We Came. We Saw. We Bought a Home.

 April 15th... has it really been that long since I posted.  Oh my, I will do better soon (though the next few weeks might be a bit hit or miss) because soon there will be much to post about!  Jim, Isaac and I were in Richmond last week and are now a month from our closing date and the packing and sorting have already begun. 

If you've ever bought your first home then you probably know the emotional roller coaster it can be.  You know how hard it is to make this massive purchase (the biggest price tag we've taken on has been airline tickets across the ocean) and understand it both as an investment and as the place that needs to function as your home for the next however many years.  We've lived in seven homes in the past nine years (not counting our parent's homes where we've been this year) and three of those moves were because the landlord decided not to let the property for the following year.  So when we decided to move to Richmond and began looking at housing options, my longing for a home of our own, one that no one could force us to move from was intense.  I kept thinking about serious gardening, painting, building a chicken coop... all those things that we've wished we could do, but couldn't.  Till now.

Goodness, I had no idea how exhausting the process of buying a home could be.  It is fascinating to look through homes and imagine what life would be like in them.  It amazed me how a small kitchen being surrounded with walls with no room for a table made me outright reject an otherwise workable home (I spend so much time in the kitchen and having no place for the boys to sit and chat while I work just isn't workable).  I love the process of thinking through life and what we do and want to do in our home.  It made us ask so many helpful questions like 'What do we want at the center of our home?' (a table to gather and nourish), 'What to we need lots of space for?' (books!), 'What will we need in a home 3 years from now? 5 years?? 10 years??? 

The weekend before last I began to pray as we searched through listings that the right one would appear late in the week, just before we flew to Richmond.  A few of my favorite listings had just been sold.  Nothing seemed quite right or close enough to school (we really want to stick to one car and mostly walk to work/school).  

I arrived home from pilates Thursday afternoon, 24 hours before we were taking off for Richmond, and Jim said "look at this listing!"  A sweet little four bedroom only a block and a half from Veritas (where Jim will teach and Jonah will attend) with a reasonably sized city lot.

And, while we looked at lots of homes, in the end it came back to this little home.  And while it isn't perfect, this house is the one that came closest to meeting our hopes and we really love it.

There are obviously a few things that need to happen (the appraisal and the inspection...), but our name is on the line and we have a closing date.  I've already been sketching garden plans, designing room layouts in my head and thinking chicken coops (thought that will be a much later addition).  Is thirty-two tomato plants too many?  A few will probably have to do for this year, but a girl can dream, right?  In what season do you plant rhubarb?  

Goodness there is a lot to learn and create in this new space we'll be calling home!  Below is a fuzzy photo of Isaac in 'the library', which isn't a very big room, but it has two good walls for books and room for a table to play games and read.  This was the third walk through of this property right before we made the offer.  Isaac lost it after this photo, so I decided that there will be plenty of time for photos later, which is better anyway because right now, it is just a mostly empty house.  I'd rather introduce our home in the fullness of its life... meaning you will never see a photo with it this uncluttered again!