Our First House - 2013

Our first home purchase kind of snuck up on us. We weren't really looking to buy a house at the time, but in the spring of 2013, we went to visit some friends and saw that a house two doors down was for sale by owner. We briefly discussed it when we got home. We hadn't saved as much as we wanted to use for a down payment, and while we were outgrowing our 950sq ft rent house, we weren't too squished yet. We still had the luxury of time to casually browse the market while saving more money. We decided to wait.

It was a decision that we were happy with. There was no risk involved in staying where we were, and we were comfortable. That should've been the end of it, right? Wrong. Everywhere I went, things reminded me of the house. I saw more homes with "For Sale" signs in the following weeks than I had since we moved home. We knew that when we did buy a house, we would be very picky about location and price, so I knew we would likely be dealing with a limited pool of options when the time came. After it kept coming back up, I decided to do some research. I was unable to find any information online, so I finally called to ask how much it was and get a few details. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a 2 car garage on 2/3 of an acre that was within our price range. It had a big back porch, a partially privacy fenced yard, and a large shed in the back yard. It sounded like something we would be very interested in, so in June, we decided to go take a look. Looking can never hurt, right? It was exactly what we expected, and it was mostly move-in ready. We tried to negotiate price and closing costs with the sellers, but they weren't willing to be flexible in any area. We talked about it at length in private and reasoned that without any cause to rush into it, we shouldn't buy something that put us even remotely out of our comfort zone with our monthly budget. We (again) decided to wait.

Another month passed, and we were still at peace with our decision. We were steadily saving money and preparing to buy a home, but we were still very happy where we were. One afternoon, I got a call from the sellers. Their situation had changed, and they were willing to negotiate. I politely told them that I would be happy to talk to my husband about it again, but I didn't think we would be interested because we had already discussed it at length and felt like the timing/price just wasn't right for us. She then told me that they were willing to meet the financial requests we had originally made when we first saw the house. Consider my interest peaked again. I told her I'd get back to her in a few days.

Over the next week or so, we did a lot of talking, praying, and consulting at the bank. We figured out exactly what our out-of-pocket cost would be and what our monthly payment would be. We prayed about it some more, and we finally decided to go for it. We felt like it was something God kept putting in front of us for a reason. If this house (in a great neighborhood and very reasonable price point) was still available after several months, there must be a reason it kept landing in our laps. We didn't know exactly what that reason was, but we were ready to take the leap of faith and trust that God was working in our lives even if we weren't sure what he was doing yet.

We were scheduled to close on September 3, 2013. I had to work the 7p-7a shift on Labor Day, so I had planned to go home and sleep for a few hours before we went to the closing agency. When I got home, I was so nervous and anxious that I couldn't sleep. By the time we got to the closing agency, I was so exhausted that I was nauseated and felt awful. I didn't say anything, but I was convinced that I was so sick because we were about to make a huge mistake. I wasn't brave enough to back out then, and we closed on our very first house less than an hour later.

To have been such a big, landmark moment for us, it was very anticlimactic. The closing agent handed us two garage door openers, a set of keys, nonchalantly said "Congratulations on your new home," and walked out of the room. There was no wine; no celebration; no complimentary address stamp. We didn't even get a fancy pen to sign our lives away with. It was just the two of us alone in a room looking at each other with amazement and fear in our eyes. What had we just done?! Did this make us grown-ups? It would have been terribly ironic if it did because I was feeling very much like a child - in unfamiliar territory and nervous. Was this it? Did we just walk out of the room and go to our new house?? With nobody there to stop us or answer our silent questions, that's exactly what we decided to do. 

We left the closing agency in a little bit of a blissful daze. We were excited. Terrified. Nervous. Thrilled. We weren't supposed to pick the boys up for another hour, so we went straight to the house. The closer we got, the more excited I became. We had actually done it. We were homeowners. Well, at least we would be in 360 months. We pulled into the driveway, and it still felt unreal. We opened the door and walked into a completely empty home. We would need to do a deep cleaning and get some fresh paint up before we moved in, but it was really ours.

The reality began to sink in that we would (very soon) be leaving the house we brought our babies home to. The house that had become a part of our story - a part of us. The house that had been such a huge blessing and served us so well for our first two years back in our hometown. It was hard for me to imagine living and making memories in this new place that was completely void of anything I loved or cared about. I felt a twinge of regret until I remembered that I had felt the same way about moving into the home we currently lived in. I didn't want to leave our first home as a married couple, and much to my surprise, as much as I had dreaded the transition, I loved our "yellow house." Absolutely loved it. It was our home. Realizing that I had already made this transition before made things a little easier. It was still bittersweet to move away from my aunt's front yard, but we knew from the beginning that it wasn't a long term solution.

Aside from the brief doubt I had the afternoon we closed on the house, I have never regretted going through with it and am so glad to live where we do! We love the extra space inside and the big yard. We've grown much closer to our friends/neighbors. And despite my earliest fears, we've made this house our home, and it feels much longer than only 2.5 years. I'm sure we will have many more happy (and sad) memories in this house in the years to come, and very soon, we will be bringing another sweet baby boy home and starting a new lifetime full of memories. We have been blessed beyond measure!

The boys still refer to things they did at "the yellow house" sometimes, and they will often point, yell, and get excited when we drive by it. I'm certain those memories will fade into nonexistence before long, but I am so glad they have fond memories of it now. I still get nostalgic when I drive by that little yellow rent house, and it will forever have a special place in my heart.