After months of wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’ and plannin’ and dreamin’, we got OUR HOUSE!

We lived in a two-bedroom apartment in a pretty little city. Every morning we woke up to the sun rising over the skyline, and every night we fell asleep to the sound of firetruck sirens and helicopters overhead. The local Starbucks knew my name and order. Our two pups were regulars at the neighborhood dog park. On summer nights we could walk to bars and baseball games, and on chilly winter mornings we could shuffle through the snow to get coffee and groceries. Our morning commute to work was an enviable two minutes.

We liked the little life we had made for ourselves in the pretty little city, but we didn’t love it. So with a few months left on our lease we turned our sights out of the city and into the suburbs, looking for a place to nest.

It started with a Zillow search. We looked at hundreds and hundreds of houses. We made lists of our favorites and spent weekends exploring neighborhoods. We looked at old houses and new construction. We saw lots of “maybe” homes and “could be” homes, but none that were quite right.

Then we found our home.

It wasn’t perfect yet, but we knew it could be.

I knew it was The One right away, but we still visited at least a dozen times. (Our realtor is an absolute saint). We methodically priced out all of the projects and renovations and purchases we’d have to make — new floors, new kitchen, new light fixtures, new furniture.

I made vision boards for every room in the house…

After lots of deliberation, calculations, discussion, and scheming… we made an offer.

And after lots of hand-wringing, foot-tapping, watch-checking, and negotiating… our offer was accepted.

We closed on our house in the morning, and that night we packed up blankets and pillows so we could camp out in our new home:

Moët, Mickey D’s, our two puppies and a scary movie.

We snuggled up on the floor and fell asleep to the sound of silence. We woke up to our dogs crying by the big window overlooking our new backyard. It was barely morning, but there was just enough light that we could look out and see this magnificent deer with magnificent antlers in our backyard, staring back at us.

We were home.