Hello, is this thing on?  Testing, testing. Mic check 1,2,3.  I’ve been MIA for the last few months because [drumroll]…We bought a house!

If you recall, prior to taking on the Bonus to Bedroom transformation, I shared how we actively started house hunting. It’s only fitting that the ONE thing that forced us to finish the job was putting in an offer on another house.  Stay tuned for the final product of that room…

If you’ve been following along on my Insta-Stories over the last 6 months, it has been a dream of ours to find a house that is

1. Closer into the city of Louisville, our friends, Taylor’s job, and our kids’ activities
2. An ol’ diamond in the rough to shine bright over time with our DIY skills.

This has been something we’ve talked about doing since we first staged our condo in New Orleans and saw the power of paint and elbow grease.

Within 35 days of putting in a contingent offer, preparing, listing, and selling our house days [before Christmas], we moved into our sweet fix-me-up home.

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Our Meet Cute

It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we rolled up to the neighborhood I’ve been hawking for over a year.  I knew I would like the house, but the list price was high, reaching, and we had this whole “need to sell -contingency” vibe with a half-finished DIY project in our back pockets.  

Waiting for us on a cold, rainy evening was our real estate agent (also known as Steve, Dad and Grampy to us. If you are local, Steve Canfield is an excellent resource. He’s been in the real estate business for 43 years and closed over 90 houses in 2018.

With only Aria and Leo in tow and less than 30 minutes to assess the situation, we hemmed and hawed through the mauve carpet, the cracks in the drywall and the decorative spindles attached to the kitchen counters.

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While Steve and Tay talked shop, I stood in the front 2 story entry – rare for a cape meets ranch floor plan – and watched Leo and Aria run laps through the family room, dining room, office to the sunroom, kitchen and back.  Their giggles echoed in the hallowed halls and their feet boomed on the newly finished hardwood floors.

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Taylor walked through the louver doors with a smile on his face and we both kind of exhaled, “this is the one”.  We were giddy. We were dreaming of “come-on-in’s”, “Merry Christmas, let me take your coat”, “kids, time for breakfast” and every memory we would make in between.

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The Offer  

We went home and typed up a compelling letter, sharing our dreams, to be submitted with the offer and signed, sealed, and delivered it with fingers crossed.

Our dreams were dashed within 24 hours.  There was an offer on the house. No contingency. The deal was done…or so we thought.

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Fast forward two depressing weeks where I mourned the loss of a dream and swore off Redfin til further notice. It was a Monday evening at dinner time, I opened my email and saw an alert. Back on the Market. And this time…it was ours.

Next post, I’ll share how we pulled our house together in 10 days and sold it in 24 hours. I kept all my to-do lists for this specific reason. If you’re looking to list or buy…be sure to share this post and subscribe to get the details delivered right to your inbox!

Photos provided by Realtor.com