This update has been a long time coming, but I just couldn't bring myself to write it!
Michael and I made the decision to put our house on the market and see what happened. It was a tough decision to put our house on the market. We were considering some major life changes and thought a move would help us get to our family goal a little quicker. Stoneway held a lot of really beautiful memories for us. We bought the house soon after we got engaged, brought Turk and Bailey home to that house, brought Patrick and Peyton home to that house. We became a family in that house.
One of my all-time favorite memories in the house was the night we brought Patrick home. It had stormed that day and most of Nashville was out of power. We came home from the hospital as scared new parents with a tiny newborn to a house that had no power. We immediately called both of our parents, who were both out of power as well. So they both came over, we ordered pizza, ate and all stared at Patrick as he slept. He was the first grandchild on both sides, so I think everyone was in awe of him. It was a beautiful memory and one I will definitely cherish forever. It was really tough to say goodbye to our first house, a house we had so many beautiful memories in and became a family in.
We put our house on the market on Tuesday, April 15th. We priced the house a good amount above what we thought we would get for it. I honestly believe that Michael and I both thought that we would put the house on the market to give it a shot and then probably end up living in it for a while longer. Surprisingly, we had four requests to look at it that morning. One couple came back and looked again in the afternoon. We received an offer for asking price on the first day. Michael and I were both shocked. We weren't really prepared to actually sell the house, we just wanted to see what happened! We tried to back-out, but when a buyer offers full price with a house "as-is" (i.e. no repair requests), you can't really back out.
I think Michael and I were both sort of in shock and a little depressed about the outcome. Looking back, I definitely think it was a great move for us, but at the time it was tough.
Bye Bye Stoneway
Next we were off to buy a house, sounds easy right? You try and offer money to someone to buy their house, yeah.....not so much. The Nashville market, particularly our desired area and price range, is extremely competitive. Any house that is listed that is reasonably priced is under contract immediately, and some even before they go on the market.
The first house we attempted to buy was in what is lovingly referred to as Vatican Valley. The inspection report wasn't what we hoped so we decided to move on.
The second house was a small little yellow house on a street that we absolutely loved with a beautiful lot. The house was a little smaller than what we needed, but the location was perfect for us. We had plans to to add onto the house in the future. We set up the closing on our Stoneway House and this house to be the same day. Everything was going to work out perfectly... until a few days before closing our realtor calls and says that the seller's real estate agent illegally accepted two offers on the house. What ensued was crazy and sort of unbelievable....offers for illegal bribes to go away and not report him (which we did not accept) and filing suit to let the owners know of their real estate agents actions followed. We dropped the suit once the owners knew about their shady real estate agent. Much more details were involved then I am typing in this post, but it ultimately ended in large unplanned for costs for us and no house.
We ended up moving in with Michael's parents and my parents kept the dogs. We would end up being at Michael's parents for a little over 6 weeks. The transition moving out of our house was probably the hardest on Patrick. He was very confused and didn't understand why we had to leave his house with all of his toys. Every time we would drive by our old house he would scream that someone is taking his house. It was beyond heartbreaking. It was also heartbreaking for Michael and I as well. It's hard to get excited about selling your first house when you do not have a new one to be excited about.
The third house we tried to buy ended up having a nightmarish inspection. A breaker box actually blew up while we were there.....i'll leave it at that.
Are you sick of the house hunting stories yet? Yeah, we were too....
Now on to the fourth and final house! I was stalking real estate websites and looking at them multiple times a day. The minute this house came on the market I called our real estate agent and asked if she could find out more details. Michael was unavailable, so I went and looked at the house alone. I LOVED it! It was a ranch style house, with four bedrooms, three baths, a huge playroom and an open layout. It also had a lot of room for the dogs to roam in the backyard, not perfectly flat like we had hoped, but hey everything else was close to perfect! I immediately texted Michael to tell him that he needed to come to look at it bc this house would probably sell today. Our real estate agent met us there at 8pm and then magically turned around an offer letter in an hour or so after looking at it. We decided not to mess around and just offer full price and close in two weeks. We thought that not many people would be able to close that quickly. Turns out that a few others had the same idea and also offered asking. Luckily we ended up with the house, but it was stressful there for a little while.
It has been super stressful trying to move in and get unpacked and have things fixed with two jobs during busy season and two kids, but we are making it work.
More updates (and maybe some pictures) of the new house to come!
But for now, here is a picture of the outside of the house! Hello Cammack Court, our new home!
