So initially I wanted to write this much sooner. I wanted to write it when the details of our journey were fresh in my mind and seemed vastly important ;) and now that we're about six months out from when we realistically started our search, I can't remember all that much. But I still want to document! So we'll do a little "story time" of how we came to be in our current home (because eventually I want to do a few townhouse tour posts!).
A little backstory: Sammy and I had been looking at houses for years, years before it was socially/financially/conventionally acceptable for us to be looking at them. I mean, we're talking me lying in bed looking at condos downtown Chicago when I was like twenty years old, as if a property like that was something we could afford.
Over the years, our needs/wants have changed, as has our location. Initially, I would have loved nothing more than to live downtown Chicago (still would--ha!). I was going to school down there and generally loved the energy and lifestyle. But at my core, I've always been a combination old soul and homebody who has always loved the idea of a suburban home to raise kids, so pretty early on in our 20s, we nixed the downtown idea and focused our efforts on the suburbs.
The only time I took a pause in looking at homes was when Sammy was hired as a state trooper in WI because I refused to accept that we would relocate there. It was always his plan to transfer back to IL (either as a state trooper or with a city department), so I figured we would just wait until he knew where he'd be located.
What I didn't expect was a transfer opportunity to arise so quickly. He had applied with Crystal Lake prior to testing with the WI State Patrol, but he had heard back and was accepted by WI before he heard anything from Crystal Lake (or any other department he tested with), so he took the job he was offered. Shortly after, CL followed up on his application and because the plan was always to come back to Illinois, he continued the testing process with them and was quickly (although it didn't feel quick at the time haha) accepted into their department. Best. News. Ever.
This allowed us to completely narrow our search down to one town. While he doesn't need to live in CL in order to work with their department (unlike Chicago PD), if he lives within city limits, he's allowed to come home for dinner for 30 minutes each shift if his schedule allows. That combined with us knowing this was the department he'd likely be with until he retires, we decided CL was a good place to settle. Some people in law enforcement prefer not to live in the same town in which they work, but Sammy hasn't seemed to care about that, and it's always been important to me to be part of the community in which he serves, so that was another reason to continue our home search in CL.
We decided to spend all of 2017 saving our money for a down payment on a house and would start seriously looking in Spring of 2018. My dad is our realtor so whenever we would see houses we liked, I asked him to set up a showing. At the beginning of March, we found two single family homes we loved and saw both in the same day.
What's ironic is the townhouse we're in now is roughly the same size as this single family home we loved. And the lengths Sammy went to while looking at this house hahaha (as seen in the Snapchat below). This house was actually his favorite and it became my favorite, so much so that I cried when my dad told me an offer was put on it the same day we looked at it. The offer ended up falling through which is when we made moves to make an offer ourselves, only to find out we'd basically be house poor if we went through with it, which wasn't something we were willing to do at this stage in our lives. (and I don't have any pictures of the second home because that was my original favorite and once we realized it wasn't a realistic option for us either, I dramatically deleted all the pictures from my phone because I couldn't look at them anymore haha)
Once we lowered our budget, we realized we hated all the single family homes that fit within our means because we're brats and high maintenance ;) so we expanded our search to include townhouses with the newfound appreciation of having all the benefits of a single family home without any of the outdoor maintenance responsibilities (snow plowing, landscaping, etc.).
I found a townhouse that was listed super low and my dad and I went to look at it one night after work. Sammy was working that night so he was able to stop by during his shift to take a look as well.
While it was certainly nice, it wasn't an end unit which was high up on our wishlist because it makes a townhouse feel even more like a single family home. They tend to also be larger if they're end units. And it had what my dad calls "Ikea Updates" meaning everything looks nice but usually means the materials used are lesser quality.
And the deal breaker for sure was the "yard." I could have handled having limited space, but what I couldn't deal with was the proximity to about six other units. Way too close, especially if several families are outside at the same time.
As we were walking out of the property, my dad said to us, "what if that townhouse was picked up and moved across the street where the homes back up to a single family home neighborhood with more trees?" and we both said it would be way better. Well, as we were pulling out of the neighborhood, we saw a for sale sign on a property (an end unit!) across the street.
I frantically looked up the listing but couldn't find anything about it online. We thought the unit was vacant, so we started to walk around the side of the house to see the backyard to make sure it did, in fact, back up to a wooded area like we thought it might. Sammy was in full uniform which must have freaked the 80-year-old owners out because they promptly came to the front door to ask if everything was alright--ha! We apologized, saying we thought it was vacant, and my dad asked when the listing would be going up. The owner said their grandson was listing their home and it would go live tomorrow morning but we were welcome to see the property that night if we wanted. So we took a quick tour, and long story short, we made an offer before the listing was even on the market.
The rest of our process went pretty smoothly according to my dad, but it seemed rather stressful to Sammy and I. The owners listed their home at a high asking price and my dad advised us to offer what they were asking because if we didn't, someone else would. The property has a premium lot and is larger than any other end unit's yard which my dad felt would account for most of the asking price.
But because we offered what they were asking, and what they were asking was over the median house price for the area, there was a risk that it would get appraised for less than what we offered to pay. Meaning they would either have to come down in price to meet the appraised amount (which we didn't think they would do) or we would have to pay the difference, which depending on how the home was appraised could have been a decent amount of money we weren't budgeted for, in which case, we'd be forced to cancel the deal.
While we celebrated making an offer on our twelfth anniversary...
and told our families and friends, there were a lot of moments where we thought something could go wrong at any minute, although I guess this isn't unique to our situation--the home buying experience is rough, man!
We ended up negotiating in our contract to switch the appraisal and inspection steps (normally an inspection happens first) in order to get the appraisal amount because we weren't going to pay to have an inspection done if we were going to cancel the deal in the end.
The appraisal went well and it came in at only $5k under asking, so my dad asked if they would come down $2500 and meet us halfway to split the difference which they agreed to. And my dad, being the angel he is, asked them to deduct our $2500 from his commission so we wouldn't have to pay out of pocket.
Meanwhile, I obsessively saved every document and picture I could of the house as we hadn't been back since we toured it the night we found it and that was for less than ten minutes!
The inspection was next and I loved getting to be there while it happened. Definitely recommend to any new home buyer (or any home buyer for that matter) to attend your inspection if you can. We learned a ton about our house from following the inspector around. All went well, our inspector said it was one of the best kept homes he had ever seen which was a relief to us nervous nellies, (our sellers even left out cookies! haha) and I loved getting to see the house in person again without anyone else there.
Since everything seemed like it was going to pan out, we ordered "new address" postcards and started to pick out furniture...
And 45 days later, on May 17th, we sat down to close on our first home. (our sellers gave us every piece of paper they ever accumulated about our neighborhood and association ;) and we appreciated it very much)
The sellers ended up coming back to the property just as we were unloading our cars and moving truck so they could say goodbye to their (and our new!) neighbor. The rest of our parents got to meet them and talk for a little bit before we got started on unpacking. This was also the first day Sammy's parents and my mom got to see the house in person! They actually didn't even see pictures of the house until a few days after our offer was accepted (which drove them kind of nuts haha). I didn't take any pictures as we walked through the house the first time because it was so unexpected and I didn't want to be rude with the sellers right there (looking back, I definitely should have taken pictures haha) and because the listing never went live, there weren't any photos online to show them.
We had a great day unpacking, although it's all kind of a blur, but once the dust settled as they say, it was crazy to be in our first home together.
The days and weeks and months (!) since then have been an emotional journey to say the least. I'm leaps and bounds from where I was when we first moved. The first week was so emotionally and physically draining for me because I wasn't anticipating having such a strong reaction to moving out of my mom's house. But luckily and very surprisingly, it didn't last longer than a week. I've certainly had sad and anxious moments since then, but they've been just that: moments. Not long stretches of sadness or anxiety, and as we head toward the end of summer, I can say I can't remember the last time I was anxious in our home which I am endlessly grateful for because when you're in the thick of those emotions, it feels like they're never going to go away.
We're approaching the three month mark and I can't believe it. Some days I can't believe it's been three months already, but most days it feels like we've been here
forever, and I mean that in both a positive way but also exhausting way haha. Maybe it's because we've done a lot to the house already and are coming up to the last few projects before we're done completely, but it really feels like we've been here for much longer than three months. I can't believe what a year is going to feel like.
So far in our house we've:
-hosted our immediate families
-celebrated Memorial Day
-taken professional pictures in town with Sammy's family
-celebrated Father's Day
-celebrated Fourth of July
-celebrated my mom's birthday
-gotten ice cream from The Freeze and Julie Ann's ;) (well actually my dad and I have done this, I haven't gone with Sammy--ha!)
-had a girl's day with Chelsie
-hosted our housewarming party with our friends
-Sammy's worked various community events like National Night Out and events related to Special Olympics
-painted the entire first floor and our master bedroom and bath
-planted our own flowers, hooked up the grill (OK Sammy's dad did this among other things haha)
-generally put our own touches on everything (and continue to do so)
So that's our house story :) It's nothing terribly exciting or unique or groundbreaking, but it's our story and I'm glad I've written it down to look back on.
I'm excited to see where this journey takes us, especially now that we're a few weeks out from bringing our Henry home!
xo
