If you missed Part 1 of our house hunt, find it here!

April 16, the day after my birthday, was such a fun day! We had brunch at Tupelo Honey with some dear friends, and then headed out to see two houses we were really excited about. The first was a two-story house in an adorable neighborhood right next to one of our favorite lake trails in the area. We visited during an open house on its first day on the market, and, no surprise, the house was PACKED–I’d guess there were at least 15 other couples/families there at the same time as us! Here are a few pictures from Zillow:

We loved that HIGH ceiling, the two-car garage (this was actually the first house we had looked at with any garage at all!), the gas range, the staircase, and the size of the bedrooms–plenty of space for us, baby, and guests :) Smitten with the house and the location, we asked the selling agent about other offers, and she let us know that so far, there were five, and the deadline to place an offer was the next day. We didn’t have any hesitations about the deadline, but with so many other offers and a list price that was already slightly over our budget, we were nervous about being able to place a competitive offer. Pretty sure that we were going to place one regardless, we decided to head to the other house, merely because we had already made the appointment and needed a little more time to chat about what we could offer on this house.

House #2 was a little further from the city than we had originally hoped to be–about a 20 minute drive from our church in the heart of downtown Raleigh (a very handy reference point!). We were very pleasantly surprised when we pulled into the neighborhood and fell in love with how charming and well-kept it was. It was also pretty big, and had sidewalks all throughout–a great bonus for us considering how much we love taking walks.

It only got better once we walked inside…the floor plan was open, the house was nice and bright, and everything had been updated. Even though it was one story and a few hundred square feet smaller than the previous house, the open layout made it feel bigger.

I can’t tell you how surprised we were by how much we loved this house, especially considering the fact that we had spent the entire drive over trying to decide how much to offer on the other one. Want to know what officially tipped the scale?

Behind the house was a huge screened-in porch, a fire pit, a deck, PLENTY of grass (space for an inflatable pool for the baby next summer was a random priority for me ;)), a privacy fence, and a gorgeous weeping willow tree. The cherry on top was that the house backed up to some power lines, so we know for sure that nothing will be built back there.

Dave and I sat in that backyard to talk, and as we weighed each of these great options, we kept coming back to the fact that our number one reason for wanting a house (other than room for the baby, of course) was to be able to host generously–both things like dinners for local friends, and extended trips for our family members. While the other house could maybe fit 10 people comfortably for a party, this house–if we made use of the living room, dining room, kitchen, sun room, and yard, that all flow into each other–could fit 30. It was as easy for us to picture having our small group over for a cookout as it was to imagine hosting my parents in the house for a week straight. When we pictured all those scenarios, it just felt like home.

We put in an offer (we were one of four), and two days later, the sellers presented all of the potential buyers with some terms they would find agreeable. Since these terms still worked with our budget and timeline, we promptly accepted them, and the next day, found out that they had accepted our offer! We were thrilled, but tried to keep our expectations low going into the inspection, considering what we had just been through. To say we were relieved when only a few minor things came back on the inspection is an understatement, and on May 24, we closed on our first home. We got the keys on Sunday and fulfilled a dream I had of eating pizza on the floor with my husband on our first day in our first home…it was perfect :)

We’re planning to get right to work painting (really the only improvement we need to make, praise God!) and then start bringing our things over in batches, with our big move happening mid-July. My mom and sisters are flying up soon after, so I’m hoping to get everything mostly in order by then! Dave and I are so excited to make the place our own, create a space for our baby boy, and start filling the house with new memories…and I’m excited to take y’all along for the ride! :)