Our House

Last fall we made the decision to purchase a home. I already own a house in STL, but with Ryan's job in Southern IL it made sense for us to purchase there. After much consideration of areas, we settled on Edwardsville for our home hunt.

I don't know how many houses we ended up looking at, but I know the search went on for several months. At times I would go by myself to look at homes because there were so many we were contemplating. In October of 2009, I looked at a home that I had been avoiding due to the awful pictures of the kitchen, but finally became so intrigued, I had to check it out. The moment I walked in to this home, I felt like I had come home. As much about this house that I disliked, there were 100 other reason I loved it. So, I decided to bring Ryan to see it.

As I anticipated, he walked in, saw the drop ceiling and office overhead lighting in the kitchen and hated the house. But, as he walked thru some of the other rooms, he could see how amazing this house was. So, the search continued. For months!!! We looked at several homes more than once, including the home I loved.

One day, our agent, who was fantastic, took us to a house in a neighborhood we liked that had a view of the lake. We walked around the home thinking of all the things we would change. It was a possibility. We went home that night and made a list of homes we were considering. And for comparison purposes only, I included the home I loved. I even stated that I knew it wasn't on the "buy list" but because it had the charm we were looking for, we should use that to compare.

The next morning Ryan called me and told me he was ready to put an offer on a house. I asked which one. To my surprise, it was the home I loved! All in all, we had looked at the home 4 times, and he said after the last house we saw, it just clicked for him exactly what we wanted.

Despite the work that still needs to be done, we are in love with our home. We have lived here for 11 months and have enjoyed every moment. We have entertained in our home, made some small changes, and have started some of the bigger projects.

January should be a busy one with the largest project taking a major step forward. We look forward to the following year as we make this house our home and complete our projects.