I can hardly calm down enough to write this post. Pretty much my greatest dream in life has started to come true and that is not conducive to operating a keyboard without typos. My dream is buying and renovating a home, internet. For so many reasons. I love everything about it – the decorating, the hospitality, the raising children, the comfort of a place to call your own. It plays to my strengths and is a thing I do to exercise dominion over God’s creation that brings me seriously big joy.
I JUST LOVE IT. I AM SCREAMING AS I TYPE THIS.
Not really, baby is sleeping and we are in a small apartment, hence part of the need of this pursuit to begin with.
Now, for where we are at in the process. We have a realtor (YES!). She is cool (DOUBLE YES!). And here is our housing “wish list.” I originally had this in Coldstone Creamery “Like it, love it, gotta have it” format, but we are already young and if I am going to be buying a home I should at least help her help me by making it at least a little bit easier to take me seriously. But not you internet, you will take me as I am.
GOTTA HAVE IT
- Four bedrooms: master, two kids’ bedrooms (large for sharing), and guest
- Acreage, ideally with some grass and woods (David’s big thing)
- No flips or new homes, must need cosmetic updates like carpet, wallpaper, and flooring (my big thing – I love projects!)
- 2,000+ square feet
LOVE IT
- Wood burning fireplace
- Two story
- Lots of natural lighting
- Large kitchen (must have natural light for food photos)
- Defined entryway (the front door does not open RIGHT into the living room)
- Formal dining room
- Office space or homeschooling room
- Defined (not walk through) laundry space on first or second floor
- Colonial, cape cod, or farmhouse exterior
LIKE IT
- Unfinished basement for kids to play in
- Not on busy road, has privacy
- Not a galley kitchen
- At least 2 and 1/2 bathrooms
- Stairway not in entry
There came a point about two years ago when we were tossing around the idea of buying a starter home. With all the “the rates are record setting low” talk and such. For a variety of reasons that I cannot remember now (I think plans for the future that we are no longer pursuing) we decided to wait. Also, starter homes were not appealing to us. Renting was not so bad (for a while) and for us the sound of staying in some sort of inexpensive rental property for another year or two sounded great if it meant after that we could have the first home we buy be something like a long term home.
With cheer and jubilation, the waiting is over and we are actually hunting and my time looking at property is not just “for funsies.”
And here is where I give a general apology for caps lock screaming throughout this post. Actually, no, NOT SORRY because I am so happy.