to Maryland We Went!
So, the primary reason for the blog silence lately is that we moved! From Virginia to Maryland, in fact. It was pretty sudden and not really something we thought we would do until the Spring. But, a great house popped up and we jumped!
Over the last six months or so, Mark and I had driven around several times to get a sense of where we might want to buy when our lease ended. We had narrowed the cities we were interested in to one in Virginia and one in Maryland. The thing about the housing market here is that houses go FAST. Literally within a week if it's in a top school district, is updated, and is close to a Metro stop. So we knew we needed to be ready to jump if we found something we liked.
On a Tuesday in late August, one of Mark's coworkers emailed him a link to a home for sale on his street, which happened to be in the area in Maryland we loved. The house looked perfect for our needs, but I thought there was no way we could get our act together in time to actually make an offer by the weekend, which is when we would need to do it if we wanted this house (Mark, ever the optimist, thought we could make it happen. We balance each other well!). My coworker had recommended her realtor to us a couple of months prior, so I contacted him. He got the ball rolling for our pre-approval with a lender, and we scheduled an appointment to see the house for Friday.
We liked the house immediately. My wish list included a screen porch, a large updated kitchen, and wood floors. This house met all of those criteria! Mark liked the home as well, and it was in our price range--in fact, it was even lower than we thought we would have to spend to get a house in this area. So, we decided we would make an offer. But then, at the eleventh hour, we chickened out. The offers were due by the following Monday morning, and we decided to wait it out for a day to see whether other offers came in and mull it over a bit. Of course, what happens? Someone else made a full-price offer on the house and it was accepted.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but we hoped that others would come on the market throughout the winter. And Mark (optimist, again) thought there was a chance the buyers would back out during the one-week inspection period. I thought he was nuts. We continued looking at homes that week and saw a few over the weekend. We didn't like any as much. Then, at 10pm the following Saturday, our realtor emailed us to say the buyers backed out! I couldn't believe it. We felt like this was a sign the house was the right fit for us. So, we made an offer, it was accepted, and we are now the proud owners of a new (to us) house!
We've been in the home for about three weeks, and it's starting to feel more like ours. We've added recessed lighting and light fixtures to several rooms, finished the fence so Rowan is free to roam, and are installing a new, more efficient furnace. We also just purchased a kitchen table. We still need to paint a few rooms upstairs and buy a dining room set and a sofa for the basement rec room, but other than that we're pretty well set. We love being homeowners and are in love with the neighborhood. Several neighbors arrived with baked goods within days of our moving in, and everyone is very friendly. Henry will be able to walk to both his middle school and his high school. Overall, we are very pleased and are excited about this transition in our lives!
