We Picked up A New House!

So, funny story about the house below. We picked up it and we are moving in.

We know this news likely evokes a whole range of reactions. Excitement for new makeovers. Sadness for leaving our current house. Curiosity about all of the logistics. Confusion. Anger. The inexplicable urge to do The Carlton.

Starting this story requires rewinding seven years, back to our first house hunting experience in Richmond in the spring of 2006. We had simply moved from New York City and Richmond real estate felt quite spacious and quite low-cost by comparison. It made dreamers out of us. We checked out a bunch of neighborhoods, and fell for an excellent old area with pleasant big wooded plenty, strong schools, charming tree-lined streets, and kids on scooters.

But none of the sweet old character-filled houses in that neighborhood were in our price range, especially because the bank had no faith in us. The issue was not our savings, but the fact that I was less than 2 months into my new job and Sherry was simply as deep into her career as a freelance copywriter. In the eyes of the bank, Sherry was unemployed since she was a newbie self employed person (even though she was earning more than me!) so I ended up being the only name on the loan – in short cutting our buying power in half. Goodbye dream neighborhood, hello this looker.

As deflating as that financial reality check was, it turned out to be one of the biggest blessings. Had we not been steered towards a fixer upper, we might not have ever began this journal or learned the advantage of buying a home that is well within our means. By not stretching financially, we could stash away a lot more project money and build up our nest egg – because we hadn’t lost sight of that neighborhood we first fell for, we had simply put that dream on hold.

Fast forward 4.5 years, past a new puppy, a wedding in the backyard, Clara’s birth, and me coming home to work full-time. Our beloved little 1,250 sq ft ranch (with only one full bathroom) was suddenly feeling cramped and we found ourselves house hunting again. Dream neighborhood here we come, right? Try again, compadre. This time I was the financial deadweight (having simply left a salaried job six months earlier to come work at home – strong timing, right?). So once again we found ourselves approved for something far below our actual mortgage-paying abilities thanks to the bank’s you-have not-done-this-self-employment-thing-long-sufficient-for-it-to-count doubt.

But it dropped another gem of a fixer upper in our laps. And this time we knew that an affordable needs-work home meant even more projects and more money squirreled away for our “perhaps someday” neighborhood.

Now, I would not say we ever consciously thought of these homes as “stepping stones” or rungs on a property ladder that we were itching to climb. Even though we consistently enjoyed that dream neighborhood from afar, Sherry was fully convinced our first house would be our “forever home” (we even have that statement on video). When we fall in love with a house, we fall hard. But the experience of outgrowing and leaving our first place made us realize that we enjoy the process of loving an old house back to life way too much to stop at simply one.

So when we moved into this house, we went into things with a more open attitude. Knowing we’d soak up every second of living here (you know we are nuts about the journey) but no longer making bold declarations like “we will stay here forever.” Admittedly, at halfway through year three of living here, the end came a bit sooner than we expected, but our time here since 2010 has been jam-packed. We have celebrated three Christmases in this house, created a book from start to finish here, and enjoyed countless Clara milestones (crawling, walking, talking, Gangnam Style-ing). So this place is by no means a blip on the timeline of our family history. It has been “home” through a heckova lot, which makes leaving it that much more bittersweet.

We simply knew we did not want our current place to be our last fixer upper (it is not only what we enjoy to do, it is our livelihood), so when we felt ourselves tackling the last few untouched rooms on our list we began casually keeping one eye open for a deal that could be a potential rental or even a future Casa Petersik. We’d occasionally flip through real estate listings and drop in on open houses. We consistently hoped that something would come up in our price range in that dream neighborhood so we could jump on it like a velociraptor, but after two house-hunting experiences that did not lead to us ending up there, we were not quite confident.

And then it happened. Fairly much out of nowhere, we found the sweetest needs-plenty-of-enjoy home in that old charming neighborhood that we have driven through at least five times a year simply to stare creepily since 2006. Yes, this is a seven-years-in-the-making house coup of ours. We would have enjoyed to take you folks on the house hunting adventure with us like last time, but it all happened so fast and before we knew it we were closing on it.

And thanks to putting some of that saved-for-years cash down at closing, our new house’s mortgage amount is nearly exactly the same as our current house’s – but our interest rate is even lower. We both spent closing day waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out and scream “you got punked!” but all went well and the house is officially ours. We have even had it long sufficient to fix some first-priority issues like a leaking roof, a broken furnace, and even hooked up the alarm system.

The house has not been updated since it was built around 35 years ago, and knowing that its interior might scare off others trying to buy in a mostly turn-key community, the sellers priced it way under assessment. It was over $100,000 less than another house of the same size that was for sale down the street. A low-priced fixer upper in a neighborhood that we have dreamed about for nearly a decade? Yes please. 70’s wallpaper, blue trim, lumpy carpet and all…

Beyond the price, neighborhood, and glaring need to be rescued – this place is ideal for us in so many other ways. It is nearly the exact same size as our current place (huzzah, no more extra square feet to clean). The street is striking and quiet (ideal for someday teaching Clara to ride a bike). It is still simply as close to our family (perhaps they can watch Clara while we strip wallpaper). And it presents us with so many new design challenges and opportunities that our minds are spinning with ideas. I mean, hello, we have stairs for the first time in seven years of home-ownership!

Perhaps the funniest thing is that at our age, my parents were moving into their third house, which was where they stayed for over three decades. So apparently it is in the Petersik blood.

We know that you folks likely have dozens of questions – When are we moving in? (Do not know yet) When can you see more pictures? (Soon) What does Clara think? (She already picked out her room… based on the closet size. Is she 16?) But this post would be ten thousand words if we tried to cover everything, so we will get to those things in time. We also have a few things to finish around here to get our current house sold (anyone interested?) so in an effort to keep our own minds focused on those to-dos, it will not be all new house posts all the time. We will simply be moving at our usual real-time pace and sharing a little bit of everything that is happening (selling, packing, planning, moving, and diving into our new house adventure).

Did I mention these two are the most excited of all? Okay, three if you count Ariel.

We cannot wait to continue sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly with you folks. Seriously, who wants to come paint some mauve trim with us? And if there were a moral to this story, it is patience. This is not “the house the book picked up” (we still have not hit our royalty point), it is the house that seven years of saving up and living within our means picked up. Had we strained our wallets and gone for a larger or more turn-key house back in 2006, we likely would’ve had a quite distinct financial path, and most certainly would have had a distinct career path. So even though we had to wait a while, it simply makes this new chapter in our lives that much sweeter. Who knows, we might simply stay there forever…