House Tour; Part 1. The Home Buying Process

I know I have been promising this for a while now. And finally it is here on the blog. It will be split up as 4 different parts with part 1 today, part 2 tomorrow, part 3 on Wednesday, and part 4 {who knows when}.

The reason part 4 does not have a scheduled date is because there are  a few rooms/bathrooms left to show, and a few finishing touches that I would like to do to those rooms before I show them.

In the meantime, you get this. Before and the after of some of my favorite rooms.

Now, a little background before I begin.

Andrew and I moved into our first home in April of 2010. Less than a year before that we had just graduated from college. We got married a couple months after graduating, and we found out we were expecting Elliana a month before we moved into our home. A lot happened. We were 23 years old and your typical first time home buyers.

We wanted to see a lot of homes. Watched HGTV every second we got. Did tons of research. And really got into the whole "buying" experience.

Not to say that it wasn't nerve-wracking. Let me tell ya. But overall it was fun. Long process. But fun.

The interesting part though is how we decided on our home. We had been house hunting since August {the same month we got married.} The crazy part is that we were house hunting in Cincinnati, Ohio where Andrew was attending graduate school.

As a nurse, I knew that I could find a job anywhere, and that it would be smarter for us to move where Andrew was going to school at so that rent wouldn't be an issue and so forth. Why pay for two places, right? Right.

We actually ended up finding a home that we loved. Loved. 5 bedrooms. Basement. Office. Brick all around. Gorgeous layout. Cozy, homey. Absolutely wonderful.  And?

We ended up putting an offer in on the home. And? We ended up going under contract. EEK!

Unfortunately {actually, fortunately}, we did not end up getting that home in Cincinnati and we quickly realized that it would have been a huge mistake if we made such a drastic move. Not knowing where Andrew would find a job post graduate school. Leaving all our family behind. Knowing that we wanted to start a family soon and would have no support close by. Yup. Silly we were.

So that was a blessing {us not getting the home}, however, back to house hunting we went. Finding a realtor in the city that I lived in. Browsing new homes. Find a mortgage broker. The process started all over again.

When I began searching for homes this time around, I came across our home {that we currently live in} on the internet. Honest to God, as soon as I saw it... my heart kind of pitter-pattered, skipped a beat, came out of my chest, whatever you want to call it. It did it. Something about it just called to me. Drew me in. Told me, Becky this is going to be yours.

Husband? Not so much. He hated it from the minute he saw the picture. Simply because it was older. It needed work. And he just didn't see it for us.

And when Husband makes his mind up about something? It's made. But because he loves me so much, he agreed to add that house to the {30} homes that we would be seeing the next day. Unfortunately, it didn't matter. Because like I said before, his mind was made up. We walked through the home. I loved it. I felt it. He didn't.

And being the good wife that I am, I knew that we needed to choose a home that we both loved.

And so came house number 2. We found this one randomly at night. We saw it that same night. Fell in love with it. It needed work but it was only a couple years old and I could totally envision all the changes that we could make.

We went under contract.

And then a few short weeks later? The contract fell through. They refused to make changes to the roof {that was leaking} and so that was that. Back to house hunting we went.

To say I was crushed would be an understatement. At this point we were 9 months in the process and I was pooped out. Not to mention that I was now pregnant at this point... so fatigued? Yes. Emotional? Yes. Cranky? Um yes, so move outs my way!

And then it happened. Husband sat on the computer, came across our home {that we live in now} again, and said the most magical words to me..." I don't think I gave this house a chance. Can we go back to it again so I can see it?"

Why yes! We can!

We went back to the house with our realtor. We did our walk through. And he loved it. We ended up talking that day between our house{that we live in now} and a different house that we were considering putting an offer in. The other house was newer, didn't need much work and had tons of space, however it was in a "cookie cutter" neighborhood and we wouldn't be able to move in until June.

Decision made. We were putting an offer in on the white home with red shutters that sits slightly up on a hill.

And we got it!

And the day we got our keys? I was the happiest 12 week pregnant lady on earth. It so happened that this was the day that my morning sickness also went away. Baby was obviously happy too.

Rightfully so, because this would be the home that we bring her home to....

Stay tuned for part 2.....The before, the nasty, the old, the knitty gritty.