about a year prior (it’s a tiny little neighborhood). I had remarked how much I love the look and feel of the neighborhood but figured it was way out of our price range so I never really thought anymore about it. About 11 months later, we went out looking, just for fun and went back to that same neighborhood and toured a model home. That’s when we really fell in love with it. Signed the papers to build three days later. Never even looked at any other neighborhoods. Twelve months after that casual “I wish we could live here” remark, they poured the slab for our soon to be home!
Nine years later, we’ve been married in this house, raised a child in this house and had far more good times than bad here. The longer I’m here, the more sure I am that this is the perfect house for us. Sometimes you just know where you’re suppose to be. Even if it all looks crazy from the outside.
Congratulations on your three years!
Stephanie A. says
My fiance and I just moved into our first house a few weeks ago and we, too, were just “casually looking” when we found this one. It was the first house we looked at and we only looked at like 4 total. It needs a great deal of work, so it’s a good thing I found this blog :)
Aimee says
We found our house in just a weekend too – actually just a day! We thought the first day out would be to just see what inventory was on the market in our area/price range. For our budget, in the neighborhood we were looking it was townhome after townhome. . .and then there was one single family home – which we absolutly fell in love with. It needed some help, but the idea of having our own free standing home was so exciting so we put an offer in on it right away. We’ve been here for almost a year – working on project after project (we just gutted our kitchen this weekend!)
Thanks for all of the great ideas!
Renee says
My husband and I started looking at houses in late March, and found a house on our second outing. Unfortunately the offer was rejected and the house taken off the market (the owners’ job transfers were canceled the day after we put in the offer). We stated looking at houses again and found a 3000 square foot foreclosure in our price range, and in remarkably good shape. We put in an offer, and so did two other people! Our realtor was wonderful and suggested an “acceleration clause”–which basically says we’ll top any other offer by _____ amount to a certain amount. They didn’t even look at the other offers! The inspections went fairly well and we closed on time this past Wednesday. We moved our futon out there and have been spending the weekend cleaning and prepping to paint (the walls are orange and green)!
You two are an inspiration, thanks for sharing everything with the world!
Maggie says
Thanks for such a great post and pictures!
We bought our house in April of 2007. We picked the neihborhood my hubby grew up in and then looked for what was in our price range. We probably looked at 20 houses. My hubby made spreadsheet comparisons for prices and features. Our realtor added our house to the list after it was reduced a 2nd time. Afer a quick walk through there was an Open House and nobody came except us – we talked to the previous owners for 2 hours! It was love.
My favorite story about the house is that before the previous owners (who lived happily here for 30 years) the house was owned by a minister and there were prayer meetings in the family room. Well my husband and I met after church services on Christmas Day in 2005 and for the last 2 years we have hosted an Adventures in Faith Book Club in our family room. So I feel like the house is living it’s destiny too! :-)
Angela says
Happy Anniversary!
I love looking at the before photos and was wondering if you could give us more. I noticed in one of your DIY articles there were photos of the rooms as a work in progress (i.e. sunroom). I think seeing how far you’ve actually come and that it didn’t happen overnight can give hope to the rest of us.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Angela,
Other than checking out our two spreads in DIY magazine (there’s one more to come…) which you can click on at the bottom of our About Us page, the best way to check out what our rooms looked like mid-makeover is to go back through our archives to see our old formal dining room that’s now a third bedroom, our old kitchen, our living room with green paint and no dining room in it, etc. We started this blog over a year and a half ago so we’ve certainly covered a lot of the metamorphosis. Happy hunting!
xo,
Sherry
Ryan says
We found our home in 2004 just 2 weeks before our wedding and 1 week before a major hurricane hit our area (Hurricane Ivan) We fell in love the moment we pulled up. The exterior is my most favorite color ever and is the perfect style that we wanted (a beachy cottage craftsman style) The interior needed work but we got to it as soon as we closed (three days after we returned from our honeymoon). We’ve now replaced all the flooring with Travertine, gutted a bathroom completely, remodeled the kitchen, and loved every minute of it!
Amy says
Happy House Anniversary guys!
We looked for our first house for quite a while. We actually put an offer on one that got out bid by someone else. (this was about 4 years ago) I was looking online one day and found the perfect house, I called our agent, she took us to see it. (we were the 3rd set of people looking at it at the same time) We loved it, put in an offer (along with 5 others) and we got it!
Then 2 years later we sold it on craigslist (it was listed for less than a week) to move into our new-construction dream home.
Kathleen says
This makes me feel better. My husband and I have been in our house 5 months and we still have a long way to go!
When we got married we were living with his brother and his brother’s wife. We thought we could stay there for quite awhile, but quickly realized it wouldn’t work because tension was mounting. When we discovered that we weren’t quite as welcome as we thought we were, we moved in with a friend from church and decided to take the plunge and look for a house after only a month of marriage.
The house we found was our second try; the first one was lovely too but it had hurricane damage that the owners refused to acknowlege. But I’m so glad we ended up with the one we have – it’s much more my style.
Erin says
Our experience was a whirlwind too! My husband and I weren’t even planning on looking for a few months because he had some major deadlines at work that kept him there late and on the weekends. But he stumbled across a home on Zillow that had recently been drastically reduced in price, putting it in our budget. I said it wouldn’t hurt to look, just to get a sense of what we would be seeing when we started looking “for real.” We looked, we loved, within a week we were in contract and now it’s ours! We didn’t even look at other homes!
Kim says
CONGRATS on your first 3 years!! You have already done BEAUTIFUL things with this home!
maryAZ says
Happy Anniversary! We are moving to Memphis in a month & haven’t found anything we love yet, (we visited for a long weekend a couple weeks ago) so we found a house w/ a 3 month lease-which is good in that we can get “the lay of the land”! I think we are having a hard time looking past all the stuff people have in their houses….have they not heard of staging? Clean up a little clutter & I bet they could get a sale! We also have a great house here in Phoenix(it sold in 3 weeks-for full asking price!), so it is hard to see potential…how do you get past expectations?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey MaryAZ,
I think the key to really seeing the true potential in a house is to ignore all the things your mind tells you to pay attention to. Paint colors don’t matter, wallpaper can be removed, bad carpet can be pulled up (hopefully to reveal hardwoods underneath), etc. Instead, look at things like layout, how you’ll use the house (if the master’s alone on the first floor and you’re about to have a gaggle of kids it might not be practical), how much space you have in the backyard, and other things you can’t change. We also gave location and school district a lot of weight since no matter how much you fix up a house, those things can’t be altered. Hope it helps! Happy hunting…
xo,
Sherry
Kristen says
My husband and I had put in an offer on another house already when I discovered our now home online. I threw a fit about how much I liked this one better. We were at a friends house, called our agent, and headed out here that night.
After some interesting developments, and a LONG time waiting, we moved in in December :)
katiethelady says
ugh, I am so jealous of all of you whirlwind types! this was a lovely post to read, but geez, our experience continues to be a huge headache and an even bigger heartache. even in “these troubled economic times” the 2 houses we have LOVED and went for (after looking for a few months) ended up having FOUR other offers that all went way over list, and way out of our price range. our realtor keeps telling me not to bond with any house, but darnit, i am very emotional!
Julie says
Oh, can I have your wedding??? Mine was almost 9 years ago and I would SO rather have had yours. I sent this to a friend who’s getting married this July so she can “borrow” some ideas. Also, following link to link I found where you dyed your dress. I have a fuscia JCrew dress from being a bridesmaid that is very nice and fits well, but fuscia??? I thought about dying it, but just like yours its says “dry clean only” and the Rit says not to use it. You’re right though, I’ll never wear it again as is so why not? I’m going to try it! If you can risk your own wedding dress I surely can risk a bridesmaid dress!
Jaime @ Project [Casa de Ayala] says
Happy Anniversary!!
How is it [POSSIBLE] you are still in second place? You’ve gotten over 3K votes in the past week and a half [two weeks?], but #1 is still #1. The enemy [hehe, just kidding] must be doing something… We need to figure it out. :]
Amy Spears says
My Husband and I found our dream home a month ago after looking at 27 other houses. Right now we are in the waiting game, we have had the inspection (went very good!), the appraisal is done (waiting on his report), and all the paperwork is in for the bank! Now we are just waiting for the bank to give its ok, then closing on 6/12 a day after my birthday! We are both so excited! I can’t wait to see what our place looks like 3 years from now! Happy house anniversary Sherry and John!
Marilyn says
I love your blog. You give me so much inspiration. We knew we needed a bigger house when we had another baby and also realized that we would soon have teenage daughters and not enough bathrooms for “Dad’s” sanity. We started “just looking” and heard about a house that hadn’t been listed yet and it was only a block away from where we were living. It was the 4th house we saw and and we were sold immediately. Was it perfect? NO! But over the last 20 years we have continued to fix and improve and maybe before we die it will be the way I always envisioned it. One of the great things about our move was the kids didn’t have to change schools, their friends were still near by and we got to stay in what we still consider the best neighborhood in our town. I’m still fixing and changing things. My style has evolved over the years and it is always fun for me to stir things up! Keep on giving us the courage to make changes.
Linda @ Lime in the Coconut says
It sounds like a lot of fast house finders here! We also were not even looking…just thinking of the idea of a house with a guest house for my Mom…went to an open house. The kids loved it and the older boys thought for sure they would live in the guest house (ha! NOT!). The house and yard was UGLY…but the guest house had great potential. That was six years ago (can’t even count the days…but have also been changing things ever since!)
I just did a post on our guest house this morning!
Loved the story of your “find”!
Jennifer says
Our experience was very similar. My aunt is a Realtor, and offered to show us a few houses one Sunday afternoon since she had a few free hours. We’d been looking around (casually) online to get a sense of what we could afford, and such. She encouraged us to look at a different neighborhood that we didn’t even know existed. The house needed (and still needs) a lot of work and updating, but we got so much more house and yard, thanks to her help. We saw it for the first time that Sunday, came back on Monday night, and put the offer in then. Everything was finalized by the end of the week, and we were in at the end of the month. We even managed to sublease our apartment and avoided paying to live in two places. It was meant to be!
LauraC says
Loved the post! I can’t belive how many other people bought a house quickly like we did too. I could relate to many of the comments! My husband and I bought the second house we looked at too! (The first one wasn’t on our list, but it was on the same block, so we looked at it anyway.) Immediately we loved it and it became the standard by which every other house was compared. We looked two days – Friday and Saturday and put an offer on our house Saturday, Valentine’s Day! Which just happened to be the five year anniversary of our engagement (at the end of a hike at sunset in Zion NP; good job John on your proposal, it was fun to hear)! We haven’t even had our two-month-living-in-our-house anniversary yet (it’s close – in two days) but we’ve done lots to the yard and I just finished paining the kitchen yesterday (after days and days of 50-year-old wallpaper removal)! I love your cheery blog – thanks for all your work John and Sherry!
Melissa says
awwww, that story is so sweet! I’m so glad that you shared it. I hope I have a story similiar to yours whenever the hubby and I decide to start house hunting!
Lynn says
This is a great story! It will be so nice to have it recorded like this to look back on. Our first home a few years back was a condo. We looked quite a bit, and on the day we bought it, we actually had to beat out 3 or 4 other offers the same day (it sold the day of its first open house). Those were different times! Our first “house” though that we just bought was similar to your story of “not really looking” yet. We’d only been in this city since November and our 6 month lease was running out, so we had to decide whether to buy or keep renting. I found an agent, “just to get an idea of what’s out there,” and she offered to cart me and my 18 month old around to view houses. We did this 6 or 7 times. We hadn’t seen any houses in the area I really wanted to live in, though, so she called an agent she knew and asked if he knew of any cute homes in the area, “like that one you had on the market last year.” Well, “that one” never did sell last year, and it turns out the seller was still interested in selling it even though it wasn’t currently on the market. We went to see it, loved it, made an offer, went through a counteroffer or two and will move in in ONE WEEK. It is not a fixer-upper; I was too wimpy to try to do renovations with a toddler in tow, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have big daydreams about what I’d like to do once we move in. That’s how I recently found your blog – hunting for inspiration! (PS, I just voted. Good luck!).
Lisa B says
Thanks for sharing this story!! Happy House Anniversary! I hope when we buy a house, it’s a fun story too!
Mary Beth (Cats, Books, Life is Good) says
I have spent a lovely time reading about your wedding. Your choice of wedding invitations, etc. are beautiful! It looked like a wonderful reception – relaxed and lots of fun!
I am getting such great ideas from your blog for ideas to do with our house. We are renting so we have to get approval before we do anything, but hopefully, they’ll let make some changes.
Abby says
I’m so jealous! We spent months looking for a house in our price range that wasn’t a complete disaster. We had one deal fall through which almost nixed our house hunting plans until we found our current home. As soon as we saw it, we had to have it. Congrats on three years of home ownership! We just celebrated 2 years in our humble abode, but we haven’t done nearly as much as you have.
Erin says
Great story! It shows how when you just open your mind to possibility and don’t try to prescribe every detail of life to a specific plan, amazing things can happen. I feel like you guys were just meant to find the house you’re in. :)
My experience was pretty whirlwind as well. On July 17, 2007, I accepted a job transfer with my company from Cincinnati to Seattle (sight unseen! I’d never even been to Seattle – but how could I pass it up?) By July 28 I had processed my relocation paperwork and was on the ground in Seattle, househunting. 3 days (and 25 condos) later, I put an offer on a condo – the second one I had seen! Then just a couple of weeks after that, the movers came and packed me up (a perk of corporate relocation), I hopped in my car, picked up my mom in Chicago and drove cross-country to Seattle. Total time between accepting new position to closing: about 6 weeks!
I love my little condo. It’s the perfect home base for me when I’m not on the road. Are there things I might have done differently if I took more than 3 days to househunt? Probably. But it’s working out better than I could have hoped, and I’m very happy.
It has been truly life-changing; the best adventure I’ve ever had. Sometimes you JUST KNOW that you’re supposed to do something, even if you don’t yet know why.
Robin says
This is something we have in common; DH and I were engaged when we started looking. We looked and looked- then one day we saw “the one”. We put in an offer on the same day it went on the market.
As soon as our offer was accepted, we scrapped the wedding plans in favor of a simple ceremony in our new home. We wound up married several months ahead of schedule in a home that continues to make us very happy.
We did lose $$ on the location of the wedding reception. I had paid the full amount in advance in order to get a better deal. BUT then I had the great idea to donate it to an animal rescue charity for their next fund raising event. So that was cool, we got to record the charitable contribution on our first joint tax return as a married couple.
Isn’t it better to use cash for home improvements (instead of paying for a different location)?!!
We loved our housing /wedding solution.
Sarah says
My husband and I got married a year ago and anticipated staying in our one bedroom condo for as long as we could (ie until kids arrived) but come January, the market in our area just looked too ripe to pass up. The combination of a depressed market and low interest rates had us at least curious to see what was out there. We found a cute bungalow in a great neighborhood – a short sale. We put an offer in (no real risk in offering on a short sale, right?) but a eventually confessed that we weren’t crazy about the house, yard or small space and wondered how long we could live there once the kiddos arrived. We kept looking. I scouted with a great agent during the week and invited my husband to join me on a second showing of a property I really liked… on Valentine’s Day. We loved the house, yard and neighborhood, but it was a little out of our price range. Negotiations went on for quite a while… I think there were 5 counter offers in total. We finally settled on a price and closed on March 19th. I love reading your blog because our house is SO similar to yours… built in 1954, great hardwood throughout, knotty pine cabinets (still trying to convince DH we need to paint them!). Anyway, it really was a whirlwind. Homeownership has been an adventure, but a good one!
Bethany says
Wow! So many decisive people on here! My hubby and I have been looking for our first house for over six months now! There’s no telling how many homes we’ve visited and how many more we’ve ruled out by checking them out online. Now, we’re considering a ’60’s ranch that needs a lot of work. It’s in a good location in a great school district, but I’m leery of the amount of renovations we’ll need to do. I think some people are better cut out for it than others! We’re not afraid of doing a lot of things ourselves, but I’m concerned about getting overwhelmed with it all… We put in a verbal (low-ball) offer on Friday, and the sellers came down $15k off the bat. Now we have to decide if we want to do a written offer tomorrow. Scary stuff!
deb says
We bought our home the first day we went house-hunting. Our awesome Realtor got us in on a house that wasn’t officially on the market until the next day (she hounded the selling agent to let us in since my hubby was going out of town the next day). There was another couple in the house when we got here (shocker!)and our Realtor warned us not to say a word while looking around–we ended up putting in an offer 30 minutes before they did! We will be celebrating 9 years soon–that makes me feel old! We have loved our home so much–we had so many comment when they first saw our house, “this is such a great starter home” which annoyed me. Why do we have to live in big houses? What if a charming cape cod is just the right size for us? We have a 3 year old and I still love our house–when our friends are trading up to the “family” house, we are sitting tight enjoying our humble abode.
Katie says
Happy House Anniversary!!! This will be our fourth year come July. Don’t you just love knowing that your hard work (and literally blood, sweat, tears and the occasional foul words) made it all happen and loving it all makes it worth while. I love your blog and have found many ideas to use in my home. I check everyday to see what you two are up to…keep it up.
miss bliss says
Love this post… your writing made me laugh…what a great story!!! Sometimes the best things happen when we are least expecting them…..
KRisty says
I loved this post. We also did a whirlwind buy. Things were tough in the days right after Sept. 11th, 2001. We went and looked at a house on Oct. 4th (new builder spec house) and were in it by Oct. 31st. Another right time, right place story, that happened to be our first home as well. One of the quickest closings I have ever heard of too!
p.s. Your wedding post in absolutely inspired! Loved reading through what you did for the big event.
abbey says
Happy Anniversary! You two are such an inspiration. Thank you for continually sharing your story with us!
Christina says
Ever since I was a child there was a house in a neighboring town that was a favorite of mine. Many years later a man I was dating (and who later became my husband) lived in the same neighborhood as ‘my house’ and I admired it whenever we walked to nearby restaurants or to the movies.
Several years later and after we’d married, I drove by it and saw an Open House sign in front. We weren’t looking to buy a house but I could finally look inside this one — what a thrill! I didn’t have high hopes because it was a 1930s bungalow and I figured it had probably suffered a few unfortunate renovations through the years. I was wrong. It was like stepping back in time: oak and redwood floors, Bakelite pulls on the kitchen cabinets and drawers, original and beautiful light fixtures, coved ceilings, patterned plaster walls. It even had a basement (somewhat unusual in CA). The garden had mature fruit trees: apricot, orange, lemon, apple, plum, fig and an avocado as well as a young oak tree and the back property line was a creek. I was stunned. I called my husband who was on a business trip and told him it was amazing and he agreed that we should make an offer. We’ve been here 12 years and sometimes I still can’t believe we live in this beautiful little cottage.
Melissa says
Our first home happened to be the old home of my husbands parents. We rented it from his parents (a nightmare in itself) for a few years before we purchased it from them and then remodeled everything. We lived there as actual homeowners for 3 years before we moved to our current home.
We found our current home the first time out looking again but that was mainly because we were out to seriously look. It was actually the first home that we looked at even though we looked at several afterwards and then eventually came back to this one for a second look and then put in an offer. That all happened in one weekend.
We were kind of in a time crunch though because we had put our other home up for sale and it sold within a week and we were set to close in a month so the hunt was on when we were out looking. I think we found our perfect home for this time in our life.
anna see says
I was determined to do a pop-up second story on our small brick rambler. My husband was NOT into it and put the kibosh on the idea. That day I was delivering food to a friend and saw an open house sign. I went into a tired, 1960’s split level. Not my style, wallpaper everywhere, you get the picture. Despite everything, I got a great vibe and the rest is history. If we had taken longer to actually house hunt, I think we would have bought something different, but we’ve been pleased.
anna see says
Sherry and John,
I meant to tell you in my comment that there is a crazy story related to our house purchase– involving an ex-boyfriend and a lot of grace. Here it is:
http://aninchofgray.blogspot.com/2008/10/friday-confession_16.html
YoungHouseLove says
Anna See,
What an amazing story about your neighbor! The world is so small. Thanks so much for sharing the link- John and I had a good laugh and were so glad it had a happy ending!
xoxo,
Sherry
Jennifer bailes says
Love your story! My husband and I are moving to Richmond, VA next summer and I can’t wait to find our first home!! I have tons of ideas spinning around my head! We are purchasing this amazing table that everyone is going to die for!
http://www.fusiontables.com Check out this bad boy!
JENN
Sandra says
When my now husband proposed, he owned his home and I did not, so I inherited the address. Some of the things in the home would have been a definite deal breaker for me – 1950s baby pink tiles in the only bathroom, same style as your home but instead of white, PINK – and I’m just now, six years later, trying to convince him to invest the money to fix. You two are so lucky to share a love of renovation!
Jen says
This weekend is my 2 year house anniversary – story is about like yours! My husband & I were just a couple months away from getting married, not at all house hunting…happened to drive by an open house on the same street he’d been living on with his friend… decided oh why not, let’s look. 10 days later, we had keys in our hands!
Laura says
We only had one weekend to find a house since that was how long my mom was in town and she was the one helping with the loan….the first day was loooooonnngggg. House after house. Nothing seemed to pop out at us. We liked one that was a foreclosure and great price, and when we talked to the agent the next morning, it was gone. So another looooonnnngggg day of hunting and we found not one, but two we liked. The one we really wanted was technically not available for another 3 months, and we didn’t have that long. So it was op[tion number 2. But on the second look, I got really excited because it was what we wanted, not too much of a fixer upper, but enough that we could put our own personal touches. We moved in a month later, and the night we moved in, we stayed up till 3am tearing down a wall and painting the kitchen. And the best part is, we still have lots left to do!
Chelsea says
It’s so funny that you guys posted this right now- especially considering our recent circumstances. A month ago, my husband and I found a BEAUTIFUL house in a wonderful area- it would be our first home. We were so excited! We went through the long tedious process of inspections, paperwork, etc, and FINALLY the big closing day came this past Friday… unfortunately, as I was driving to the closing, our realtor called and informed us that the seller had been lying all along and did not have the money to bring to closing… we were devastated. We had already mentally moved in, and just like *that* it was gone… our lease is up in a week, so we were just hoping we’d have a place to stay after the week was up. Luckily, we have a GREAT realtor, and she took us out ALL weekend to look at houses. We found another one that we LOVE just as much- if not more! It has great character and charm. We made an offer, and just found out it was accepted! So here we go again… our realtor and loan agent have promised to put a “rush” on things, but let’s hope things go a little more smoothly this time!
Jen says
My husband, daughter and I have been in our two-bedroom bungalow for about four years, three of which we have been the owners. Our home belonged to a friend of a friend who wasn’t having any luck selling. We weren’t in a position to purchase at the time, but the mutual friend suggested that we might offer to rent for a year. We did. Then, after a year, we were asked if we wanted to purchase the house. Again, we did. We loved the location, our neighborhood and our neighbors. Now, we have officially outgrown our house. We love our neighbors so much we’ve decided to stay and add on to the house. I wish I could bottle your motivation and action – we’ll need it!
Kristin says
So jealous of the whirlwind house find. We were on the other end. We looked at 80 houses, put in 3 offers and one almost offer before we found the house we eventually bought. During these hard economic times, we were one of 4 offers on our house and it was only on the market 8 days. We won! I love it so and we are currently in the painting/decorating stage.
wanderluster says
Such a lovely post – Happy Houseiversary, Sherry & John! We bought our house in bit of a whirlwind too. We lost the first house we bid on, decided to hold off the hunt for a few months, but ended up buying another house in the next three days. Just as in marriage, “when you know, you know”! I’ve enjoyed watching your journey… wishing you many more happy years in your home to come.
Jamie says
I love you story but I’m wondering – how did you get out of your apartment lease? Or did you only sign one for month by month?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jamie,
We actually did have a year lease but we only lost our deposit for leaving early (which was only half a month’s rent since we had a sign-on special). It was well worth sacrificing that small amount of cash to put the rest of the year’s rent money towards a mortgage instead. Hope it helps!
xoxo,
Sherry