Guys,

I have been keeping a little bit of secret from you all for the past couple of weeks and it’s been killing me. As you know we have been on the hunt for a new house this year. We have had our realtor take us to many houses. We are totally in the double digits and probably around the 30 house range. There were a couple of houses that felt like they could have been the one, but while we decided what we wanted to do they all got sold. Seriously. They were each houses that had been on the market forever and had quirks and no one really interested. Jon and I walk in and bam an offer, multiple offers, bidding wars. Good times. Jon wants to just do this for a living now. Apparently we are house whisperers.

About 3 weeks ago we stumbled upon a house at an amazing price in an incredible town and school district. On Long Island there is the South Shore and the North Shore. I’m in love with the North Shore. If you have read The Gatsby it’s part of the East Egg and West Egg. This house was in a town called Locust Valley and a handful of blocks away from the most charming beach. We were smitten.

So smitten that after viewing it we immediately did this:

Within a day we had our house listed. In order to put an offer in on the L.V. house we needed to get our house listed and make sure we could sell it. Well, little did I know how popular our house would be. We had an open house the 2nd day on the market and got an offer and then more people came that week and within 7 days we had multiple offers on our house.

Originally I was so excited to sell our house and I have always been the one pushing it more than Jon, but let me tell it’s not for the faint of heart. We were all battling the stomach bug at the time so I couldn’t leave the house during the some of the viewings. I was finally better but both of the boys were still sick. The boys enjoyed giving tours and I wanted to die. No, seriously. I was a mess. I would open the door and my heart would sink. I would quietly bawl while they toured the house. You see everyone loved our house. They loved all of the details we did. They loved how it was decorated. Seeing everyone so excited made me panic a bit because while I was excited about the possibility of the new house it had some negatives to it that kept creeping into my head. More specifically was that the house felt too new to me. I love houses from the early 1900’s and this house was built in the mid 60s. Now, I know that doesn’t make it new construction, but to me it lacked a bit of the character that I love in old homes. We still continued making our offer on it because the pros out weighed the cons and the location, property size, and school district made it all worth while.

Of course our magic touch had to continue with the house we wanted. The house we were interested in had been on the market for over 100 days with no bites. We went in and within a couple of days they had another offer. So, now we were in a bidding war with another person. We had to meet with so many banks to figure out the best mortgage for us, if we had any money left over for renovations and what we were going to make from our house. Since we got asking price offers on our house there was now a bidding war on our house. We had a deadline of last Monday to give our best and final offer. We were told we would know what happened by that afternoon. Guess what? By that afternoon they had another offer that had just come in and now the buyer needed a little more time. By Tuesday afternoon we found out that while all of the bids were really similar and the last offer came in with a huge down payment of 400k in all cash. How could we compete with that? Hold on let me check my other wallet for the spare 400k I carry around.

Since we had an offer on our house that we decided to go with we scrambled to find another house. I looked everywhere and all of my must haves for a house went out the window. We were just trying to find anything to make it all work out. I felt like I was losing my mind. So many emotions all at the same time.

Even though we threw most of our must haves out of the window we didn’t want to sacrifice on square footage. No point moving to a house that was the same size as this one. We also didn’t want to be a main road. With two boys and a dog I was terrified of one of them running out to a busy road.

We tried to make it work, but at the end of the week I had enough. I wanted to get that feeling that people were getting when they walked in our house. They were so excited and in love with every little detail of my house. I was now trying to make everything work by throwing all of my must haves out the window. I wasn’t getting that excited feeling. I would the listing on the house we are currently in and think why am I moving. I love this house! Yes, we are growing out of it. Yes, it’s not in a good school district, but I’m still in love. Hudson doesn’t start Kindergartner this coming Fall due to a birthday cut off. So, technically we can have another year here without having to worry about the school district.

So, after all of the tears, stress, excitement, and disappointment we have decided to stay. We want to get that excited feeling when we leave this house and since it wasn’t happening right now the best decision was to stay. I’m happy to have a little more time in the house and enjoy another set of seasons in this place. Next Spring we will list our house and move out. Hopefully we will have found something we love by then. If not we will move in with Grandma and Pop Pop for a little bit while we find the perfect place. A decision and a game plan have all been made.

Whew! I feel so much better letting you all know what has been going on. I hate keeping secrets, but I didn’t want to jinx anything. If you follow along on snapchat: camilapavone you would have know a little bit more because when I’m on their I tend to just babble and over share. Haha.