SOLD! Well almost!
After 6 1/2 years in our little yellow spilt level we decided to move on. The time seemed right. The market was showing promising signs of increase, our jobs were stable, and life was relatively quiet. And so we put our home on the market, but not before I read every website, pinterest page and news article explaining how to sell your home quick and for top dollar. It worked...it sold in one open house. We had a great offer too. So we ramped up our efforts to find a new place. My parents lovingly said we could stay with them until we found something. We searched our entire area for 4 months. Our poor realtor took us to more houses than I can count. We had thought about building before but had moved on from the idea after seeing what it would cost to build everything we wanted. Plus the developent we were looking into was next to a hunt club and shooting range. (It was a deal breaker for me!) So we searched for the home we had built on paper; only with immediate occupancy and an existing lawn! We found several great houses but they had terrible lots. And some with amazing lots but horrifying homes. I sat one evening and thought about how many sacrifices I was going to make buying a resale. By now we had figured out we would have to make some sacrifices, but were they the right ones! And so, on a whim I drove down Buck Horn Drive to Winter Foe Trail. There I found a neighbor out in his yard. "Excuse me, can I ask you if you mind the gun shots?" "I'd be lying if I told you you'll never hear them, but you drowned them out quickly, like a train. And they only go off now and again" he replied. It seems I have been silly to write off a home because of an occasional boom. Why, we've considered homes next to train tracks and highways, so why not here! Still there was the cost. Perhaps we could cut out a few upgrades to make it work. After all, very few resales we could afford had a morning room and a finished basement. None had a first floor bedroom and full bath. We chipped away till we reached a number we thought we could live with. It all came down to the lot premium. Would it be 10k or 15k extra for the wooded lot? To our happy surprise, the developent decided to drop the lot we were interested in to 5k after several comments that this lot would have headlights directed at it because it was on a cross street. (In reality there is little traffic on the street, but whatever works.) The lower price kept us in budget. That week we signed the purchase agreement. We had found our new home. Now we just needed a house!
