Our plan was to rent an apartment. We found one we liked and paid the deposit. We planned to move in the following week. However, during that week, we began watching a local channel that showed all the houses for sale in the area. We started to realize that we could actually afford to buy a house. A real house. Not a basement apartment with a constantly running dehumidifier (how we lived in school); or a guest room in someone else's house, but an honest-to-goodness, full-sized family home just for us!
The decision made, we found a Realtor. Then, the search began. We wanted something between the two bases we would be working at (Jacksonville and Mayport). We hoped for 3-bedrooms 2 bath single family home (resale value). And, that was about it in terms of our criteria.
I don't remember how long we looked, but I don't think it was very long--maybe a week before we found it. The perfect house. Thomas didn't want to go see it because it looked ugly in the MLS listing (he thought it looked pink, it was actually brown). But, as soon as we walked in, we knew.
We immediately put in an offer. They (almost) immediately rejected our offer. They didn't counter, they just rejected. We were offended. Our offer was not a low-ball, unreasonable one. We decided that we would just keep looking. But, nothing compared. We had to have it. So our Realtor called their Realtor and we found out what they wanted. It was about $2500 higher than what we had originally offered. I still don't understand why they didn't just counter.
But, the house was ours! My unit was going to Miami for a conference, so Thomas ended up doing the closing by himself. He said that after signing the mounds of paperwork, he just went to the house and layed in the empty rooms, amazed that it was actually ours.
It did feel amazing to be a home-owner. We loved working around the house. We (mostly Thomas) tiled the kitchen and entry-way. We picked out bamboo flooring for the family room. We changed the light fixtures. We tried (in vain) to maintain the small yard. We loved that house!
Of course, it wasn't all sunshine. The people who lived their before us had a cat. The cat left behind fleas. We couldn't figure out what was biting us. About 2 weeks after moving in, we were sitting on the couch watching t.v. I looked down and saw dozens of black dots hopping on my white socks (amazing how fast they multiply). Fortunately, we didn't have a lot of furniture at that time, so we were able to relatively easily rid the house of the problem. And, while the tiling was quite an accomplishment, we did manage to break a pipe that caused the kitchen to flood. We also struggled constantly with the yard. But, even those memories are more funny than tragic.
Recently, I came across pictures of when we listed the home for sale. It wasn't fancy, there were no granite countertops or stainless steel appliances. It was tiny compared to what we live in now. But, I still think it was incredible. I look at the pictures and remember hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner. I remember how proud we were as we picked out furniture. I recall having friends over for movie nights. It was a good house. I can't say I miss it, or would want to go back. But, I do relish the memories of how I felt when we moved in. It represented an exciting time in our lives. We were independent, employed, responsible adults.
Now, being an independent, responsible adult is a decade old feeling. But, then it was new. It was exciting. It was a good house.
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| Definitely not a pink house :) |
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| Our office |
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| Check out that custom tile work! Designed and installed...by us! |
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| These are the pictures taken by our Realtor when we sold the house, but we actually did keep it this neat. Life before kids, I suppose. |
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