Our New Home

I know last time I blogged I was a big stressed out whiner.  Thankfully that is a thing of the past.  We made a decision on a house on Sunday and put down our deposit.  Our move date is the 21st, since the owner of our current house wants to be back in by the 23rd.  It's sneaking up quickly... but surprisingly I'm not stressed out about that at all.  The house hunting was the stressful part.  I think the reason it was so stressful this time was because we kept hearing from realtors "it's not renting season".  We weren't really sure what that meant until we got further into looking, and realized it was slim pickings out there, and everything that was decent was very overpriced... because, with lack of competition, they could be.  The average house cost was up about $200-250/month from when we house hunted last time.  Being as cheap as I am, it was a hard reality to swallow that we were going to have to shovel out more money this time. 

Another stress on our house hunt was that Tate and I wanted totally different things. I wanted to be in a safe suburban neighborhood filled with other young families, that was at least somewhat close to the people we've already met in SC.  He wanted something more unique and older, close to the city or the beach.  While I wasn't against moving out of the suburbs... there just wasn't anything for rent in the city that wasn't run down or on a busy street.  We did alot of searching in the areas he wanted... and we came up completely short. 

We stumbled across a neighborhood that we didn't even know existed one day while driving around and looked at a gorgeous house.  The house was maybe a little too grand for us.  It was surrounded by huge homes and was pretty big itself, more than double the size of our current house.  Meaning we really don't even have the stuff to fill it.  While we were driving out of the neighborhood I noticed there were several subsections of the neighborhood, and some were more modestly sized homes.  After searching online for a bit I found another house in the neighborhood that seemed like a more reasonable size and price.  And... long story short.  It's the house we picked! 

We looked at a few houses after seeing this house... so honestly alot about it I don't even remember.  I'm just glad the search is over.  Even though I was bummed about having to move from our current house... I think that we will be a little happier in the new one.  It's about 25-30 minutes from our current house, but actually closer to several of the people we're met since moving to SC.  I think that I will like the area a bit more than where we live now for various reasons.  The main one is that it's close to my favorite sushi place... just kidding... sort of.

I don't have any pictures of the house yet, except for this small blurry exterior picture that was posted online.  (My mom wanted to see one...)  It's another three bedroom house, but it is a little bigger than what we have now.  With that extra space it will allow us to have a playroom (in place of formal dining), laundry room (instead of laundry closet) and also gives us a third bathroom.  The master bedroom is on the main floor, but the two additional rooms are upstairs.  Although there is a second floor, this house feels like one story living (which I like) because the ceilings are completely vaulted in the foyer, living room, and master bedroom, with the hallway upstairs between the secondary bedrooms being completely exposed from both sides.  (Does that make any sense at all??  You know... with railings, so you can see and hear upstairs from downstairs.)  This house also has a couple exterior upgrades from our current house, we will now have a spacious two car garage instead of our cramped one stall.  We will now have a screened porch off the eat-in kitchen, and privacy fence and wooded private backyard.  Another bonus is that the house is on a cul-de-sac, so there isn't any traffic.  We will still have a community pool and playground to use as well.  So although we're being forced to move... at least there are a few things that may be better in the new house.

I'm not expecting to have everything decorated and settled right away... which will bother me since  I hate the feeling of an unfinished living space.  But, it is what it is... we have to move.  We have to start over in a new house, in a new neighborhood... and we'll make it work.  I'm trying to focus on it being less about the house, and more about who fills the house, that makes it a home.  Either way, change always makes me a little sad, especially because this is the first house that Jace was ever really old enough to recognize as home...  I'm hoping that before I start getting too much packed away that I can make a short little video clip of this house for him to remember when he's older.  Is that weird?  I don't know... I guess I get attached to each place that we live now that we're parents.  All the memories had here won't be forgotten on my end, and hopefully keeping a little time capsule for Jace will be special to him when he's older too.