Surprise! We Bought a House!

Ahhhh! The moment I’ve been waiting for—We bought a house! I’ve been dreaming of this day for probably… hmm, probably for the past 4-5 years, and it still feels a bit surreal that it’s actually happening.

We bought a house!

The Backstory

Originally, our plan was to go out to Denver in late March or early April to look at houses. That plan was quickly scratched and we put our house hunt on hold. Despite that, we knew we were planning on moving, so we browsed Zillow like crazy just about every day.

If you missed our story on our big move, you can read it here.

Finding the House

We had a pretty good idea of what neighborhoods we were interested in, so that made it easy. Those neighborhoods were also known for having mostly older homes, which we loved. Lots of character, but also made it tough because a lot of them had really weird layouts, were too small, were too outdated, or had additions that just didn’t make sense.

Not much came up during the first 4-6 weeks of quarantine. We did like one house—a cute old tudor—and since Rob’s dad is a realtor on the side, his mom and dad went to tour it. It had a gorgeous kitchen and had been updated, but once they were there, we realized the layout was funky and the master bedroom and bath were so small. It was cute, but we felt like we’d outgrow it after a few years.

So, we scratched that one off the list.

Turns out, his parents actually went to look at another one they thought would be a good fit for us without us knowing, ha! That one had a really weird layout so they scratched that one for us too.

The last week of April, the housing market and real estate was deemed essential business in Denver, and we were hopeful that some new stuff would come on the market. Thankfully for us, that first week, a whole bunch of new listings started to pop up! It felt like Christmas!

But again, we weren’t finding much….until one lucky evening.

I got a ping on my phone and opened up yet another new listing email from Zillow, expecting to find another dud, but I was pleasantly surprised. At first glance, the exterior looked pretty cute, and it was in the exact location we were hoping for.

Then I clicked on the pictures. This is when things would typically go from, “oh wow, this is great!” to “oh no, this is a disaster”. But, I scrolled through them and with each one got more and more hopeful. It actually looked nice, updated enough, but still would give us the opportunity to put our own touches on it overtime and best of all—a great floor plan. I immediately showed Rob and we texted his dad to set up a showing.

The very next morning, his mom and dad went to tour it for us!

They went over, masked and gloved and toured it. We were suppose to FaceTime while they did it, but of course, technology failed us and there was no WiFi and not a strong enough cell signal for video. They took tons of photos, extra videos of them walking the house and gave us their honest feedback.

Guys, it was pretty perfect. Sure, a few things here and there weren’t perfect, but overall, it was everything we’d been looking for in a home. Plenty of bedrooms, a great floor plan, a home office, a guest bedroom, a backyard (omg, I can’t tell you how excited I am for this for my boys!).

Putting in an Offer

Owen and I went for a walk after the tour and half way through, Rob called. He’d talked to his dad, and was like, can you come back? We need to talk! So we ended up talking on the phone while we were still out on our walk.

We both loved it, loved the location and just about everything about it. Rob said, “well, should we put an offer in?!” and I was like, “uhh, ya, I guess so!”

So, with Rob’s dad’s help, we put in an offer!

I have to admit, this was not at all how I expected our house hunt to go. And, putting an offer in on a house that we haven’t physically toured ourselves was a little weird, but with Rob’s dad’s experience and feedback, we felt really confident about it.

I was still in shock at how fast it all happened. We went from browsing, to touring to putting in an offer in less than 24 hours. We knew that we’d have to act fast, but man, it feels so weird to have to make a decision that big in such a short amount of time.

Right after we decided to put in an offer, I called my parents and told them! I was so excited, even though I knew it wasn’t a done deal.

Then We Waited

I think this all happened on a Thursday or Friday. The seller said they wanted to wait through the end of the weekend because there were a bunch of other tours lined up, and that they’d consider a counter offer.

We were both a little defeated at first. I mean, we understood, but we were also hoping that our offer was attractive enough that they’d instantly say yes. So, we waited all weekend. We were told that the last showing was 4pm Mountain Time on Sunday and that we probably wouldn’t hear anything until after that.

It was so hard to think about anything else those two days! I took Owen out for another walk Sunday morning and asked the Universe for my sign if we got the house (a feather—read more about that in this post), so I could stop fretting about it all day. And literally a minute later, I looked down because Owen pointed at something on the ground and there it was—another feather!

I came home and told Rob, “we definitely got the house”.

Low and behold, an hour later, maybe around 2pm, Rob got a call from his dad. I was in the living room and could here him say, “okay, well, what’s next?”. When he got off, he popped his head out the door and said “I’m pretty sure we just bought a house!”

Naturally, I choked up and got teary-eyed and we hugged. So many things that we’d been looking forward to for so long, had all finally come together in about 3 weeks.

The seller accepted our offer and then we moved onto the next steps of buying a house—inspections and all that fun stuff. We were so grateful that nothing major came up since the house was built in 1926. We officially closed on June 10th, so I finally felt like I could tell you guys. Didn’t want to jinx anything, haha!

When Do We Move?

The only downside is that part of our contract was that we couldn’t move in until the end of July, after the baby comes. At the time, the seller hadn’t found a place to live yet, hence the additional time built into the contract.

But, we have a place to live and it’s making our time with Rob’s parents really fun because it feels a bit like vacation. Plus, having childcare lined up for when I give birth is pretty awesome too!

Decorating & Updating Plans

I have so many ideas and plans for both immediate stuff and stuff we’ll do over the next few years. And I’ll be sharing it with you guys in due time! I’ve been saving inspiration for years. So now it’s time to go through it all and narrow it down now that we have an actual space to work with.

We’ve were able to go look at the house in person—finally—the Sunday after we arrived in Denver. Thankfully, the listing had a ton of measurements so I can sort of start planning. But I definitely want to get in the house before I make any big purchases.

Coming from a 1200 square foot apartment, we definitely don’t have enough stuff to furnish an actual home. So it’ll be an undertaking for sure, but I can’t wait to see it all come together!

Needless to say, I’m over the moon and can’t wait to take you guys along for the ride. Next week, I’ll be sharing some photos of the interior before we make any updates. And a few ideas I have for the new space—stay tuned!

BTW, our master bedroom inspiration, and 10 ways to make your home more peaceful.