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!