Our House Hunting Journey

Our House Hunting Journey

I had a lot of positive feedback on my instagram to share our funny house hunting journey. I'm curious for those who have looked for your next venture, if it was anything the same? 

I never pressed the subject of finding a home for us to purchase. We've lived in a rental three years now that is comfortable, in a great neighborhood where we have made good friends and have a wonderful church family. There we were really close to stores and my mom and dads home, and having both of us been older getting married and having moved a ton as singles, never having a set place, I didn't want to rush to move again. But, heres where it started.

One evening as Alan and I were watching television, he handed me his computer to show me an old farmhouse on three acres. It looked like a fixer upper but I was like AWESOME! So that week I drove by it and then the next day Alan and I walked through the house. It had an amazing red barn in the backyard but WOW, the house was a total wreck. I'm talking terrible add ons and spaces that didn't make sense. There was just too much work for the price and it had some quirks even in the yard that we wouldn't have wanted to take on. But, this sparked an excitement in us that didn't stop. So begins our house hunting journey.

We actually started looking at property instead of houses to buy. We were starting big by looking at 5 acre lots. Right now, if you don't know, the market is HIGH for buyers. Good for sellers. So as we started kinda factoring in costs we were afraid we were in way over our heads. So then starting to look at homes that had no question what they cost was appealing to us. 

I wanted something with charm and character. In my head, the only way to get that was buying an older home. So I had 100% tunnel vision overlooking any new homes and only interested in old fixer uppers. I had a few friends suggest I make a list of things that were most important when searching. Most said that you may not hit all of the list but its good if you can hit about 85% of it!

Here's my list and I highly recommend doing the same!

*1-3 acres

*3-4 bedrooms

*mudroom

*2-3 bath

*unique and charming

*shop for Alan 

*fireplace 

*storage space

*mature trees

*in the country

We found old houses on more land that needed soooo much work.

We found old houses on less land that were a better option house wise but not the space we needed!

We found houses that had no growth opportunity for a family.

We found houses that were way too expensive to put more money into fixing up.

Here's where it gets funny. I have never had such a rollercoaster of emotions when it comes to what I wanted. 

So we start by looking at that old farmhouse, then we figure we should build, then we decide to look at houses, then we consider the option of just buying a house that could be one we live in just a few years then sell (we wanted to find more of a forever type home initially)...

This 100 year old house pops up on Zillow (where I obsessively checked too many times a day..) It was 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1 car garage, and on 1/3 acre. So many thumbs down on our checklist.  I had to see it though! I took Alan and on the way even said in the car, "this is probably a NO house, but I really wanted to see it anyway." We go in and I'm in love. it was totally remodeled and beautiful inside. I sat on this house for a week wanting to make it work but knowing it wasn't right. I even took my dad there and that same day after we had seen the historic home, dad suggested we go look at a house down the street that was a brand new build. I agreed mostly just to appease him. WELL, this home was incredibly beautiful inside. haha. I had to kinda evaluate in a short time my negative feelings about having a newer house! We called the owner of the house and turns out it sold in literally a day (wasn't surprised it was beautiful!) But this opened my eyes to not being close minded about a new house. I had to again talk to Alan about my rollercoaster of emotions that went from an old farmhouse, to building a house, to a fixer upper, to an old house that had already been fixed up, to a new house. haha

A new home build popped up on Facebook later that week that I thought was cute but kinda already knew would be a no but I took my dad (Alan was out of town on a work trip) and we walked through it with the owner who also happened to be the wife of the contractor of the house and a realtor. I liked the house but didn't love the location and didn't love a few things in the house. This woman though was so tenacious and she got me excited about the idea of building again! In the beginning, we began looking at 5 acre lots....Now after looking at so many properties, we knew we could be happy with even one acre! So we started on the journey to build a house. Looking for one acre lots we could love. Running into problems with building a basement in certain areas because of sub water. We even met with the contractor about a floor plan we loved! It felt a little overwhelming being so new to all this but also exciting. During all this I still continued to watch what popped up on Zillow or Facebook. And heres were the rollercoaster ride stops. 

As of a Thursday in the week, we were in full plan mode to build a home, on a Friday I saw a home labeled "Farmstyle home on one acre for sale" IN OUR PRICE RANGE pop up on facebook. I didn't even SAY anything to Alan because I didn't want him to be like "uh, Brandi, what the heck...Are we building a house or what do you want???" So, back to Friday. Alan was home sick. I told him I was going to run errands. haha I drove out to this house. It was in the area we had been wanting to be in, it was on one acre, it was on a quiet 25 mph road (hard to find in the country! Most roads are 50 mph) and the house was white which I really wanted! I didn't see the inside but loved what I saw on the outside. It was a new build and did have the look of a spec home but had a few elements that really spoke to me even just on the outside. I walked around, sent my dad video, he was like "you gotta go inside!" But I headed home. On my way, Alan called me and told me he needed to go to Rexburg (30 minutes away) to drop some papers off at the bank. I knew that the house was on the way so I was like "oh I want you to drive by this house I found..." totally nonchalant. He was like "why don't you just come with me?" So I did. We went to Rexburg first then I navigated him to this house WHICH HE KNEW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT. Nothing. I literally said "lets go drive by this house." Thats all he knew. Oh, and I did plan just to do a drive by but at this point started feeling anxious so I decided to call the owner and see if we could get in that night. She happily agreed! So we get to this house Alan knew nothing about....The owner/contractor and his wife met us there and were able to tell us everything there was needed to know about the property. It was on a long and narrow one acre piece (so ideal because it gives you a big front and backyard), had water rights, a big three car garage (Alan was all smiles for that). It had a mudroom, shiplap details, unique light fixtures, hardwood floors, a beautiful country view in the backyard. It checked off SO MUCH on our checklist I just felt like it was right. This was the first home both of us had walked through that we both didn't have things we'd want to immediately change everything about. The only thing on my list that it doesn't have are mature trees but that is something we will just have to work on. A shop will come later too but we are excited to have a big garage to start out with! It had a full unfinished basement with a COLD STORAGE which was something I really wanted. I wanted a home we knew we could grow into. Alan was thrilled about the idea that he wouldn't be volunteered for big renovation projects haha. More time for fishing! We left that night and before I burst, I wanted to get Alans reaction before he heard mine. HE LOVED IT!!! I LOVED IT!! we didn't need an hour to even think about it and called the owners that night to make an offer. They got back to us SUNDAY. So guys, Thursday, building a house, Friday we look at a new house, Sunday, we had an accepted offer. OH how all this didn't come out how I expected but oh how happy I am with the outcome. We feel lucky! We feel like it has all worked out out so perfectly that this is meant to be. We do also feel lucky it only took us three months because I know so many said it took them years! But, we are buying a house! We are in the final days of closing and can't wait to be in our new home. I'm grateful for a husband who was so patient with his ever mind changing wife. 

Pictures to come! I will share more about the town we will be living in that we are super excited about and our favorite things about the house too.  This is kinda a boring post but I wanted to let you all in on our ride. We can't wait for it to continue in this beautiful home we will soon call ours.