Picking out our new Home!

I said I would post the long story about how we ended up back in NC, so here goes!

Around Josh's birthday last year, we were talking about when we would like to move back home. We decided within a year, so by Josh's birthday this year. That seemed reasonable enough and very doable. We were OK if we weren't home by August 2015, but it was a time frame to shoot for. 

We decided around September to start looking at our budget. Of course I started looking at houses (this is something I did every single time I got homesick, so it wasn't a big deal and we knew it wouldn't amount to anything). The Martins told us they were still building in their neighborhood in Garner - we already knew we wanted to live in Johnston County, so this was an area we were interested in. I e-mailed the realtor who sells all of these houses and asked what the plans were for the neighborhood in the coming year. He said they hope to be finished developing within 6 months and he explained the remaining lots a little. There was a house that was set to be finished in December on a cul-del-sac. John had sent us a picture of the front of the house and we both really liked the way it looked. We didn't have any weekend plans, so we decided to drive down to see this house on the cul-de-sac and check out a few surrounding neighborhoods. We knew it was only .25 acres and we were really hoping for a bigger yard, so we didn't think we were going to buy it - but it was under budget, so we were considering it. If nothing else, we could check out some other neighborhoods in the area so we would know where to focus our search when we were actually ready to move. So we talked about it, prayed about it, listed our must haves and what we were willing to sacrifices, talked about job changes...you know...all the things you do before you go buy a house in a different state. We basically decided that everything except the yard had to blow us away for us to buy this house. The yard was smaller and it was going to be ready well before the time frame we had in mind. We didn't want to move again for a very long time, so this wasn't meant to be a short term house.  We wanted to make sure we were going to be happy.

After a long night of driving and just a few hours of sleep, we went to meet the only realtors who were available at the last minute on a Saturday (I highly recommend NOT doing this. If they're free at the last minute on a Saturday, there may be a reason - just our experience). Anyway, the drywall had just been put in the house the previous week, so it was kind of hard to picture what it would look like. Luckily, I grew up seeing houses in this state, then later seeing how beautiful they turned out - I had also been in Anna and John's house, so I knew I liked the builder's finishes. Aside from the cabinets being picked out already (lucky us, the cabinets were a color we loved), this house was a blank canvas. 

We walked in through the garage (2 cars - check!) and we see a spacious half bath and another random little room. What's this random little room? Oh, that's the walk in pantry (ding ding ding! Winner!). Next, we walk outside onto the deck. Most of it is covered, then there's an uncovered grilling deck. It backs to woods that belong to a school, so there's not going to be another house behind us in a year. There's a pond to the side of the house. There's a house on one side of us, but there won't be a house on the other side of us, which makes the house feel more private. Awesome! Josh and I both loved it! 

These are all the covered porch and grilling deck. The covered porch (the part with the steps going down) is screened in now. This will be perfect for keeping mosquitoes out this summer!

Looking inside the covered porch from the grilling deck.

Back inside, there was the breakfast nook, kitchen, dining room and living room. The kitchen was smaller than our old house, but not too small to work with. The pantry gave me the storage space that the lack of cabinets wouldn't, so I was ok with this. The dining room was a good size and the living room was too. Nothing super spectacular (except the fireplace I didn't even know I wanted). Moving upstairs...there are 3 bedrooms. We weren't sure about this, because we really wanted 4. There was a bonus room though, so we decided this was ok. The laundry room was nothing to write home about, but it was a laundry room - not a closet, which is what we had at our house in MD. The guest bathroom was exactly what you would expect a guest bathroom to be in terms of size. The 2 smaller bedrooms were about the size we were hoping for. 

On to the master...WOW! It was huge! And it had a sitting room! Very nice! The bathroom was huge! There were no sinks, cabinets, no shower/tub, etc. The markings were all on the floor, so we had a basic idea of where things would go. I was excited about the big tub. We had a big tub in the last house and I wanted it to stay that way. The shower...not so much. It's small, but it's fine. There was a separate water closet, which we both like. And the best part...a huge walk in closet.

Here's the master with the sitting room.

 This is inside the bonus room.

This is the breakfast nook, part of the kitchen and the living room.

This is the kitchen. The door at the other end leads to the dining room.

So...our thoughts on the house at first...

- 2 car garage - check!

- 2 common areas - check!

- walk in pantry (this was not a requirement, but it was WAY high on my priority list)

- Privacy - double check!
- 4 bedrooms - not a check, but it has the bonus that can be a bedroom if we need it

- .5 acre lot - not a check, but we loved the lot - so we made it a check anyway

At this point, we were basically ready to buy the house. We had looked at other houses (online) that had everything on our wishlist. This house was missing a couple of them, but between the price and the amazing lot, it more than made up for those few things. Obviously, you can't do that. You have to go look at the other houses you were considering. We did that. If the house blew us away, the yard was ruined by the view of another house right behind it. None of them held a candle to "our" house. The prices on them were WAY higher too. After looking at several other houses, we decided to go for it and put an offer in on the house!

 This is the outside of the house on the day we looked at it.

Sure, this was a lot sooner than we planned on moving, but the house was also a lot less than we planned on spending, so we didn't need the extra time to save. The area we wanted to be in is growing very quickly, so the houses aren't going to get any cheaper and the land definitely isn't getting more plentiful. After a bit of back and forth, we were under contract by the following Monday and things started moving like crazy!

Next, it was time to get our house on the market and start searching for jobs ASAP, because we were closing in 2 months! Those things didn't happen as quickly as we had hoped, so we ended up paying 2 mortgages for a short time. We wouldn't trade our extra time in MD for a thing, so it's better that it worked out that way. :-)