The one that got away…

I never expected to move. While I wanted more space land-wise and dreamed of a small family homestead someday, I was very content in our current home. Emma Claire had friends up and down the street, I had mom friends that quickly became like sisters to me, and our home was sweet and cozy. One day, a Zillow listing up popped up in my email and I clicked on it (usually I just ignore them)…THIS house had me from my inbox and the journey was a rollercoaster of emotion, ultimately leading us to where we are now…but, let’s start at the beginning…

A dream house on 6 acres

Gorgeous Southern style doesn’t begin to describe this house. From the deep front porch spanning the width of the house to the precious antique gazebo that greets guests from the drive to the immaculately landscaped backyard with multiple water features, the exterior was dream-like and perfectly “us.” The brick front porch was laid by the owner’s husband and it had perfect imperfections that gave it character. I loved the columns and two sets of french doors leading to the porch. While I would have preferred the dormers be the same size by adding multiple dormers instead of the large center one (that is just a crazy “me” thing…I have no idea why I prefer it, but I do), it was definitely fitting for this home and didn’t take away any of my affection for it one bit. I fell deeply in love with this home…it felt like home, it had all the space I was longing for, and endless opportunity on the land. A HUGE plus was that it was one street over from my daughter’s school, which would have cut our commute from 35 min to 2 min.

We toured it in March, so we were not able to see all of the foliage…here’s a photo with all of the garden filled in.

Here are some interior photos.

Showings

We had a showing the same day (Thursday – semi-open house) I saw the listing in my email and loved it so much. I contacted a real estate agent and we had our second showing that following Sunday. Usually for showings, the owner leaves; however, we welcomed this owner to stay…she had dogs and was so sweet, offering us a lot of information about the home. She was busy in the garage while we toured the home with our agent. It was obvious this one-owner home was loved. As we were walking out onto the front porch after our showing, our agent had to run and we stayed for just a bit to look at the land potential of property. My daughter struck up a conversation with the owner and they chatted away while we looked around. The owner came up to us again and said, “There’s absolutely no hurry and no pressure…why don’t you guys sit on the porch, I will get you some refreshments, and you can just take some time to relax and consider the property.” We declined, she insisted, and then we accepted…but only if she would sit and enjoy a glass with us. It was like old friends catching up…we knew people in common, heard lots of stories about how the home came to be, all the work they put into it, her family…we really loved our unconventional visit with her.

After that showing, we felt we needed one more in the evening and, as much as we loved the owner, we wanted to have one without her present. Our agent scheduled a showing for the following Wednesday. Between Sunday and Wednesday, I had a lot of soul searching to do. This was completely unexpected and I wasn’t thinking about moving when this home was listed. If we moved forward, it would mean leaving our friends and the only home Emma Claire has ever known. It meant that I (extremely sentimental) would leave the home she took her first steps in and so many other memories. It meant no more impromptu visits with neighbors on a random Tuesday night. It also meant that we would be moving from our town…while only one town away, this has been my hometown since I was a little girl. The pro/con list offered no clear path forward, but I still couldn’t let go of that house…so we did one last showing.

The Sad Goodbye

At the end of the third showing, we knew we wanted to make an offer. One thing I didn’t mention…we took a contractor through on our third showing to look at some repairs/updates we would need to make. Those repairs/updates would cost six-figures…not something we were expecting…kitchen cabinets, a large buckling pond wall and patio needing to be torn out and redone, some possible water damage in the lower level, brick work, etc). When we talked with our agent, we felt we needed to make an offer that accounted for these repairs, at least to some degree. Because it was significantly less than asking price, our agent made a sort of “soft offer” with the owner’s agent. At the time, the owner just felt she didn’t want to go that low. Sadly, we decided to walk away, as we feared we would be putting money into a property that we would not get back (little did we know, property values soared a few months later…). 

For the next few weeks, our agent contacted us to let us know that the seller was still interested in us and really wanted to see if we would reconsider an offer. Our soft offer was already less (about half the cost) than all the repairs and we just felt it could be a waste of money. In that time, we began throwing around the idea of buying land and building, so we could put that money into a home that didn’t need repairs and had some things that this home did not offer (the lack of pantry in this home was one of those things). We declined to make another offer…I still loved this home and thought about it daily. I watched it as the price came down over about 6-8 weeks…it was better, but still not where we would want it to be for an offer.

If I’m honest, the day I saw this house had a contingent contract on it was sad for me. I was happy for the owner and the buyers, but it was like a chapter was closing for us. At the end of all of this, the house sold for a few thousand more than our soft offer (which we would have paid).

Next steps

In that time after we made the declined soft offer, we found an antique farm property with a fish pond right outside our town. Knowing this inspo home was no longer an option, it made the decision to buy that property a lot easier. We closed on that land three months after this house showing and I’m so excited to journal here as we build our forever home!  

**Spoiler alert: This beautiful home was not the last home we considered, even after purchasing our property. 😬More on that to come!