the hunt.

This past month I’ve loved reading about Young House Love‘s recent move in Richmond, Virginia.  These days I’m fascinated to hear how friends (or perfect strangers, apparently) chose their own house, so I decided to steal an idea from the Young House Love blog and write a post about our house hunt.  It was interesting to see how our priorities shifted as we actually saw houses and talked through pros and cons and what we really wanted.

Without further ado, here are our lists and how they matched up in the end.

Must Haves:

— In our price range — obviously!

— In the target area of our church (within a five-mile radius of the state capital) — This was fun because most of the folks in our church plant live within the target area, so we got to ask lots of friends about which neighborhoods and even particular streets are their favorite and the safest.  I’m so thankful that my friend Tarah even knows all of our new neighbors and vouched for our street being a winner.

— Three bedrooms — we needed at least three bedrooms, but we also wanted a small house.  We’ve always lived in small homes and apartments and I like how easy they are to keep clean and how they force us to live simply and stay organized.  We also want lower electric bills and less maintenance.  We actually looked at a 950-square-foot house which was adorable, but in the end we nixed it because it really was just too small — especially for having people over.  Our house is 1375 square foot — small, but plenty of space for our little family.

— Move-in-ready (doesn’t need immediate remodeling) — We found a decent number of houses in our price range, however in our two favorite neighborhoods those houses needed a lot of renovation work (the cost of a fully remodeled and update house in our neighborhood is significantly higher–although interestingly enough, a lot of those houses aren’t selling right now).  After deciding against the fixer-upper on our street, we started looking in neighborhoods a couple miles north of us, where you can get a lot more for your money.  Thus, we found our mostly-updated, move-in-ready house.

— Space/floor plan conducive to having people over — This was a must because we have folks over nearly every day.  To us that didn’t mean a huge place so much as a layout that could comfortably fit groups with fun hang-out spaces.  This was one of the biggest selling points of the house for us with its nice big living room, the combined kitchen/dining room, a front and back porch, and a back “patio” (aka concrete slab).

— A yard that we can begin to garden in right away and also can grow into over time (which means the yard should be south-facing and have a good-sized sunny patch) — This is one of those “Like To Haves” that grew into a “Must Have” during our search.  In talking with my husband, hearing his dreams, I realized more and more that this will be a important outlet for him.  It’s a creative outlet, a way to work with his hands and spend time with our family, and a break from the intense days of ministry.  It was at this point of realization that I gave up my dream of buying our rental.  I just new it wasn’t worth the yard sacrifice.  And through it God gave me such a peace and a love for our new little house with the perfect yard.

— An older house — This was another priority that we discovered along the way.  We love older homes but after walking through a couple of new houses we realized just how much we prefer them.  I love all their character and history, even the minuscule closets, tiled bathrooms, and other quirks.  The downside is older houses tend to be more drafty and lots of things break, so that was one reason we wanted a small old house.  Our house was built in 1955 which may or may not have been the year one of my parents was born, so obviously it is not old.  Just not new.  Or . . . just a little more old than new.  Okay I’ll stop now before I get myself into trouble.

— Good natural light, especially in the kitchen — I’ve lived in a lot of apartments and town homes with long windowless interior walls and so I knew if we were buying a house it absolutely must have lots of windows.  I told David I don’t mind having a tiny kitchen as long as it has lots of light.  And that’s exactly what I got.

— Located in a neighborhood — We nixed many houses because of location.  It’s a little tricky downtown because you can have some really fantastic houses that are on a main street or on a busy corner.  Even the downtown neighborhoods seem to have some better streets than others.   I’m so thankful for our quiet, shady neighborhood and a street where our kids can ride their scooters.

Like To Haves:

— A brick exterior — Brick has always been a favorite with me.

— Hardwood floors throughout — I’ve long dreamed of living in a house full of hardwood floors.  We love the hardwoods in our rental house, although I have to say the darker stain of the floors shows up just about every speck of dirt (if you’re considering going for dark hardwoods: be warned).  For this reason I’m glad our new house has lighter color floors.  They’re just gorgeous.

— A front porch — The front porch on our rental is one of the features we’ll miss the most.  I’ve almost never seen one this great — with plenty of space and also privacy hedges.  However, I’m just thankful our new house has a front porch, and that little screened-in gem in the back more than makes up for what we’re losing.  We plan to put in a ceiling fan, a table and chairs, string some lights, and eat our meals out there.

— Two bathrooms — Ahhh we went back and forth on this one.  At the beginning two bathrooms was a Definitely-Must-Have for me, and it was a big reason I never considered our house the first time through.  But it’s hard to find an older and small and affordable house with two bathrooms.  So we found a couple options for installing a second bathroom or half-bath down the road and I am appeased.  Plus I’m reminded that most people who live in big cities like NYC or Philly get by just fine with one bathroom, also my mom likes to remind me that she grew up in a house with five siblings and only one bathroom. So see? We can do this!

— A fireplace — Another fun feature for long winter days.  But let’s face it, charming as they are, they’re just not as necessary here in the south.  And my parents are giving us a fire pit as a house-warming gift, so we’ll gather around the fire in the backyard this fall.

You know one thing I didn’t want?  A ranch-style house.  I’m just not a fan of that ubiquitous long thin shape and much prefer the more boxy bungalow (especially with the nice big front porch).  Oh well.  I’ve made my peace with owning a ranch-style; although it makes me laugh when I hear Judah tell friends, “Our new house is a rectangle.”

Also, you may have noticed that there’s a big-ticket item missing from our Must Have list: school district.  Obviously every family has to research options and make the choice that’s right for them, and we decided that school district just isn’t an important factor for us.  I’ll write more about our decision later, but we’ll be homeschooling for the time being, and then we have a couple of great private school options nearby.

One more thing: over the years I’ve bemoaned all of the packing and the moving we’ve done, bouncing from house-to-house every year.  However, in our house-hunting process I came to really appreciate it.

At the end of the day, what I know is this: our family has truly been happy in each of the places we lived.  Nothing’s been perfect.  But we made a home and we had each other and every single trailer/apartment/flat/house has held sweet memories.

That knowledge brought a huge freedom to our hunt.  In the end, I just didn’t feel compelled to find my dream house.  I wanted something that works for our family, a place where we can be ourselves with our different hobbies and pursuits, and a place other people feel at home.  I also wanted a dishwasher.

So there you have it!  Either you’re incredibly bored right now or wonderfully enlightened.  I’m glad I took the time to write this post over these past few weeks because I want to be able to revisit these early memories down the road.