Sunday, October 10, 2021

We've found it!

I have been looking forward to the day I could share my good news, and I think it's finally safe to share it!   I haven't been writing much about our house hunting, but up until recently it's been going on in the background consistently since I first mentioned we were starting to look - back in June.

After visiting houses nearly every weekend from June through September, we found our new home on September 24th!  While we weren't sure about it just reading the listing description and seeing the pictures online, neither of us had any reservations at all once we saw it in person.  This had been my prayer from the beginning - that the house we would choose would feel right to both of us when we saw it.  If you knew Hub's and my personalities (not always in sync), how often we vacillated over what this next house should be (nearly weekly), how few houses that "checked our boxes" were showing up on the market (few to none), you would know that was no small prayer.

Whether or not you're considering buying a house right now, I'm sure you know that in today's market, good houses go fast!  The house we're buying was listed on a Friday afternoon, we made a 6:00 pm appointment to see it, and at 9:00 pm we were leaving the realtor's office after signing our offer to buy.  It sounds crazy, but that's what buying a house is like in 2021.  Whoever "they" are, "they" aren't kidding when they say buying a house in this market is not for the faint of heart.  

This house not only checked all the boxes of what we felt were important, but it also had everything on my personal wishlist, and then some.  I am so undeservedly blessed by that.  In four months, while we had seen some very suitable houses, this was the only house we both felt equally compelled to make an offer on.  And (no surprise) we weren't the only ones who felt that way.   

Knowing by Friday night there were already multiple offers, and knowing the chances were very low that the first time we'd make an offer on a house it would be accepted, we waited just over 40 hours assuring ourselves that we would be just fine if we got it or not.  By Sunday the 26th, we were becoming pretty sure that we were not the winning bidders and were truly okay with it - and then a call came when we were out to lunch with friends.  We were asked to provide bank records to prove we could back up our offer, and a few hours later the second call came telling us our offer was accepted - out of seven total offers made!  We were told the offers were competitive, and later heard (through the grapevine) that ours wasn't even the highest, at which point our delight expanded to wonderment. 

While the house and property please us, it is not really what we envisioned when we set out on this search.  Though, to be honest, our vision kept changing as we looked at various houses - none of them being quite right.   At some point in the process I began to realize that this house hunting was as much about us adjusting our expectations and hopes, and even being willing to walk away from many nice houses that just didn't feel right for us, as it was about finding the right house.  Walking away from several houses was sometimes a step of faith, but we always had peace about it, or quickly gained peace once the decision to walk away was made.  What a process this was!

So... we've begun packing and expect to close at the end of this month and begin moving the first week in November.  Hopefully, we'll not experience winter weather before we get moved in, but regardless, we look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in our new place.  And this morning at church I signed us up to host a small dinner gathering in early December.  I'm already looking forward to it.

I hope to take some pictures of the process of moving, but I know that may be a challenge for me.  I'm either good at throwing myself into a process, or being a photographer, but rarely do I manage to do both very well at the same time.  We will see...

Meanwhile, as we try to eat our freezer inventory down, we sort and pack, sort and pack.  I am so thankful I've gotten rid of so much this past year (easily it will be over 1,000 things), but still I'm discovering things I didn't know we had.   Living in the same house for 23 years makes that happen, I suppose.

This past week I started packing books, so culling out those least likely to get read has been my goal. This is just one book case's worth, so hopefully, it's just a start:


And a couple of weeks ago, I had culled through my closet, so I have this little stack of clothing to go:


And, as always, there will be collections of random things we realize we don't need, and certainly don't want to move - like this:
The only noteable thing above is the cat drawing my artist sister made of our first kitty, Sy Snootles.  Sy has been gone for over 30 years, and we no longer display the picture so I asked artist sister if she'd like the picture back - perhaps to pass along to one of her grandchildren.  She seemed thrilled with the idea.  It's on its way to her as I type.  😊

With just three more weeks to my 1000 things gone goal:


Making Space Week 49:   950  things gone!



 

34 comments:

  1. WOW. What wonderful news!! Congrats on landing your new home. I can't even imagine the stress of looking for a new home and then the stress of moving. I suspect I'll be buried from this home (which is what I said when we moved into it).

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    1. While it's a great deal of busyness - especially now with packing, it didn't feel exactly stressful (to me) looking at houses. I've had the attitude from the beginning that we'll take as long as it takes to find the right house. I was actually surprised it happened as soon as it did. I think hubs is stressing over coordinating the actual move (we'll move small stuff, but hire movers for furniture and anything else we don't move ourselves), but since only one of us needs to focus on that detail, I'm seeing my main job as sorting, culling, and packing. It's almost meditative. Well... almost. lol

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  2. This is wonderful news. You will be busy for a good while but I am sure motivated by the new place. The housing market here is just as crazy. I am shocked at prices around here. Take care and congratulations on the new place.

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    1. Busyness almost feels like a blessing right now. I didn't anticipate that, but I think I'm realizing it's true.

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  3. How exciting! What a wonderful thing to find "the" house. Is it smaller than what you have now? Is it a ranch style this time? No stairs? Close to where you live now or in another city? I can hardly wait to hear all about it. Congratulations!!!

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    1. It has a tad more square footage, and is a ranch. Getting on one story was the impetus for considering moving. The house is just 5 minutes south of the town we live in - a country neighborhood, but not very far from anything. I hope to share some pictures eventually. :)

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  4. How exciting!! Congratulations!!! It was so obviously meant to be. If it hadn't been, it wouldn't have happened. You can move on knowing that you're on the right road and that the timing is absolutely spot on for you both. I'm excited for you!!

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    1. You know... I'm definitely a person who when something doesn't work out, I can pretty quickly say, "it wasn't meant to be". For some reason I have trouble being so sure "it was meant to be" when something does works out. I don't know if it's a lack of faith, or me just never wanting to be presumptuous. lol :)

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  5. This is wonderful news. Everything you wanted and it's a fair price. When will you put your current house on the market? You sound very organized and nearly ready!

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    1. Well... "fair price" is kind of relative in today's housing market. It was in our "budget" and we think we made a fair offer for the market. We plan to put our house on the market after we taker ownership of the new house and move some things in. We'd like to have all (or most of) the packed boxes out of the way when we list it. We tend to be organized people when it comes to the big stuff of life, but ready? It feels a tad overwhelming at the moment, but it's a good overwhelmed. :)

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  6. oh wow!!!! I am so HAPPY for you!!! Glory to God! What a blessing! Surely He was helping you! I can't wait to hear all about it. Meanwhile, be sure you are careful when moving - packing is not easy - take care of your backs and if possible, hire help as you can! God bless you!

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    1. Thank you, Elizabeth. I'm tickled you're checking in on me. :) While we've applied thought and even considered strategies when it comes to home buying and selling, we do pray that God is working in all of this. It has also always been my prayer that if a thing was not in our best interest, He would close doors. While closed doors can be frustrating, I try to see them as answers to prayers.

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  7. Congratulations! I'm so happy for you, you just know when the house is right for you. I hope everything goes smoothly I know how stressful it can be. Good luck with all the packing and although it's easy to get rid of a lot of stuff when you are moving be careful. Now 4 years later I'm needing some of the things I thought I wouldn't need and will have to buy again haha. Have a good week. Xx

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    1. Trying to be thoughtful about what to keep and what to let go of. I'm thinking it kind of goes with the territory that we may end up replacing some things later. OTOH, we may be realize we really didn't these things after all! :) Thanks for the congrats, Linda!

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  8. That's wonderful! I am curious how you were selected since yours was not the highest offer. Must be a God thing. ☺️

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    1. Since we don't know anything other than what we heard was one higher offer, we can only guess. The only things we can figure is that we had no contingencies (like needing to sell our house first - we do not), and we decided to cover any gap there might be between our offer and the appraisal (up to a certain limit that we set). Either of those would have made our offer stand out from comparable offers that didn't have those things, although, what we did was not uncommon in today's market - here, anyway. It's hard to believe our lack of contingencies and "gap coverage" was unique among 7 offers. Regardless of any of that, though, we're truly hoping God's hand has been on this.

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  9. Happy congratulations on finding your new home! Checking off all your boxes . . . agreement with your husband . . . having your offer accepted (even when it was not the highest) . . . all point towards it being the house that God has led you to. Such an exciting time!

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    1. Thank you, Cheryl. Hubs and I being in agreement is probably the biggest box checked and leads me to trust (when I'm tempted to second guess) that God is blessing this decision.

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  10. Congrats on finding the perfect place and winning the bidding contest. You are correct. It is crazy now with the real estate market.

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  11. Congrats from a new reader of your blog! Best I can surmise, we're near the same station in life. My wife and I have lived in our home 20 years and it's where we mostly raised our three children. We talk constantly about moving, but keep making minor tweaks to our current residence that make us want to stay! Good luck in the process!

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    1. Hi Bob! Except for grandchildren (that we don't have) we do seem to near the same station in life. If we had a house that was fit for growing old in, we'd be hard pressed to do this much work. We would continue to tweak this old house, too. So far, strength is holding and I do think we're going to make it to the end of this daunting task. Just read through your WFH posts, and I confess I can't stop scratching my head over this present situation...

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  12. Oh that’s exciting to hear. I’m really pleased for you and hope the move goes smoothly. All those months of decluttering should make the move far less stressful than it could have been.

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    1. You'd think so, wouldn't you! For some reason, I just keep uncovering more stuff! At this point, it's actually harder to make decisions to get rid of things, so I suspect (while I'll probably not document it here) I think my decluttering journey will continue post move!

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  13. Well, that proves it...all I have to do is miss one blog post and I am out of the loop! LOL! Wow! A big move in your future. So great that you got rid of all that stuff. I keep pray that I will be able to move North and find the perfect little cottage for me but I think God is waiting for me to get r id of a lot more stuff first! LOL! Congratulations and obviously it was "meant to be" in the way it all came about. I'm so happy for you! Where are the pics???

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    1. Oh, I hope you can move if that's your desire, Sam. You deserve that perfect little cottage wherever you want it to be. Closing is right around the corner for us, so hopefully I'll keep a camera close and will feel freer to post pictures of the new place soon.

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  14. CONGRATULATIONS on the new house!!!!

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  15. Wonderful news! I'm happy for you. I hope the move goes smoothly.
    Amalia
    xo

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  16. Completely missed this!! Congratulations and let's hope yhe really stressful bits are done and now all the fun bits!

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  17. your wedding dress is just like mine, mine has higher collar with same lace around collar other than that the same. I was pretty stunned to see the likeness. mine was my aunts and she gave it to me I wore mine 47 years ago

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