We Bought A House!

I still can’t really believe i’m writing this but…big news: we bought a house! How crazy is that? We closed last week, and officially got the keys today. We began moving some small things in already, but will be doing all of the moving this weekend.

When this year began, I really did not believe we would be buying a house this year. Especially when the pandemic hit in March, it just felt like most things were going to be on hold this year. Then, in May, when my Mom had a seizure, our perspectives started to shift a bit. Soon after my Mom had gotten home and recovered, we began seriously discussing the idea of purchasing a home together. At first, I think we were all a little nervous about the idea - I mean, buying a house with a parent less than a year after your wedding is not the norm for most. After a lot of discussion though, we all three agreed that this would be a mutually beneficial and smart choice moving forward. It’s something that Mark and my Mom had always talked about doing down the road anyway. Mark and I have agreed that we want our parents to be close as they age and as we (hopefully) have children in the future. Our grandparents were a large part of our lives growing up, and we want nothing less for our children! With my Moms health, and the pandemic making everything more difficult, and so much uncertainty with my career currently, this step definitely feels like the right decision!

When we first began looking for homes a few months ago, a few things became apparent quickly. #1 Looking for a home in a pandemic was going to bring unexpected challenges. The market was very busy in our area, despite the circumstances, maybe even more so than in a non-pandemic time. #2 The layout of home that we needed for everyone’s privacy and so that we could all feel comfortable was going to be difficult to find, so we would have to be more flexible about other factors like price and area. #3 Buying a home is hard! Period.

Luckily, we hired such a great realtor who was able to help us every step of the way and teach us so much as we went along. We actually ended up working with Ian Nelson, who is someone I went to High School with! I knew from connecting with him on social media that he was a realtor, and he always seemed so friendly, knowledgable, and on top of things. He ended up being such a godsend, and even though we put in offers on four different houses, by the time we got to “our” house, we had experienced enough and learned enough from Ian to make and offer that would get us the house. And it worked! If you’re someone familiar with real estate, we ended up offering over asking a bit, waiving remedy, and offering an appraisal gap as well. The appraisal came back much lower than even asking though (this was the most stressful part, as the sellers could’ve chosen to back out of the deal at this point), so while we did end up paying the appraisal gap, we didn’t pay what we initially offered. The owners of the house were moving to a different state, and so were looking for buyers who could be flexible about move in date, and also were not looking to do a bunch of work. Our flexibility and creativity with our offer ended up working out for us and we were accepted the day after putting in our offer, beating our multiple other offers. My best advice for home buying is to find a realtor who is quick, dedicated, and willing to think out of the box. If you’re in the central Ohio area, I highly recommend Ian Nelson with EXP Realty.

Our new home is about 25 minutes outside of the city in a little suburb of Columbus. It’s a quiet, residential neighborhood with a winding, wooded entrance and communal pond. The house is three bedrooms, 2.5 baths with a huge two story great room, and lots of big windows and great light. There’s a loft are that we’re planning to make into a reading area and a huge basement with a finished room that has already been designated as Mark’s are for working, playing music, and watching movies. My Mom’s master bedroom is on the first floor with a walk in closet and bathroom. We have the entire second floor, and plenty of room and privacy. We’re planning on making a room on the first floor into a spare bedroom for guests, and the second bedroom on the second floor will be for my office and walk in closet! There’s a pretty big back yard with a patio, and a big beautiful front porch. The house was built around 2006, so it’s fairly new, but we still definitely have lots of projects in mind for making it “ours”.

I can’t wait to get moved in and to make this house a home. I get teary-eyed thinking about all of the wonderful memories we will make here - birthdays, holidays, dinner parties, and fires out back. Maybe in a few years the patter of little feet. I’ve already got so many ideas for DIYs, decor, and fun gatherings with our friends and families as soon as this pandemic is over!

I’m so thankful that you’re following along with my story, especially during big life moments like this. I’ll be sure to keep you updated here and on Instagram about our progress, and as always, will be honest about navigating life with my Mom and Mark - and making it all work under one roof!