How to Buy House #2

Step #1: Move your husband, 1.5 year old, and large dog in with your very patient sister and brother-in-law. Promise that it will only be for 4-6 months.

Step #2: Avoid looking at houses for the first 3 months despite your realtor sending you new listings daily. Blame it on the snowy roads. Or having a sick kid. Or just being lazy and wanting to hibernate during the winter, which (spoiler alert) is not possible with a 1.5 year old.

Step #3: Half-heartedly put an offer on a house but get outbid, but realize that you're ready to seriously start house hunting.

Step #4: Look at a few more houses, but finding no contenders, agree to look at a house in the neighborhood where you want to be, but that you've been avoiding looking at because it's out of your price range and the listing pictures make it look... weird.

I know - the front elevation isn't bad looking. It was the rest of the rooms that were... less attractive?

Step #5: Fall in love with the weird house with the wild paint colors that has been on the market for 5 months and that you drove by multiple times during your stay but never thought you'd be interested in.

Step #6: Throw out a low-ball offer and cross your fingers.

Step #7: Purchase house and start planning your lists and lists of updates and DIY projects!

Hope you'll come along for the ride!

Ch-ch-changes

Man oh man have things changed in the last year and a half. Alice has grown and changed and is walking and talking and her personality is stronger and stronger by the day. And the biggest change is that last fall we made a huge decision and decided that we were finally DONE with the east coast and we made the huge decision to put our cute little house on the market and move back to Michigan!! So as of December we are all officially Michiganders and we're all so much happier for it.

 Alice now spends two days a week with her favorite person in the whole world - her Grammi. And the feeling is mutual. Even after a few months of this, Alice still gets SO excited to hear that Grammi is coming over and she runs into her arms as soon as she walks in the door. We're loving having the extra support that comes from living so close (and actually WITH) family. Right now we're living with my sister and her husband in their beautiful house and it's working out wonderfully. It's kind of crazy how well everyone is getting along actually. We're not entirely sure how long this set up is going to last, but for right now it's fantastic.

Since we moved in December we're starting to develop a little bit of cabin fever since it's been too cold a lot of the time to take Alice out to explore. Thankfully it's syrup season now, so I've been enjoying helping my parents get ready for that and yesterday we had our first boil - it was the first time that I'd been home for a boil in a decade. It's crazy how fast time flies.

As for me - I almost feel like a different person now that we're back in Michigan. I feel happier and lighter and more carefree. And I'm hoping that will carry over into all parts of our lives.

It was a scary decision to up and sell our house and move, but now that it's behind us, it's one of those decisions that you wish you had been able to make sooner!

So here's to many fantastic seasons spent in Michigan and eventually many home improvement projects when we purchase our next house and turn it into a home.  But until then this blog may change course and focus more on family activities and possibly dipping into some minimalism habits... so stay tuned!