If you have been following along on this blog for some time then you know that a couple of years ago we had to sell our house. We originally bought the house as newlyweds when kids weren’t even a thought. In fact, we declared we just wanted dogs and no kids! So, the fact that our charming cottage style home wasn’t in an ideal school district was not really a thought. We also figured this is our starter home and we will be out of it in 5 years tops. Well, I completely fell in love with the house and literally wanted to chain myself to the front door at the thought of selling add to that the housing market crashed we had no option, but to stick it out a little longer until things got better.

We also now had two little boys, one that needed to start Kindergarten sooner than later.  We officially had a final date for when we needed to leave. We thought of staying and putting Hudson into private school, but it just seemed so pricey to do that from K-12 times 2. Also, our house was on the small side and we were busting out of it. We could have expanded it, but again that would be a huge cost-plus private education tuition. The hunt for a new house began a year before we officially needed to move. We checked out so many towns, looked at hundreds of houses and worked with many real estate agents. I was starting to feel a bit like Goldilocks with my search because none of the agents really understood what I wanted. We wanted something old with charm. If the house was from the 1970’s it was too new for me. We didn’t want open concept, a flip house or a split level. We lost many older homes to contractors. It’s tough to bid against people that come in with all-cash offers. So many bidding wars and headaches.

We eventually listed our house and sold it in a weekend! I cried! Oh how I cried! It all hit me super hard. It was mine and I didn’t want to give it up. We eventually found a house while our house sale was in contract and I was okay with it, but not in love. Jon liked it more than me and it was in a good school district so, I gave in and said we should place a bid. We did and they accepted and then a person that was on the fence heard about our accepted offer and outbid us. I took that as a sign that it wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t in love and there was a lot I didn’t like about it.

(Our first house)

So, what does one do when they are in such a situation? They move in with their parents!

(These sweet fools took us in)

Yup! Here I was in my mid-thirties moving my husband, two kids, and dog into my parents’ home. We are so lucky they had the space to take us in! I’m going to write a whole blog post about this experience.

(Hudson on his first day of Kindergarten)

Hudson was able to start Kindergarten in an amazing school district that Jon actually went to from K-12 and I went to from 6-12. In the beginning, we continued the house hunt in all of the towns we had been looking at before. We never thought we wanted to stay in the same town that we grew up in, but then something changed. We realized we really liked the idea of the boys going to school where we went to school. We loved the area and how convenient it was to everything. Why leave! We now had a true focus and wanted to stay in one specific town. The issue? Well, the town is 1 sq mile and people stay here for the long haul. It’s hard to find houses for sale and when they did come up they really didn’t check off any of must-haves or were crazy overpriced.

We had to take a lot of things off our list. We were getting really frustrated during our 2-year search when at the end of the summer right before the school year started our agent showed us a house someone was considering selling as-is or flipping it and then selling it. It wasn’t on the market yet they had simply contacted our agent to find out what she thought was the best way to get rid of the house. She knew we weren’t scared of a project and how desperately we wanted to stay in town. When we saw the house we were in shock, because it was a bit of a nightmare and that same day she had shown us something in town that was in much better shape. We had already decided to put an offer in on that house and of course, once again we got into a bidding war and since it was the top of the budget we decided to let again. Now the scary house was looking much more appealing. It was on a much prettier block (6 blocks from Grandma & Pop Pop) and had the same layout as the other house. The first house had additions already done on it making it larger, but that was something we could also do down the line. So, we did it! We put in an offer before it officially got on the market and there were no bidding wars or losing out to a contractor!

We finally bought a house!!!!!!!

Are we in the house yet? Nope! It’s a complete gut job! Here is a peek of what we saw when we went to first check it out.

The greenery out front was all sorts of crazy. The previous homeowners decided on a brown roof with brick so, it just looks like a brown blob.

We kept joking that it looked like something out of the horror movie, Saw. Lot’s of creepy staining throughout, peeling paint, chipped floor tiles, etc.

If you go straight down this hallway you head into the living room. I mean we did want built-in’s but this isn’t exactly what I was thinking.

On the way to the kitchen, you are met with this SHOWER! The previous homeowner started having issues with the stairs and the first floor was turned into her bedroom and since there is just a powder room they got rid of a closet and added a shower.

Opposite the shower is this closet:

The kitchen which only has cabinets on half of it and the floor is peel and stick laminate tiles that are currently patched with duct tape.

There is a basement, which is nice for additional space, but it’s unfinished at the moment. Here is a peek of staircase heading down there!

Staircase heading upstairs is not as scary, but still needs a lot of work.

Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms. This is the bedroom you see when you first head upstairs. It will become my home office. Now that we have a new home with space for an office I no longer need the studio. It will be sad to see it go, but financially it just doesn’t make sense.

The bedroom next door is the master bedroom. The must-have known that orange was one of my favorite colors.

Then the boys bedroom, which they insisted they wanted to keep sharing. If they didn’t want to share then I would set my office up down in the basement.

Down the road, we will probably be bumping the house out a bit to get an additional room on the first floor and bigger rooms upstairs. For now, though we want to work with what we have and see how we live in the house and what are needs are. It’s going to be a massive project and I’m excited to see it all come together and share it with you!!!!

Thank you so much for going along on the crazy housing ride with me. I feel like you were all there with during this process and it’s much appreciated!

xo,

Camila