Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Forever Home

A year ago, I was stuck in St. Louis with a stress fracture, no job, and a house that wouldn’t sell.  

The real estate deal that finally got us out of there was not quite ruinous (we’d already lost everything once in St. Louis), but it certainly didn’t allow us to dig ourselves out of the hole St. Louis had put us in.

All that was left for us to do was drive away without ever, ever, looking back.

Those were not beautiful times.

We’ve been renting a house since we arrived in Colorado, and we began the search for our Forever Home shortly before Christmas.  The newspaper has been going on and on about the Real Estate Crisis that’s happening here, and they weren’t kidding.  More people are moving to the area than there are homes available, and there’s nowhere to expand the city because:  mountains.  So the result is hugely inflated home prices and bidding wars where potential buyers offer more than $15,000 over the asking price just to remain competitive with the other 17 interested parties who have also placed offers.  Houses sell within hours of officially going on the market.  You can’t get your heart set on something because chances are, someone else has bid higher than you and offered to pay in cash.  It’s not a good time to be a buyer.

Thankfully, we had a fantastic real estate agent, and we were incredibly lucky.  We found a house that had just about everything we wanted, and the sellers seemed to like us for whatever reason.  I don’t know how we ended up being the ones whose offer they accepted, but we were, and from there on out, the process was remarkably stress-free, at least on our end.  

We closed on the house today.  Our Forever Home.  

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The kitchen is small, and I had hoped never to have to paint over red walls again in my life, but maybe just one more time.

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Also: Will is excited about the built in book shelves in his room:

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At the closing today, the owner (I guess now the previous owner, who by the way is a really nice guy) told us that there’s a blackberry bush, pear tree, and cherry tree in the back yard.  Honest to god.  I hadn’t known that.  It didn’t say on the contract anywhere what kinds of trees and plants were in the back yard, and it’s winter, so it’s not like they were fruiting and I would have been able to tell.  But seriously.  Pears.  Blackberries.  Cherries.  He said some years you end up with loads of cherries, more than you know what to do with.  If we get a late frost though (like we often do), the tree doesn’t produce as much.

IMG 4767 Cherry blossoms this spring, and then cherries

There’s carpet in the bathroom and dining room (that will have to go), and some strange colors of paint and even wallpaper in some of the rooms.  It seems overwhelming, but there’s a cherry tree in the back yard.  Cherries.

Of all the places we’ve lived, Rob and I have always known it would be short term.  Five years here, a year there, and then, just until I finish grad school.  When we moved to St. Louis, even as I signed the papers, I knew it was a horrible, horrible decision.  It wasn’t a place we belonged.  But this is different.  This is our forever home.  This is, I hope to god, the last real estate transaction of my life.  No plans to ever move anywhere else again.  This is it.  Small kitchen, but a view of Horsetooth Mountain from the dining room (at least in wintertime when there aren’t leaves in the way) and bushels of cherries during the years we don’t get a late freeze.

Thanks for reading.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

happy FOREVER HOMEOWNER!! may this truly be your forever home!! 😉. especially with all the WONDERFUL. FRUIT trees! how neat is that? just include a garden spot full of veggies and you are in business!!!! love the
pictures! Looks like WILL has the perfect room with book shelves already there!!!! and WHAT is it with RED ? must be YOUR color, EVEN THO! you keep PAINTING over them!! 😄. Remember the very UNATTRACTIVE wallpaper that auntie and I scrapped off in our kitchen back in 88?? now that was ugly!! have fun putting your touches on your FOREVER home!! can't wait to see it?? luv and hugs mama

Steve said...

Sounds like the real estate crisis you encountered while buying is the polar opposite of the real estate crisis we dealt with while selling (2010 just wasn't a good time to be selling a house anywhere). We got lucky, I'm glad you did too.

Sounds like the move is working out well all around. :)

Unknown said...

Congratulations on your new forever home with cherries in the back yard and mountain views all around!!!! WOW!!! Painting over red paint and removing wallpaper would be a good reason for a trip to visit you!!! So let us know when you're ready and we'll swoop in like grandma with our paint buckets and some barbeque (haha) and get busy!!! Will is sure going to have fun filling his book shelves!! Enjoy!! Love, auntie

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