Finding Our Way Home

I grew up playing my mom’s Barbie Prom Queen game when I was at my Grandmas.  You had to go around the board and collect various items, the first person to do so and arrive at the Prom would be crowned Prom Queen.  You had to go around the board collecting things like a date, a job to get money to for a dress, a dress, getting your hair done, etc. My life felt a bit like that for a few years.  Boy Friend- Check, Awesome Job – Check, Starter Rental House – Check, Cats – Check, Boy Friend turned Husband in Crazy 2 Day DIY Wedding – Check, Grown Up Car – Check, Dream Honeymoon through Ireland then on to Germany for Oktoberfest  - Check.  

The Next big item on the list was home ownership.  We were not in a rush for this item.  We had just bought a car to build credit, and to remove necessity as a daily driver from Patrick’s baby – a 1981 El Camino with wavering reliability. We planned to continue living in our rental for a few years while we built credit, and saved up money. We always planned on building our own house. Admittedly this was my dream, not Patrick’s.  It was what my parents had done, and what I always thought I would do.  Patrick is a very handy person, and had said he was up for the challenge. We thought we would build a detached garage with an apartment above it first, then live there while we built the main house. Eventually we would rent that out as a B&B, something we both thought would be fun someday since we love to travel.  We wanted construction on both to be done by the time we were in our early thirties.  

One fateful morning we woke up to surveyor flags blowing in the woods behind our rental house. The contractor who had purchased the land to build a development had run out of money in the housing crash, and it appeared that he was back on track. We didn’t want to stay in that house forever;  it was perfect for  two recent graduates just starting out, but there was no room to grow.  It was a great location with a charming stretch of woods behind it, but living through construction, and then being boxed in by a new development was not something that we were excited about.  We went out that day to look at lots.  Since moving to Kent two and half years earlier I had always kept an eye on what was coming on the market, both lots and finished houses.  We both wanted something with charm and character.  Most of the old houses within a half an hour were in seedy parts of the downtown areas with small yards, or in backwoods and ready to fall apart.  After a day of driving around looking at over priced lots in cow fields, next to slaughter houses, with drainage issues, and no water access, I decided to look at the houses again. 

I started scrolling through listings with my usual search criteria, and there it was, our house.  A perfect Post-War Cape Cod, built in 1947 on half an acre, and recently renovated by the sellers.  Any work that was needed was largely cosmetic, and it was within 5 minutes of the highway. I had seen it come on the market nine months before, but it was way out of our price range.  The house had just come back on the market as a short sale, and was now well within our budget.  We drove over to see it that night. The house was empty, and we were a little worried that the cops would be called on us for peaking in the windows with flashlights. We loved it right away, and as soon as we got home I emailed the listing agent.

 The next few weeks were a blur.  I had no idea what the processes were, I had not done the research yet, I didn’t plan on finding something so soon.  Yet another example of not always being able to plan everything, sometimes it’s better to just go with what life gives you.  The planning, however, was in positioning ourselves to be ready for this if it came up.  We didn’t have any student loan debt or credit card debt, we had good jobs, we had been building credit through our car loan and small limit credit cards, and we had put our car loan on a 5 year loan.  We planned to pay it off sooner, but we wanted to have lower payments available to us if need be if some big expenditure ever came up.

We had a great team that we were working with that walked us through the short sale process fairly painlessly.  We made it through the Short Sale process in 2 months.  A lot of people are scared of short sales, a lot can go wrong.  Luckily our sellers were very on it and motivated, and we were on a month to month lease, which allowed us flexibility if needed.  We were sad to leave our first house, there had been so many memories there, but now I can’t imagine life without our house. Owning our own house – Check!  Next items to check off: More trips, Home Improvements, …and another furry four legged friend!