We started talking about buying a new house last fall when I found out I was pregnant. Our townhouse has been great for the past 5 years, but we had been maxing out the space with just Oliver and us, so adding another little boy was really not an option. With the housing marked still pretty sluggish, we realized we would take a big loss on our place if we sold it now, so we decided to rent it out instead. We started going to open houses and driving by places we saw on-line to get an idea what our price range could be. We were checking out different neighborhoods one afternoon and stopped in at an open house in Seward Park that was about $50,000 over our maximum. It was so beautiful that I kept the flyer as an example of what we wanted in a house, even though it was out of our price range. That was in October. We started looking with our real estate agent (the awesome Aaron Janus!) in December and we quickly got a little discouraged as all the houses we saw had some major drawbacks and there weren't that many nice houses coming on the market. Just as we were thinking we were going to either have to wait a while or settle for something less than ideal, that same Seward Park house came back on the market for exactly 50,000 less than it was listed for originally. That was January 21. We saw it on January 22 and made an offer on January 23rd. It was a stressful few days, with a competing offer, but we got it! Then we had just a month to pack everything and find renters for our townhouse. It came down to the wire, but we found the perfect young petless couple to rent our place. We closed on February 25th and moved in on the 26th and they moved in on the 27th. My mom, Scott and uncle Ron came down to help and Derek helped move too. Dawn watched Oliver all day and I moved all the plants and other car stuff (I certainly picked a good time to be 6 months pregnant!). It was done by 3:30 that day and it took us about a week to get everything completely unpacked. Our new house is wonderful! There are a few kinks that come with moving from a brand new townhouse to a 100 year old craftsman, like not having outlets where you need them and drafty closets, but it is so much better in a million more ways. Oliver loves his new room, complete with walk in closet/play room in the eves. He also got a new big boy bed. He has been a real trooper with all the changes. He loves the "blue house" and has helped us unpack and put his bed together. We can't wait for warmer/drier weather when we can go outside and enjoy the huge yard and the lake just 1/2 mile away!
We are looking forward to many happy years together building our little family in this beautiful house.
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| the "blue house" |
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| Just got the keys! |
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| Our little helper in the garden |
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| Our new home |
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| Our first dinner party! |
