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!
Lauren says
I love it! My boyfriend and I just became homeowners on Friday! We have already started painted and planning all the changes we are going to make. I hope our house will look as awesome as yours!
Melanie says
My husband and I bought the first home we toured together and signed the paperwork one month before our May 2008 wedding. The house was in our price range, move-in ready, and across the street from my husband’s grandmother (a bonus for his family, since she’s elderly and lives alone). I posted a more detailed timeline on my blog.
We’ve now spent just over a year in our 1000-square-foot 1960s yellow brick. There are a lot of things I don’t love about the house, but we haven’t gotten around to any major changes yet. So far, we’ve only replaced one light fixture and applied frosted film to the bathroom window.
While it isn’t our forever home, we’d like to make it more functional during our 5-7 year stay. First on the list is replacing all 13 original painted-shut windows with energy efficient ones. After that, we plan to paint the walls in nice neutrals (they’re all currently white – can you say sanitarium?), then rip up the mottled beige Berber and restore the hardwoods underneath.
I love you guys’ blog and it’s a huge inspiration to actually start tackling all those projects my husband and I talk about. And once we make those changes, we can finally replace our free hand-me-down furniture too!
Jen says
I love this story…
My hubby found our new (purchased on Friday!) home on a “casual” house-hunting trip while I was out of town. He called me to let me know that he “found the one” – only he hadn’t even stepped foot inside the house! I told him to call me back when he stopped being insane.
2.5 weeks later, we purchased the house. It’s only been 2 days, but so far, so good. :)
Notesfromthegrove says
We are in the process of buying our first house together, so we will let you know! Your blog has been very inspiring to us. Thank you so much for sharing your experience!
Heather says
Great story!
My husband (then boyfriend) and I have a story that’s kind of similar. We rented an apartment together in Savannah for close to 3 years. We had batted around the idea of buying for months, but never even looked. Finally one day my husband and I, after a “what would we do if we owned a house” conversation, pulled up a website and started looking. We knew could NEVER afford to buy in the neighborhood we lived in. We had a steal on our apartment and if we wanted to stay in that area, we better get used to renting. Lo and behold, we found a house in the right place for close to the right price. I thought nothing of it, but my husband called the realtor and went to see the place. The wheels got set in motion, the owner was desperate to sell. We offered very low, he took it, and a month later we were home owners!
That was a year & a half ago. We got married. We’ve done loads of work since then. It still needs so much more. We love our little house though, and we feel so lucky to have it. Even though it needs some TLC :)
Alysia says
Nice post! I like to see “new” pictures of your house (especially the before pics). We bought our house almost 2 years ago and we placed an offer and closed in 12 days (this includes the weekend)! It was indeed a whirlwind buy, but we are content and very happy in our home.
Kim says
Only married for about 18 months, we were living in a house that my husband had inherited from his great grandmother. Having no house note was great! It was our first income tax season as a couple. Found out we had to pay a massive amount in taxes. Asked the CPA, “What can we do in order not to have to pay all of these taxes next year”. “Well, you have two options,” he replied. “Have a baby or buy a house so you can have a deduction.” Not ready to have a baby, the next day I went out house shopping and we moved out of great-grandma’s house within a month. Turned out to be good for us. We rented the house out and now we have three more rental properties!
Tammy says
My husband I close on our first home together this Friday, and we are SO excited! We’ve shared two lovely apartments during our time together, and this year we finally felt ready to buy a house. We looked at over 50 houses before putting an offer down on a house, then we backed out of that house after a seriously bad inspection, we decided to
take a break from house hunting (it was exhausting and discouraging!), went on vacation, came home and saw about 10 more houses, found a house we loved, put an offer down on that house, were told that the seller’s weren’t interested in our offer, waited a couple more weeks, found another house we liked (although it was a bit small for us, but at that point we felt ready to compromise size for some other perks), and we were touring that house when we got a call telling us that our offer on the other house (the one we REALLY wanted) was finally accepted! We get the keys on Saturday, and we can hardly wait!
Kelsey says
Our house was new construction. We went through it upon completion in July 2006. November 2006 we finally put a first offer on it, which was countered at full price with a free fridge. We declined. January 2007 we put a second offer in, which was lower than our first offer. It was accepted. So we moved in March of 2007. A very well thought out decision:)
Priya says
My husband and I looked for ages and saw over a hundred homes before we fell in love with one – it was way way over budget, but we worked it out anyhow because we really want to be there a long long time (and it did already have great bathrooms and lovely flooring).
Bought it a month ago and are working on furnishing it now :-) We haven’t moved in yet, but I really can’t wait!!
Gracia says
Hahaha too funny! I’ll share our story, since it was quite similar!
April 25 – My last class got cancelled. I decide to walk to Eric’s shared apartment since I have the time. On my way, I see they’re doing tours of a recently built apartment (rent only). I tell Eric about this. (At this point we had been dating for 10 months and had no plans of moving in together). He says we could book a tour, just for fun, to see how is an apartment building made to rent.
April 26 – We book the tour.
April 28, 10am – We show up at the door of the building, trying not to laugh at the agent who really thinks we are interested in actually living together.
April 28. 10.30am – Eric and I realize we’re looking at the other couples around us and seeing them as potential competitors for the 2-bathroom, south-facing, 7th floor apartment that we like.
April 28, 11am – I call my mom. I’m moving in with Eric.
April 29 – The paperwork begins.
July 2 – We get the keys. There’s no running water or electricity yet.
July 5 – We get water. We sleep on the floor. We shower with cold water. We have been living here ever since… almost a year now!
Calliope says
Hi John and Sherry!
I love ur blog! Such an inspiration!
We had been checking apartments (new ones – earthquakes in Greece are an everyday thing!) for almost 2 years and everything was soooo expensive (aprox. 230.000 euros for a 110m2!). So, we decided to buy some land and built one from scratch. The whole project has costed more, needless to say! But at least, after just one year of construction, we are the proud owners of a 500m2 land + a 170m2 two-storey energy saver house + semi-basement (that is crying for some flooring!) + enough space to built (in the veeeeery far future) another 80m2 apartment.
Unfortunately, the economic crisis, has hit us just when we moved in, so we’ll have to make do with the old furniture.
BTW, we love the worldwide offers that u arrange! It makes Greece a tad closer to u all!
Alison says
We decided not to buy until Nov 2009. We met our potential agent Mar 16, saw a house Mar 17, put in the offer and got accepted .. Mar 17. Easiest money our agent ever made!!
I did a 3 part post series on my emotional status of buying a house in less than 24 hrs of meeting our agent. PS – it was only the 2nd house we looked at.
http://newlifeasnewwife.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-wife-is-new-home-owner-part-iii.html
mribaro says
My then boyfriend and I have found our apartment by accident! Based on the budget available to us, we were looking for a three-room apartment. After having seen a dozen in the span of two months, we were close to buying one. While googleing to find out more about the neighborhood, I stumbled upon an advert, offering a five-room apartment for a tiny bit more money than the one we chose. I quickly emailed my BF (today my husband and a father of our daughter :)), and he said, well, we could stretch ourselves that much, but the apartment should really enchant us in order to go for it. And ENCHANT US IT DID!!! All my dreams fulfilled: north-south position (good for ventilating), living room facing south, with a view to a green park, big windows, lots of light… to name just a few. He was grinning the whole time we were there (and I thought that was not wise – we should look reserved and unsatisfied, so we can knock down the price a bit). We bought the apartment the same weekend! Much out of the fright that someone else might come and snatch it. Now for the best part: later the owner told us that actually she wasn’t selling the apartment for the last year and a half! It’s just that by mistake the advert wasn’t pulled off the web site, and it was still on when I stumbled upon it! Imagine what luck! And imagine the turmoil we brought to that weekend to the owner’s family :) Still, they decided it would be great opportunity for them too, and accepted our offer. So it was a good buy for both them and us – a win-win situation. I love this apartment and am SOOOOO happy we didn’t miss that opportunity (I’d probably kick myself in the back for the rest of my life :))
mribaro says
P.S. That was in February 2006.
Lindsey Ivory says
Great story…with such as happy ending! Almost five years ago my now husband got a job and bought a house nearby to avoid paying rent or…gasp…living with his parents (who happen to be realtors and were more than happy to find him a house)! I moved in 8 months later and another six months down the road we got married! I actually just wrote a little story about our fun adventures in remodeling: http://aspiringivory.blogspot.com/2009/05/handy-couple-in-happy-old-house.html.
Cody says
We had a world wind affair with our house! I lived in San Diego, and my boyfriend (now husband) lived here in Phoenix. We decide that we were going to live together and buy a house. Since the prices were (even at the prime of the market) cheaper in Phoenix than in San Diego, we decided to make Phoenix our home.
We were looking for something that had fixer upper potential, as well as had that sort of “historic charm” in some way. Here in Phoenix we have some neighborhoods that have some architectural value that range from the early 1900’s all the way to really cool mid-century modern homes.
On the first day, our realtor sent us probably 500 listings to choose from of homes in our budget that fit those qualities! So we poured over those…and then picked out some we would like to see. I remember that there was one house with siding on the walls in one room–a huge plant growing in the bathroom and this…”interesting” gate in the entrance! Definitely a weird house. But the lines of the house reminded us of groups of homes here built by the architect Ralph Haver whom we love–but it was unconfirmed so we added that to the pile. Just in case.
The next day our realtor came over and she was really excited. One of the houses we had picked had just come up as being confirmed in a Haver neighborhood! The owners probably didn’t know what they had–and they were willing to do a LOT of renovations on the home as part of the deal. Would we be interested? OF COURSE! She showed us the listing and it was that weird house.
We went to look, and one definitely had to imagine the “charm” behind the home. But we were really excited. We saw other homes that day, and had three on the list competing with the Haver. But in the end we put in an offer for our Ralph Haver home and have done tons of renovations since.
I love your blog b/c in many ways I feel like your story reminds me of ours! We had a three month closing on our house because we did get some renovations thrown in with our house (new pipes two new bathrooms wee!) but on our very first morning in our new house my boyfriend, woke up and proposed to me :), what a special moment.
Not only that, we were featured on House Hunters :) Go HGTV!
Danielle says
Awww…what a cute story. I actually purchased my home on my own in 2006. I was not with my husband yet. I was single and ready to start looking. It took a couple months to find my dream home and was so worth it. I moved in December of 2006 and had my house warming party in March of 2007. My best friend brought the man I would marry to the party. So, in a way, this house represents a lot of happiness for me.
Meredith says
You moved into your house on my birthday! How fun. We did end up renting for over a year, but my hubby and I are SO excited to be moving into our house this Friday, May 29! Even though it’s not on my actual birthday, I’m still calling it the best birthday present ever. Congrats on your happy housiversary!
Christa says
Happy House Anniversary!
My hubby and I started scoping out house well before we were ready to move, but I couldn’t help myself. It did give us a great idea of the right area for us to settle down, and we had narrowed our search down to a specific area by the time we were ready for a serious hunt. After making an offer on one house (which was taken off the market for some odd reason after we and another couple both made offers) we came across a beautiful 1935 tudor colonial within walking distance to the schools and the historic downtown area of town. As if the house didn’t have me from standing outside and looking at it, I was in love the moment I stepped into the foyer. I took one glance back at my husband and he knew that I was hooked…we moved in about three weeks later! We’re not in there quite a year yet but we love every single moment of homeownership!
KatyW says
Loved reading the story of how you found THE house. So cool! That’s what started your lives going off in a completely new direction. Do you just pinch yourselves sometimes?
Honestly, I must give you many kudos for your vision. I don’t think I would have looked at the house “before” and seen “after.” But I’m so glad you guys did, because I’ve learned so much from your journey!!
I love it when a plan comes together. :-)
Go Sherry & John (and Burger too) Woo hoo!!
XO, Katy
Becky says
I just found your blog today! It’s AWESOME! I love all your work! You def. are keeping me going with our own home improvements! You are SO SMART to do this all before kids!!!! ;)
Thanks!
Becky
http://www.bennyandtomsnewhome.blogspot.com
holly says
Thanks for sharing your terrific story! My husband and I bought our first home 2 months ago and it was the very antithesis of yours (and probably everyone else’s).
We ended up getting the 2nd house we bid on. After two offers it was clear they weren’t willing to negotiate much on list price so we rescinded our offer. Back to the drawing board. Looking in Januaray 2009 (during the economic meltdown) wasn’t helping and there weren’t many new houses coming on the market; things weren’t optimistic. A week later the seller’s agent contacted ours and stated they had reconsidered. We were completely shocked! Could it really happen this time???
We agree to some give and take (much aided by a seller’s credit) and settled on a fair price for both. Turns out the seller’s were new to this, too and had apparently not understood the offer/counter-offer negotiations earlier (or so we thought). We sign our contract on Jan. 25th and set up the home inspection. Inspection went well although while there were a lot of repairs to deal with the house had good bones and would be a great investment (good neighborhood in the city). We negotiate an escrow amount for repairs and schedule our settlement for Feb. 27th.
Fast forward to Feb. 20th. I’m in Europe for work and anxious about being away so close to settlement. My husband calls and tells me the sellers are going into foreclosure and settlement has to be delayed!! Apparently they were issued a foreclosure notice in early Feb. and didn’t tell anyone; our title company found it. The delay throws everything into uncertainty and we had to contend with a March 11th auction date. We had no choice but to wait while the title company tried to get the foreclosure cancelled. Finally, we get word that the foreclosure has been cancelled pending our contract and settlement is scheduled. On the Monday before settlement, the seller’s (against everyone’s advice since the foreclosure was cancelled) pay their foreclosure fees. This delays us further.
Finally, the day of settlement: the sellers want to be present for the walk through. We were both pretty nervous since the seller’s have been difficult throughout the process and because we have heard from several people that the husband is a loose canon and has bullied a few people involved with our sell. A few issues later and we move on to settlement. We all sit down at the table and the seller’s husband immediately begins arguing about finances. They storm out a few times and keep fighting with the title folks. This goes on for about 3 hours until we finally just sign our papers and leave. It seemed quite possible we wouldn’t settle and all our time and emotional investment would be for nothing. We go home and try to occupy ourselves with other things (oh, by the way we started packing when settlement was scheduled for 2/27 so we’d been living amongst boxes for over a month now). About 7 hours later we finally hear from our agent that they signed the papers…we finally have the house!!!!! He brings the keys by and we immediately go over and change the locks. The whole experience was a nightmare and truly tested us but we’re so happy we held on and didn’t back out (which we almost did a few times).
Whew, that was therapeutic! ;)
Erin says
Our house, which we’ve been in for almost 2 years and simply adore, was the only one we actually walked through while we were looking. I just knew it was the one.
Tiffany says
Your story sounds similar to ours!
August 2007– Surprise! I’m pregnant! We were planning on waiting until we were married about 2 years to even start trying, but we found out we were pregnant just shy of our one year mark!
October 2007-December 007– Start looking in and around Richmond because a Fan apartment is no place to raise a baby…. no luck on finding the place, so the apartment will do just fine!
May 2008– Baby is born. Many nights spent calling Richmond City po-po to tattle on partying college kids keeping baby and parents up ALL NIGHT!
December 2008– While on winter break (I teach), I get a wild hair to see what we can afford. Much more than a year prior thanks to the hubb’s new job! Just looking, we scan the internet and decide to do some drive by’s.
December 30th 2008– We check out a little house in the West End. Not what we were looking for, but the hubb’s thinks it has potential. Me- not so much. Keep looking.
January 1, 2009– I resign to look outside the immediate Richmond city area, and start poking around the Midlothian area. Find lots of pretty homes, but won’t settle on anything pre-1950’s quite yet.
January 15th, 2009– Find a beautiful practically new home in Midlo, decide to check it out… what the heck. LOVE IT!
January 18th– Sit down with realtor, put in an offer. Receive a counter 2 hours later… accept it! We are homeowners! Close February 18th (yes- 30 days!). Frantically pack small apartment (who knew we had so much junk?!?).
It’s crazy how quick the process is once you find THE ONE! We love our home, and have been working non-stop since February to make it “ours”. It isn’t our forever home, by any means, but it’s a great first home!
Kate says
What a great story! Ours was a little slower-paced, but timing is everything, right? My husband (as of this last October) and I had been living in an apt for about two and a half years, and we decided last spring that we were ready to become homeowners. We had looked at probably a dozen properties, made an offer on one that was rejected, and seriously considered a MAJOR fixer-upper that would have needed a new roof and didn’t even have central air that we eventually passed on. Our price range kept changing ever-so-slightly, but we were pre-approved, so no big issues there.
We had casually been looking for about three months without having “the one” come along, and then the worst possible situation happened. Our apartment complex caught on fire in the middle of the night and all of a sudden we were “homeless”. Luckily, our unit only suffered smoke and water damage, but it was enough to warrant a move. (Ok, technically we weren’t homeless, because both sets of parents live in the same city, so we were able to move in with them, but still – not an ideal situation!)
Just a few short days later we were scheduled to look at yet another house that apparently the other buyer backed out of the day before their closing date. We walked through it and we immediately knew it was the one. We made an offer that night (and another couple also had made an offer that day, and a third one came in after ours). Pins and needles!!
Well, our awesome Realtor must have shared our horror story, because we got our little dream house. A 1945 ranch with a lot of character and well loved.
heather s. says
I found my house pretty quickly, too. I looked at about six houses but kept coming back to this small ranch that had such charm (cove ceilings, built-in in the dining room, hardwood floors). I actually put in an offer while I was in the UP (of Michigan) visiting my parents and found out whilst up there that my offer was accepted! The day I got the keys I went to the house immediately after signing papers and just walked around the house touching the walls and countertops to take it all in. I was scared at having such a huge amount of debt by myself but four years later I’m still in the house and love it.
Sandy says
Loved your story! We had been living in our second home for many, many years. Thinking we might want to make a change “in a couple of years” and move a couple of towns over, we start “looking” … “just to see what’s out there.” We were having fun with it, next thing you know – we fall in love with a new construction home and sign a purchase & sale agreement. Ended up being some red flags in the convenants of the development that we weren’t comfortable with .. so backed out. Hugely disappointed and figured we wouldn’t bother to look again for awhile. There was no hurry or urgency anyways. Two weeks later my husband stumbles upon another new construction home; I go see it and that’s it. We buy it! Been here almost 5 years now. It was meant to be.
Beth says
Very fun post. Can you spill the beans on how in the world you got rid of all those trees in your yard without leaving it littered with stumps?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Beth,
The secret to gigantic tree removal and seamless stump grinding is… professionals. We didn’t want to mess around when it came to trees being cut down near power lines (some of which were quite monstrous) so except for the tiny trees that we removed/transplanted ourselves, we were happy to leave everything up to the guys with a bit more experience in that area. Of course we got a number of estimates for the best deal and even got some money at closing to go towards tree removal so that was a huge help!
xo,
Sherry
Hailey says
We are closing on our first house on June 10. Your story reminds me of us. We started “looking” on April 1, so that we would have an idea of what we could afford and what was really out there. We looked at about 15 different houses over the next 3 weeks. On April 29th we looked at 4 houses. The first three were not so great, and the last one was something my husband had picked out, but I wasn’t too thrilled out based on the listing. Well, when we walked into the last one, we knew it was it. I was hoping I was going to have that “feeling” and I did. I was shocked at how amazing the house was (at least to us) for the price it was listed at. After about 30 min of awh, we asked if we could put an offer in on the house. That night we stayed up talking about the house and how much we loved it. Around 10am on May 1, we found out they had accepted our offer. So from start to finish, it was exactly 1 month. I am so happy with our decision, and know this house is going to be a great home.
Sarah says
Awww, you got engaged on my wedding day! How sweet.
We looked at houses for about a month and a half before we found “the one.” Put an offer on one, but were flat out rejected (it was a flipper, and the owners would not budge on the asking price – even our realtor was shocked). But that led the way to the house we’ve been in over 3 years now.
Next go around we will (probably) take more time. We had just gotten engaged ourselves when we started looking and, with the wedding only 5 months later, the pressure was on to find something before then. Made for some extra stress at the time, but we’ve made it just fine!
Erin says
Our house hunt was accidental. I saw that they had lowered the price on a house that we had looked at 4 years before. Same house, so I knew the good, bad and ugly about it. The house was only 4 years, I looked at the first time while it was new construction. For whatever reason I wanted to make an appt to look at it. I didn’t even take my husband I went with a friend. Standing there the realtor (the one my friend with me used when they bought there house) said this was a quick sale house and they couldn’t wait for ours to sell. She literally stood there and said that she would buy ours, we would buy this and the recently single mom that needed to sale will move to another one of her properties. This was June 27ish and we moved in by August 1! Sometimes it is just meant to be!
Mallory says
My husband and I had nearly closed sale on a pricey, fancy, brand new condo near the university I attended at the time. Our real-estate agent urged us to tour a few more condos to be sure it was “the one.” She is a genius because we ended up falling in love with a 10 year old condo in a beautiful, quiet, neighborhood which is far closer to the university that I ended up transferring to. Our current digs are bigger, and less expensive than the first place we wanted. It was a DIY match made in heaven! We are really happy that we chose somewhere that we felt comfortable making our own. If we had gone with the brand new condo we would have felt guilty painting over the freshly painted walls and changing the decorator’s color scheme.
Amy E. says
Our story is a long one that flowed more like a movie script than real life. It starts out with the usual set up, young couple looking for their first home. Then there’s the good twist: we can afford new construction! The buildup: 3 months of waiting before any progress is made, then 5 more months til completion. The problem: appraisal after completion is almost $40k LESS than what the contract states! what to do??!! The scene where everything seems like it’s going to fall apart: the builder will not come down on price so we have to walk away from more then 8 months of waiting and planning. The glimmer of hope: found a good looking house on our first day of the second round of house hunting. The holy chorus signing in the background light at the end of the tunnel ending: we found a house with better location, an established backyard pool and foliage, better use of space in the floorplan, turnkey, and a smaller price tag!
End result: one happy couple! Read more details here: http://tabbfamily.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/house-hunting/
Sandy Cruz says
I was just wondering if you had more pictures of your living room when it was painted green and if you don’t mind me asking…what color is that? I love love love your house.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Sandy,
We might have a few more pictures of the living room when it’s green back in our archives (you can search by date in the top right hand corner of the blog) and as for the color, it’s no longer available through Glidden but a similar color would be Benjamin Moore’s Light Pistachio.
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Julie H says
What a great house hunting story! Ours was not too different, but started off with selling our previous little 2 bedroom bungalow that my husband had purchased before we met. Listed that on a Monday, had an offer Wednesday night, and a signed contract that Thursday. Closing was 3 weeks later. Suddenly realized “oh crap, we need to find a house!”, after thinking we’d have plenty of time to look while ours sat on the market. Went through about 6 houses with our realtor that Saturday, hated them all. Went through one I loved, told husband we were putting in an offer. Husband called realtor, realtor said “ok, but lets go look at a few more tomorrow, JUST IN CASE”. Went to look at a couple more on Sunday, second one we went through was our dream house. I had seen it online, but passed it over because it was so dated (had not been updated in the 40+ years since it was built), but going through we realized what great bones it had. Submitted an offer Sunday night, after a few back and forths with the seller, had a signed contract by that Thursday. Whew!
So, less than two weeks from listing our old house to having a contract on our current house. Not bad! I had most of the rooms painted, but now after finding your blog and being re-inspired, have decided that they all need to be painted again, much to the chagrin of my husband :)
Donita says
I LOVE YOUR HOUSE. Thank you for sharing. You kids did a great job of making it your home. I have gotten sooooo many ideas from you *the closets in the master, what a great idea for a small room (which we have)*. I am so envious/jealous that you found your dream home so quickly. You give me hope though. We have lived/rented here in Wa state for 15 1/2 years. I do not like it here, so have rebelled against buying, however, after seeing your videos, I am now considering, our own little fixer upper. We are not just starting out though, we have been married 33 1/2 years, have two grown/married/with family, children.
Thank you for giving me the hope/push to start looking for our own home. I LOVE YOUR IDEAS.
One question…..were you famous before starting the reno on your home, or after? ;-)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Donita,
You’re cracking us up with your “famous” comment. Back when we started this blog (and our big house makeover) we were just two people talking about our adventures in home improvement. And slowly more and more people started to drop in to see what was going on at our house. We grew and worked hard to expand a bit (add a shop, offer decorating services, even hunt down weekly giveaways) and the result was this wonderful career and passion that keeps us up at night (we often scribble new ideas for posts and features on a bedside pad in the middle of the night). We’re endlessly grateful to those who care enough to drop by and see what we’re up to, so thanks for reading everyone!
xo,
s
kelly says
what a sweet story! (and i like the brick painting picture.)
i usually take forever to decide on a property, (you can read about me purchasing my first house here: http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com/2009/09/our-first-home.html), but believe it or not, i’ve bought a number of places site unseen. not nearly as much fun, though!
love your little pad.
kelly
http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com
Alicia says
I am SO addicted to your blog…OMG! I’ve got more reading to do…u guys ROCK!
Kendrick says
Love your house hunting story and your House is beautiful and has really inspired me to get motivated on our house. We are right close by in Stratford Hills. My boyfriend and I looked at maybe 20 houses before we found one that we loved and when the counter offer was too high we were heart broken. I checked the house constantly to see if the price dropped and even would do a drive by every now and then. We loved the neighborhood so much I was hoping another house would pop up on the market and the whole time we kept an eye on the house across the street from the one we had made an offer on. It was a bit different then the others in the neighborhood and had a big wooded lot to one side. Then one day I was checking houses oneline and saw it! It had been put on the market that day. Pictures showed exactly what we wanted. It had an open floor plan 2 full bathrooms and a huge finished walk out basement! It even had a media room! We looked at it the next day and made an offer which was accepted right away and was $28k less then the offer we made on the house across the street. We ended up closing on the house the same week I moved my salon to Carytown. So we had two moves in one week! We had a lot of painting to do because the basement was all primer. I offered our house for an engagment party 2 months later so we had to do all the painting fast! The party was a hit and the house looked good for having just moved in. Things have slowed down and now and we need to redo the master bedroom and our backyard is more then a challenge. We have a muddy and rocky slope full or weeds! Perfect yard to win a backyard makeover! :-)
Colleen says
O…M…G… I need to sent this post to my husband STAT! He and I have been renting because it was the easiest thing to figure out while planning a wedding. Now that the wedding is over I’m feeling ready to move on outta here and into a house we can call our own. We’ve got about 8 months left on our lease, and I feel like now is a good time to start taking this whole “lets buy a house” thing more seriously. I’m not sure I have the patience for a fixer-upper like you guys, but I might soon realize that our budget won’t allow for much of a choice on that issue!
The one thing he and I have been going back and forth on is this – we’ve paid off all our debt, but don’t have much saved in our piggy bank yet (for down payments, closing costs, insurance, etc)…and my biggest fear is that if I start looking NOW (you know, like you guys, just to “practice”) I’m afraid I’ll fall in love with something and we will just have to walk away because we’re still saving up…talk about TORTURE!
How did you guys do it? Did you have savings ready before you started your “practice” visits to homes in your neighborhood? Or did your families help you out? I feel like its so hard for young/newlywed/first-time homebuyers to do this, and pay for the wedding, and, and, and…! :) Much less, find the $$$ after all of that to fund the renovations if needed!
Can you provide some clarity on how you got over this hurdle? Thx much!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Colleen,
We’re pretty disciplined about money, so we definitely saved up for a significant down payment even before moving to Richmond since we knew that was the financially responsible thing to do. We even paid down a few points at closing to keep our interest rate super low (which has really worked out for us). Just like you we would never want to fall in love with something we couldn’t afford (or get upside down on our payments) so that’s how we approached it. Lots of cheap dinners and squirreling away every last dime. Here’s a post all about how we deal with money in general: https://www.younghouselove.com/2010/03/email-answer-money-management/
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Janelle says
Hey, I absolutely love your site, and getting to see all your great ideas being put into practice. My fiance and I just settled on our first home 5 days ago! And it was a whirlwind process, much like yours actually. We hadn’t even planned on looking to buy as we didn’t think we’d be able to afford it. But at the encouragement of a realtor friend of ours, we met with a mortgage lender and started hunting about a week later. On our second night out looking at houses, we found “the one.” The next day, we put an offer in, to which the sellers countered. The day after that, we accepted their counter-offer. A week after signing the contract, we did the home inspection, but then due to the rush of people trying to take advantage of the tax credit at the end of April, we had to wait another 3 weeks for the mortgage company to draw up the settlement papers. So we closed on our house May 7th, almost exactly a month after first finding it! Now, I’m in the process of moving from my parents’ house to our new house, and I’ll be there by myself for 4 months until we get married. I’m so excited to start from scratch and make it our own! Thanks for your inspiration!
Pammy says
Hi there! I am SO jealous of your whirlwind house hunt! My husband and I started looking in January and put in an offer on Valentine’s Day, still haven’t heard a peep. It’s a short sale of course… we like to make things complicated. (NOT) But we love it, so we will continue to wait. Likely won’t be able to take advantage of the New Homebuyer’s tax credit though :(
Anyway, just wanted to say I LOVE your blog and just cannot wait until we get our house so that we can start some projects! I am a graphic artist, so it’s in my blood, and this apartment living just aint cuttin it.
Courtney says
As a fellow Richmond resident, I’m curious as to why you picked the area to settle after NYC. We’re glad you both seem to love it as much as we do!
YoungHouseLove says
We just wanted to escape the rat race and the fast pace of the city and longed for a better work/life balance and a place where we could afford a house with a yard (we dreamed about getting a dog, settling in, and starting a family). John’s sister lived here in Richmond and when we came down to visit we were smitten. We really liked the balance of city activities (galleries, good restaurants, events) and quaint living with charming neighborhoods with privacy and space to spread out (we love that we have a spacious lot that’s just ten minutes from downtown). And the milder winters and longer springs and falls don’t hurt either!
xo,
s
Steph says
my boyfriend,Peter and i have been dating for over 2 years were living in LA, california when we went. We also went for a hike and decided that it was best to move somewhere different. Our first choice was chicago. In exactly a month we packed up out 1974 Plymonth scamp and over packed trailer and drove across most of the US. We were living in his mom’s and step dads apartment/condo and found an apartment for relatively cheap. A couple days after we moved into our apartment Peter went to Florida which was the only place he could find work. So we were 1000 miles away– not so much. We than moved to Champaign-urbana [which is 2.5 hours south of chicago] and moved into peter step-moms house for free. Well we wanted our own place and the $8000 tax credit helped as well. We found our perfect house it was a cottage with hard wood floors and had everything we wanted. We put in a offer with very stubborn home owners and were set to close 30 days later. Had all kinds of inspections and appraisers. Well, a week before we were suppose to close the appraiser appraised the house for 6000 dollars less than what they wanted which did work for the VA. So we pulled out. At this time is when the realtor because a B***h and stopped doing her job and showing us houses. It had become my full time job to look at what had come on the market which as we know changes day to day. Well Peters dad found this for sale by owner and everything went well except the realtor screwed us. Well we closed on October 1st 2009 and have been working on it since.
Cheryl says
Just found your blog. I’m lovin it already! Nice to meet you:) I’m from Delaware, so not too far from ya’ll. I really like what you have done with your house and the compost post has got the cogs in my brain turning. Thanks so much for sharing.
Cheryl M.
Cheryl says
Our home was found over a weekend visit. My hubby is in the Airforce, so we had just a long weekend to search for a home and put in an offer. What a nightmare! lol. Mind you, this all was in Jan. when most homes are not on the market. Then, we decided on our current home as the one we wanted and got caught in a bidding war. So then we started thinking may be building a new home and staying with my parents, in their newly bought home lol. We went looking for a place to build and while we were almost 100% on board with building, we got a phone call from our realtor that we had been chosen by the home owners. However, my brain was already wrapped around the idea of building. We could see the pros and cons of each and we had to stand there in the model home and make a very quick decision. Take the home we already bid on or build. Man talk about sweating it out. But, in the end we ended up choosing the ranch that we put a bid on. We figured we could build later on if we wanted.
Amber says
My experiece went pretty much the same way. I was 21, and still living at home. Our lease was up and my family decided it was time to move somewhere with more room. I didn’t care for the new place, and was itching to get out on my own. My manager is also a part time real estate appraiser and offered to come with me to look at houses. I did a search online at forclosures, and set up an appointment for the next day to tour one. I find myself looking at a 53 year old ranch house needing a little TLC. I put in an offer that day. Due to it being a forclosure it took about a week to hear the good news that I was approved. I was able to buy the house for 40K less than what it had appraised for. I went through the same crazy looks when trying to figure out how to explain to everyone that I was now a homeowner. I have been here a 1 1/2 yrs now and ready to start making it my dream home. I’m so thankful I have you as a guide to come to for help :)
Adam says
I’m simply awestruck, looking at the incredible transformation of your home from ordinary to exceptional. Why don’t the two of you have your own show on HGTV? : )
Kaitlyn says
My husband and I also found our house in a weekend tour. Some friends our age (22-25) were buying houses and snatching up the home buyer credit, which got us thinking about buying our own home. In January 2010 we met with our loan officer, were pre-approved for a loan, and started looking at houses online. Our lease at our apartment wasn’t up until May, so we knew we had plenty of time. We scheduled 3 showings on a weekend in late January. The first house was a rental property at the time. It was on a busy street, needed a bit of work, and was just outside our price range. The second house was a 4 bed, 2 full bath brick cape cod in an adorable neighborhood. It was a short sale and was just the right price. The third house had been foreclosed and was a mess, with lots of missing pipes and destruction. We went back to our apartment and after a night of daydreaming about House #2, we were ready to put in an offer. We put in the offer on February 4th and because it was a short sale, we had to wait on the seller’s bank for everything. We didn’t close until May 28th–just 3 days before our lease was up. It was the most stressful time of our lives, and to make things even more hectic we got married in the middle of it all this past March! Now that we are here, though, we know it was all worth it!