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!
Jenny says
Ok, super long story short- living in california, pondering moving to oregon (boyfriend is from there.) See a major fixer upper. I say “shut up, no way.” We’re talking built in 1890, with sloping floors and warped windows. Months go by. We decide to really move to oregon. The house is still for sale. Find out we can get a rehab loan that will roll the major work into the mortgage (i.e. fixng the sloped floors….turns out the sloped because someone cut the middle out of ALL THE SUPPORT BEAMS when the heating ducts were added.) We go into escrow in February of last year, with countrywide. Countrywide goes out of business and Bank of America takes over. The escrow was supposed to be 90 days and it closed on day 183, I kid you not. It was a nightmare. Every time we were supposed to close, the bank would call and want more documents. We had to have a contractor come out to estimate how much it would be to paint some new drywall in a small laundry closet. They said we couldn’t say we would do it ourselves because we might become injured. (SERIOUSLY?!) There were like fixty other stupid things like that, and then escrow finally closed the day before we were moving from Southern California. We didn’t have hot water for a month, and we didn’t have a kitchen for 7 months. I cooked with a microwave, crockpot, and plug in skillet in an upstairs bedroom. We’ve lived here a year now and totally love it, the house is awesome and totally worth it now….but man, I was skeptical at first!!
Sarah says
Wow, we actually had a very similar experience. We actually started ‘looking’ at houses online and just driving by probably 2 years before, just mainly dreaming about our future house, and getting a feel for what we’d be able to afford at some point. Fast forward to the end of our engagement, while we were super busy planning for a wedding, and kept having these ‘should we look for a house?’ thoughts. We decided to wait until after the wedding, see what kind of $$ we had left over, and go from there. The night of our rehearsal dinner, my in-laws gave us the good news that we had inherited a small sum of $$ from his late PawPaw, and combined with a gift from his grandma, we realized we would be able to put a nice down payment in on our first house MUCH sooner than we had imagined!! We were both in tears at that moment! So, we get married, go to Jamaica for our honeymoon, and the day after we got back, went to the bank to get pre-approved. We connected w/ a realtor, went looking that weekend, saw about 20 homes on Saturday… We were tired and ready to go home to think about all those houses, when our realtor suggested a new construction neighborhood, which we had assumed we couldn’t afford. It was a little outside of town, and we had both thought that we wouldn’t like driving the extra 5-8 mins out. Well, we get out there, and were completely blown away at what our dollars could buy ‘outside’ city limits…we’re talking granite countertops, hardwoods, huge 18in upgraded tile, enormous cabinets, even an extended living and master! The house we looked at was in construction, set to be their next spec. We went home, mulled it over, and the next day went back to sign our names on the line. So, I totally understand that trying to explain it to friends/family without sounding absolutely crazy. But sometimes I guess it just works out that way! We LOOOOVE our house, and we’re so happy we decided to buy it. Even if we are “outside of town.” :)
Chrissy says
We’ve been looking for 7 weeks and counting :( I’m so jealous of your experience. I HATE house hunting and it’s getting very depressing. It seems that everything in our price range is either good house/bad area; bad house/good area. After finding your blog and seeing some of your transformations, I’m begininng to see that maybe a “bad house” wouldn’t be so bad at all!
Aron says
Great story. Mine is much like yours. My boyfriend was encouraging me to buy a house. Right market etc. I of course was nervous. He assured me that he would help to fixit up. I was just “looking”. My realator kept showing me “move in ready” homes and I was bored to tears. The minute I saw the 1920 built quaint bungalow fixer upper in the best part of historic downtown I was sold. Sky blue shag carpet and all. I put in an offer the next morning and it was accepted. I got my keys on May 18th of last year and have been in non stop restore/renovation mode ever since :)
Katie says
I loved reading this post! Glad I am not the only one who bought a house in a whirlwind.. My boyfriend and I ended up buying the first house we looked at. We looked at 4 the 1st day of hunting, when, like you, we were only “looking” not “buying”.. but I fell in love. Thanks for posting!
Kim says
I literally almost just started crying reading this on my lunchbreak at work. I probably would have if I wasn’t at work right now.
I can only hope our house hunt goes just as well. When it eventually starts happening :)
Jeff Goins says
We just bought a house and it’s a similar story!
Pattie says
What a great story…makes me feel so good inside :) My husband and I had a similar experience. We bought ours before we were even engaged. We were looking at condos (I still regret that we can’t do anything to the outside of the home without approval…and have no yard.) so we went to several homes over the course of the weekend and found some really nice ones in our price range! But there was one, even after we left, that we just couldn’t get out of our minds. It was DEFINITELY a fixer upper, but as we walked through it for the first time we imagined all the things we could do to it. It was hideous to say the least…dirty with outdated, broken everything and trampled, mismatched flooring…but we could see through all the mess and as we looked at other homes we began comparing them to this one. That’s when we knew that it was the one. Three years later it looks SO much better, and we’ve nearly outgrown it, but I really hope that our next home gives us that same feeling upon walking in (that feeling of “ah…this house and I belong together.” :)
Chana says
Hey! I’ve been reading your blog for a few months and happened to go back into the archives where I found this. I just wanted to say that I find it very interesting that you moved into your first house on May 25th – this May 25th, my fiance and I will be getting married. Thought that was kinda funny… Also, I know two seconds after sending this, I will feel super lame for thinking this was cool… *sigh. Oh well, here goes.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s sweet! Congrats and have fun!
xo,
s
Marissa says
My husband and I have made an offer on a beautiful house in Petersburg, VA. Reading your post has given me hope that the process may not be as long and tedious as I fear, but you never know. In the meantime we need to line up an inspector so that we’re ready when the offer is accepted. Do you have any suggestions about how to identify a good inspector, or any suggestions for inspectors in the Richmond/Petersburg area? We’re first time home buyers and want to make sure that our inspection is thorough and unbiased.
YoungHouseLove says
We always recommend not going through the inspector that the realtor recommends, just in case there’s any “doing of favors” to make the sale go through by somehow missing some big issues (not that anyone would really do that, but it makes you feel better if the inspector has nothing to gain either way). Maybe ask folks on facebook or email friends and relatives to see who they recommend? We always love using folks that friends/family members have used and loved. Hope it helps! And good luck with everything!
xo,
s
heather says
Aww I just saw this post! So cute. That’s a seriously adorable story. :) My husband (then boyfriend) always said he wanted to own a house by the time he was 25. We had lived together for a year, and been together for about 4 years so we decided to start looking because we hated renting. We decided to only have him buy the house (I refused to be part of such a huge purchase when we were just boyfriend/girlfriend-I’m stubborn) plus, it always meant we would be able to pay the mortgage on one salary which was huge for us. We looked at one house that made my stomach churn, I couldn’t even tell you. It caused some tension that he still put an offer in on it but we lost it (thank God) since the guy wouldn’t budge on price. Afterwards he mentioned he was glad we lost it too. Then we looked at a cute bungalow on a lake that I LOVED despite a small yard. It was down an old dirt road and so cute. We lost that too. Then we looked again and Andy called me and said, “You know that first house we saw online months and months ago when we started looking – the very first one?” This place was a dump. I mean DUMP. He said, “I just saw it. You need to come look”, thinking I would hate it. So we set up a time and we went. It was hands down the worst house we had ever seen and the yard was terrible. But it had a beautiful gorgeous hayfield in the back. Then, a nice older woman came by and talked with us while she walked her dogs. I told him I loved it and we needed this house, which totally surprised him.
We closed on a the house a few weeks later and came in WAY under budget. This place has taken a lot of heart and hard work, but to have the neighbors we have, in the location we have, is everything I wanted and more. I absolutely love it. Since then people have stopped to thank us for fixing it (literally stop in the road while driving) and a lot of people have said no one but someone like my husband could have taken this place on.
We were 23 and 24 when we bought it. He turned 25 a few months after closing. The right house ALWAYS comes along, and when it does – you know it.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s amazing! Love that story!
xo,
s
Carlie says
So impressed and jealous of all these “whirlwind buy” stories! We’ve been looking for months. Many awful houses, a dozen offers not accepted/outbid… And three offers accepted followed by failed inspections. Good looking houses, not fixer uppers!! I had no idea this process would be so long and discouraging.
YoungHouseLove says
So sorry Carlie! I hope things turn around and you end up in the perfect house for you!
xo
s
Annie says
I know this post is old, but I’m glad I stumbled on it while looking through your posts tonight. I just closed on my first house today(!) and had a really similar experience- I was just starting to look around and on my first day out with the realtor looking at houses fell in love with mine! I was really glad to hear that I’m not the only crazy one who did the whole buying a house thing super quickly! I can’t wait to start implementing your tips and tricks in my new space :) Thanks for a great blog- it’s definitely provided me with lots of inspiration!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Annie! good luck with your first house! Such an exciting time.
xo
s
Avi says
Just went down the YHL black hole, and read this post for the first time.
While we are selling our first home, under contract as of Sunday, I was not in on the home buying process. My wife bought it right after we started dating, and it took her over a year to find.
Our first joint house shopping experience didn’t take any less time. It took us 2 years to get to this house, and 3 other offers.
In April we will be moving into our new fixer upper, and OMG it is a little overwhelming, but we will have projects for years to come.
YoungHouseLove says
Good luck with everything Avi!
xo
s
SarahC says
I have been bouncing around your archives and came across this post – so sweet! I had to share our story. My husband and I got married last July (actually, 7/7!). We had a beautiful wedding but I remember talking on our honeymoon how much we were looking forward to a normal post-wedding existence. Maybe we could read a book! Or watch a movie! Without wedding planning! Well, I had a “hobby” of browsing local real estate listings – had been doing it for years, back into my college days. I wasn’t actually looking. WE were definitely not looking. But, just three days after we came back from our honeymoon, I stumbled across a listing for a sweet little house in a great neighborhood with a killer back yard (with deer!). We “casually” drove by it that night (a Friday), and an hour after driving by we were calling a realtor our friends had recommended. Two days later we saw the house (“we’re just going to look”). An hour after seeing the house, we put in an offer! We had to make those same so-guess-what-we-just-kind-of-bought-a-house calls to family. The funny thing about it is we’d never really been quick to do things before. We celebrated our 9 year anniversary on our honeymoon! I guess we just decided to wait and wait and then do it all at once. We closed on August 27th of last year, so we are nearing our house-iversary. I’ve really loved reading your home-making journey as we embarked upon our own.