Downing Table for Six : Our New House

Our biggest news of the year - we bought a new house!!! If you know Josh and I, you know that this decision did NOT come easily. We think things over and analyze and discuss and explore options and rethink and second guess and take our time and rediscuss. Usually this does not play in your favor when it comes to the housing market. But in this case, it did. The conversation of a bigger house probably started in 2012, maybe 2011. I started keeping my eye on the market, going to open houses, researching adding on, researching building, talking to people who were selling, etc. For several years, we thought about our options. We looked into things and relooked into things. There aren't a lot of options in Catlin. But still, nothing felt right.

In the fall of 2016, my friend Sandy saw that this house was possibly going to be for sale. We did not know the owners, but she connected us. We scheduled a time to come and see it. We really liked it, but we (mainly Josh) felt that the price was too high for us. We talked about it A LOT. We told the owners our top price. But the house that they had their eye on had sold, so they weren't willing to drop in price at that time because they had no where to go. We decided to let it go.

Over the next year and a half, the owners and I kept in touch here and there. We discussed adding onto our old house again. We got a quote (it was high!). We looked into building (it was high!). We actually looked at a house two doors down from this new house and were interested. The price was high, but we were told that they wanted an offer - any offer. But it sold while we were on vacation before we could get back for a second viewing. So we continued our patient waiting.

In the spring of 2018, I randomly drove by this house again. It wasn't on my way to anywhere. I just drove around the block with my kids. I said out loud, "I just still really feel like that is our house." I don't even know why I said that; I kind of surprised myself when I did. And the kids were like, "What?!"

I told Josh I was thinking about it again. He told me that I better start praying that they drop the price. So I did. (By the way, this house was never "listed" or officially on the market.)

Seriously, about a week later, we were sitting at Texas Roadhouse, and I got a text from the owners saying that they had found a new house and wondered if we were interested for the price we had mentioned in 2016. We hadn't talked in months. Umm, yes, we were still interested. Problem was, Josh hardly remembered the house. So we went to look at it again.

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

We looked at it in between two birthday parties for Aleah, one of which I was hosting in our home that night - a full blown home cooked meal for 20+. By the time we could talk, we were too tired to talk. We both decided we couldn't even discuss it because we were so stinking tired.

The next day, Josh and I were conversing through e-mail while he was at work. I asked him what he thought. He said he wanted to know what I thought first. So I sent him my thoughts. And then he told me to go for it. I was shocked. He doesn't ever say that. It almost scared me. But by the end of the day, we had made a no contingency offer to buy the house in 2.5 months.

Talk about scary. While we had talked about this for years, we were in no way ready to sell our house. We didn't know anything about the process. We were overwhelmed. I had no idea how much work it was going to be, and as smoothly as everything went, it was crazy. It was so.much.work. But it was the right move, and we are so glad we did it.

Moving day ended up being the 4th of July! We had an amazing support team! It was HOT, and we had over 30 people show up to help us move. We needed all of them. They were amazing!

We had our first dinner on the floor because our only table was being refinished.

Several neighbors brought us cookies, etc. It was such a blessing. One night, I think we had brownies for dinner. We were working our butts off and were exhausted!

The two main things we were excited about with the new house was extra bedroom space and extra entertaining space. In the old house, we had 4 kids sharing two small bedrooms. In this house, all of the kids can have their own room eventually if they want. Right now the boys sleep upstairs with the girls, but we're sure that will change some day. We also were aching for entertaining space. Our extended family had gotten so big that we could hardly host at the old house. Even doing one side of the family at a time had gotten out of control and we were hosting 3 parties for our kids' birthdays at times. It was nuts. And honestly, with the things that needed work at the old house and with the equity that we had in it, the price difference between the two houses just made sense. It was crazy but it was right and good and we feel so blessed!

PS-As smoothly as the process went, it did not go without a hitch. Literally while we were negotiating, my kids had the worst case of the stomach flu I have ever seen. It was MISERABLE. During this time, I managed to get ulcers on my corneas, and I couldn't even go to the eye doctor for a few weeks because my kids were so sick. It was MISERABLE. After we signed the contract on the new house, the in ground pool cracked and had to be removed. We had to rethink everything. We weren't sure if the deal was going to go through. (We were both sad and relieved by the pool being gone.) At the old house, termites were discovered in the mulch! We had to pay $900 to remedy that. We had a lawyer who drug his feet on everything. I had to push him along each step of the way. I had So.Many.Meetings. Most of them with kids in tow. Lawyers, Lenders, Insurance Agents, Real Estate Research, Prospective Buyers, and on and on and on. There are so many details that go with buying and selling. And we didn't use a real estate agent on either side. In some ways it was easier; in some ways it was harder. But it saved A TON of money, and honestly made the deal possible. With our personalities, we over-analyzed everything. The entire process. But in the end, we felt good about the decisions that we made and the deals that we made.