Matt and I have officially purchased and begun renovating our new 2-family home! These past few months have been a mix of emotions - at least for me (Matt is pretty good at keeping his emotions in check). I was extremely ansy to find a place to live after our honeymoon. And I had my heart set on a house. Matt, the sensible one, kept saying we should probably just stick with an apartment right now, so when we actually have time we could go house hunting and decorate. But I was stubborn and frequently went online to look at the new houses on the market. Matt was sweet to me and let us go see some houses, but I would get impatient and want to make rash decisions to either put in an offer or keep the search going full speed. Thankfully Matt puts up with me! :)
Matt's dad, Cliff, is a full time General Contractor and Real Estate Mogul. After speaking to him a bit, we came to the conclusion that we would keep looking at houses, but would only put in an offer if we really and truly thought it was perfect for us. After that, we set three sensible requirements for what we wanted in a home that would play into our decision (we had some non-sensible "requirements" too, but we tried to look past these). First was location (close to my work, close to the train for Matt, and a good neighborhood), second was having a 2-family to collect additional income, and third was that it would entail at least some renovations. Other non-sensible "requirements" were that I absolutely love balconys. We weren't set on having a small yard or big - on the one side we wouldn't have to do any yard work, on the other we could have big cookouts and Matt could play sports and we could even get a puppy if we ever dare. We love being near the ocean. Those are only a few, but we knew we couldn't be too picky.
We visited one house. A 2-family, not too close to the train, on a hill (not preferable when driving in New England weather, especially for a scaredy-cat like me), kind of quirky, and other things that made us feel like it wasn't just right. I was thinking "maybe we can do this..." (take note: I am still ansy and impatient!)...but we knew it wasn't right. We kept looking. I found another home - a 3 family condo building. Kind of close to the train, big yard, nice porch, nice looking...but condos aren't that popular (re-sale), it had already been upgraded (won't make any money when selling), and we had to buy the 3 units separately (not preferable!). I was discouraged, but we kept looking. Then - don't worry, the story is almost over - as I was doing my daily house hunting, I stumbled across a beautiful white house. If you know me at all, I am a sucker for anything white! In my eyes, white makes anything look beautiful and classy! This certain home had a balcony, a porch, a huge yard, minutes away from the beach, a hop skip and jump away from the train, beautiful safe neighborhood, it needed a LOT of renovations, and was going for a great price. I looked into it further and discovered the first and probably only open house was the next day, Sunday from 12-2. It was the night before, we were 45 minutes away, with church events at 11am and 2pm. So what did we do? Sunday morning, in between the two events, we hopped in the car and got there before everyone else for the open house. When the open house began, we walked through, elbow to elbow with other potential buyers. We paced the enormous yard and dreamed of homey, marriagely things. Matt was a bit hesitant. Did we really want to buy a house that needs renovations now with only 3 months before we needed to live somewhere? Cliff and I, on the other hand, were just plain excited! All of the sudden, Cliff turned to us and said we just had to put in an offer. Long story short... (wait, short?)....we won the bidding war and came out with a beautiful house, smiling faces, and hearts thanking God for what he had given us!
Matt and I and our new home
holding our keys and each other :)
*photos by Kerrie James
