You Can Call Me A Homeowner!

That’s right folks. I own a house!!

After looking for 5 long months, I finally found the perfect house.  Then after another month of waiting for all the paperwork to be drawn up, meeting with an inspector, signing a bazillion documents, this pretty little house is mine!

The Boy and I looked at what seemed like 100’s of houses. We used the MLS website to narrow down to just the right ones, and then we went to walked through countless houses.

 New Master Bedroom

In the end it really comes down to the big 3 equation: Right Location + Right House + Right Price= The Right House

Right Location:

We knew we wanted to stay in Minneapolis.  Being in the city was important for us with our busy, busy lifestyle. In addition to The Boy having a phobia of the suburbs.  We started our search very narrow, then over the months of looking we opened up our search to surrounding areas, and even- gasp- close suburbs.  Although we opened our search area, we always seemed to only ask to go see houses in the area we originally set out wanting to be in.  After coming to this realization, we talked through it and said, “do we wait for something to come up, or do we venture out of our comfort zone and pick some houses in these other areas to go see?”  We ended up going back to “right location”, and we knew the right location was the one we had started with.  It might have taken us a few extra months to find our house because we wanted to be this specific area of Minneapolis, but we are glad we didn’t wavier. The wait paid off. The new house is exactly in the neighborhood we wanted to be in, and we can’t wait to start exploring it more.

Main Level Bathroom

Right Price:

Now, we are not going to talk numbers here, because that part is pretty personal. However, I can say when you start out looking for your first house, the thought of spending that amount of money is pretty scary!  I went in with the mind set that I was going to find a house on the low end of my budget, as many people end up thinking. Of course you will be the person who finds a great deal on a house, and you will have the lowest mortgage payments every month.  Wrong.  You really have to know what you are willing to pay for, and what the market looks like in the area you want to be in.  After taking off my rose colored glasses, talking with my realtor, mortgage broker and The Boy, I landed in the right range for what I was looking to buy.  In addition to figuring out the price range for the area I wanted to live in, I needed to understand what I would be willing to pay for and what I would be willing to take on as projects for myself. At the end of the day, we landed on wanting a house with updates already completed, with all our must haves already in the house and in that right neighborhood. All factoring that all into the price of the house, I was in my comfort mortgage zone. I knew this house had all my must haves, some great additions, is on the block I wanted to be on and the price was just right.

Dinning Room Area

Right House:

Over the course of looking, we really did figure out our must haves, nice to haves, and what was negotiable if the house had everything else. In the first meeting with our fabulous realtor, Emily, we told her we were looking for a house with: 3+ bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, 2 car garage,  a nice yard for Dewey, a decent kitchen, and a house with “charm”.  We really started on the broad end.  Not really knowing what we were going to like, we needed we just jumped all in, and see all types of houses. Some I really loved, and others The Boy really hated.  Some we left thinking, really??

Then there were the tougher ones. Ones that left us thinking, “Could this be it?”, “Are we ok with only having 1 bathroom?”, “Will we take on updating the kitchen?”, “Can we handle only a 1 car garage?” , “Would we have the time for a complete remodel?”  Every time one of these big questions came up, we ended up going back, talking it out, and landing on “Lets keep looking”.  And looking we did for a long time.

One Saturday morning in May, I woke up to the MLS email, and started browsing the new listings in bed while The Boy and Dewey were still asleep next to me.  The second house on the list came up being in the right location and right on target for price. Scrolling through the 15 photos of the house, I grew more and more excited.  My brain was doing cartwheels- something only my brain can do, because my body never could.  The feeling of “this could be it” was racing through my head. I couldn’t control my excitement. I basically jumped up in bed and started shaking The Boy.  He wasn’t too excited with my method of waking him up, but he had to see this house. That instant! I could not wait the 2 hours more I knew he would sleep.  I would have gone bonkers waiting that long.  Now with him awake, I shoved the phone in his face and said “YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS HOUSE”. Ok- It was more of a shout.  Eyes half-open he started looking at the photos. By the last photo, and countless “wows” he was fully awake and he said, “call Emily”.  This is how the rest of the day went:

9:30 am: Phone call with Emily. “I have to see this house today. Can we make it happen?”

3:00 pm: We meet Emily at the house and started touring.

4:00 pm: After the longest amount of time we have spent in a house at a showing, The Boy and I both agree, this is it!

4:15 pm: We talk through what we want to offer, and Emily runs off to get the paperwork pulled together for us.

7:00 pm: I sign our offer, and it is out to the seller.

In less than 12 hours, we saw the house listing, walked through the house, and put in an offer.  There was no waiting around here. We had seen too many houses be gobbled up before we had a chance to set foot in them, so with this one we acted as fast as humanly possibly. And it paid off. By Monday morning at 9am, we had a fully agreed upon offer!

Front Door & Entryway

In the end we did not sacrifice on any of our must haves from when we started. The new house has: 3 bedrooms, 1 office/den area, 2 bathrooms, nice back yard with a fence, 2 car garage, remodeled kitchen, and some great charm. Along the way we also found a few other things we knew we wanted or liked, and we got those too: hardwood floors, new windows, separate dining room area, an entryway that has its own space, a finished basement including a bar area, a large deck, fire pit area, and the house being elevated off the street.  Last, there was something we never expected to get: a wine cellar!

I can’t wait to start showing more photos of the house. Show you our moving process, and unpacking. You can look forward to DIY decorating projects, home improvement projects, and random musings of a new home owner.

And of course you can look forward to all the great things I will be cooking up in my new kitchen!! Check out my great new fridge. I am in Love!

 Giant New Refrigerator