the story of our house

This is ancient history by now but I wanted to write it all down so I'd remember.  At the end of May we decided to start looking for a house in Maryland.  Previously we had been browsing houses in NC and it was quite depressing to go from looking at houses you can afford in Raleigh to houses you can afford in Baltimore.  But, we were excited to be staying and Bryan's job was going great and we knew we'd find a great home.

May turned into June and we were not finding anything we liked.  We had to be out of our other house by June 30 so we were in a bit of a time crunch and I was getting more stressed by the minute.  On a Friday afternoon I got a call from our realtor Lynn.  She said there was a house that had just come on the market that day and we needed to see it ASAP.  In 15 minutes time I had texted Bryan to meet me there after work and found a friend to watch the girls.  

We walked through the house and I loved it.  It was old and not perfect, but it was closer to Bryan's office, zoned for great schools, was near some of our friends, had a beautiful backyard and a newly renovated kitchen, and we met the darling girls that lived next door.  Lynn told us to think about it and get back to her soon if we wanted to make an offer.  

We were going down to Richmond that weekend so we spent the whole drive discussing the house and studying the listing on my phone.  By the time we got there we had decided to make an offer.  I texted Lynn and she said we'd chat in the morning.  

Saturday was full of fun activities with my family, all along texting and chatting with Lynn, who was amazing and spending her Saturday writing our offer.  I'll never forget sitting in the pavilion at Canterbury Pool while my family watched the girls and going through the offer on my phone to docusign every page.  I spent a lot of time that day feeling grateful to live in 2015 where we can make an offer on a house from a cell phone!

We were excited, but tried to forget about the house because we knew there was an Open House on Sunday and they weren't looking at offers til Sunday night.  Late Sunday afternoon Lynn called and said there were two other offers (boo!)  It was the moment of truth and we had to give it our best offer.  We did, and she said we'd hear back later that night.  I held on tight to my phone the whole drive home and finally when we were about 20 minutes from home we got the call.  They'd accepted another offer. 

I was really really sad.  After all the worrying and wondering about our future these past few weeks I had finally felt good about this house and then it had slipped away.  I texted my family and a couple friends to tell them we didn't get it and went to bed confused and disappointed.

I spent Monday worrying about our future and feeling sad.  I kept flipping through listings and thinking that none of them compared to "our house."  That night we went to a goodbye party for some friends.  I hadn't even realized that Bryan had left to take a phone call, but I was standing in line to get food and Bryan grabbed me and said "we got it!!"  There was a glitch with the other offer so they defaulted to ours.  We were so, so, so excited.  I told my friend Jenni but I could tell there was something funny about her smile.  She tried to hide it but then admitted that she had run into Bryan right after he hung up with Lynn and asked if we'd gotten the house.  He was excited and couldn't lie to her so she found out before me!  I'll also never forget my friend Alli jumping up and down and screaming "you got your house!!"  It was fun to celebrate with our friends.

And now that house is home and we are grateful and happy to be here.