Home Sweet Home

This weekend we got together with lots of people. It was truly wonderful (and a little exhausting). Two of our friends are in the process of buying a house and were sharing their frustrations with us. They really love the house they just put an offer on and are keeping their fingers crossed that it goes through as planned. It made me think about what it was like when Greg and I were looking for a house. I love our house. In fact, we both loved our house the very first time we set foot in it. It was truly love at first sight, but we almost didn't get it. When I think about the "things" in my life that i am grateful for, the house is on the top of my list. Even though Thanksgiving is over, November is not...and I did promise 30 days of gratitude, didn't I? I know I did, so here's the story of how we got our house. Greg and I decided to get married several months before we actually got engaged. We started looking at homes and the house we currently live in was the first house we saw. Like I said above, we fell in love immediately. We made an offer on the house, but it was a lowball offer. The sellers were asking a hefty amount that we couldn't quite afford, but it had been on the market for a while, so we thought they might accept. They did not. I bet we looked at 25 more houses that summer. We saw some really beautiful homes and some homes that needed a lot of work. All of them lacked something intangible...something that hung in the air in that first house. After a while, Greg and I both started feeling worn out from all the looking. I actually felt like giving up for a while, just for a break. Just when we were about ready to throw in the towel, our realtor called us and said that the owners had reduced the price on the first house we looked at. Of course, we jumped on the chance to make another offer. She submitted our offer and we waited. Later that day, the realtor told us that the owners wanted to meet us. I thought that was odd, but whatever, right? We met with them and they gave us another tour of the home. They explained all of the quirks of the house to us. It was really nice. We liked the couple a lot and they told us things about the home that we never would have learned otherwise. They accepted our offer and the house was ours. We found out later that they had been given a higher offer from another couple, but that they had declined because they didn't feel like the first couple shared the same values as we did. It really was written in the stars that "our" house was meant to be ours! We closed on the house on August 11, 2006, and it's been home sweet home for us since then. I love our house for so many reasons. It's the perfect location for us, just blocks away from both of our families. It's a good looking house, but more importantly, it carries a feeling of welcome. It's an historic hollidaysburg home, built in 1891, with lots of character and over a century of love built up inside its walls. It's big enough to host all of our family and friend gatherings, yet doesn't lose it's cozy feeling of comfort in its size. We love our house and we are so grateful it's ours!