It’s hard for me to believe that Craig and I moved into our home 2+ years ago.  Before living in the house we own, we were renting a three story town house on the waterfront where we live.  I have to say, we loved that place!  It was so great because it was within walking distance to just about everything – restaurants, the local wine bar, the grocery store, parks and our gym.

After living in our town house, we knew eventually we wanted a home with a yard for our dog.  We also realized that three flights of stairs weren’t the best for a couple who knew that they would one day be adding to the family.  It was time to look for our first house!

We had a lot of support from our family during the house hunting process.  Buying a home, especially for the first time, is extremely stressful.  I found myself constantly wondering if we were doing the right thing by looking to buy at that time, which was 2015.  The housing market can be such a gamble, and I am by no means fluent in that area!

Some good fortune came upon us at the end of July, 2015, but we had our fair share of bad luck before that.  Craig and I had put several offers on homes in the town we grew up in, only to be outbid.  Our spirits weren’t as high as we wanted them to be, but after hearing a few stories from our friends and the experiences they had buying for the first time, we knew that we had to be patient.  A family friend of ours had told us they put 22 offers on houses before one was finally accepted.  That’s California for ya! Crazy, right?

During this whole process, we had become slightly obsessed with browsing the likes of Zillow and other similar websites.  One evening, as we were laying on the couch and glued to our phones searching these sites, we stumbled upon a beautiful home that seemed perfect for us.  Craig and I knew that if we wanted a chance at getting this home, we would have to act fast.

The following day we went to an open house for the property, but it wasn’t your typical open house…..the home owners were present.  At first I thought that was a bit odd, but it ended up helping us, not hurting us.

As you know, I’ve said I’m very close to my family, so it only made sense that Craig and I bring my parents and his parents to this open house.  Their opinions mean a lot to us and we wanted them to be included in this process.

You can probably sense where this is going…..yes, we fell in love with the house; yes, we put an offer on it; yes, WE GOT IT!  The couple who owned the home before Craig and I were moving to Lake Tahoe and wanted another family to live here who would appreciate the home as much as they did.  We came to find out that the wife taught Craig’s older sister, Michelle, in high school.  Not only that, the husband knew my dad’s high school football coach, a man who my dad really respected.

It was these little connections that really helped us stand out to the homeowners, and ultimately it helped them decide to sell the home to us.  We drafted a nice letter to them as well (icing on the cake), telling them that we wanted to start our family in this home.

Two years later, I’m sitting here in my first home, that I’m about to move out of, typing this post.  We kept our promise to the couple who lived here many years before us, and we started our family in this home.  This was not only my first home, but the home that we brought our sweet Gia to after leaving the hospital when she was born.

A big part of me is sad that we are selling our house because we started our little family here.  An even bigger part of me is excited to be selling it.  It means that we need more space for more fun and eventually, another child.

Although I’m not ready to have another baby just yet, the thought of it is wonderful.  Before we continue adding to the family we need to find our next house, which has proven harder than finding our first!  In the mean time, my awesome parents are letting us stay with them until we find our perfect next home.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the air, since we have no idea when we will find the right house, but I feel extremely fortunate to be in this situation.  We wouldn’t be able to do what we are doing without the love and support from my parents and my in-laws.  They are always willing to help us, whether that means watching Gia for a couple of hours, getting us boxes, or sending us new listings to look at.

Family really is everything, and without ours, Craig, Gia and I wouldn’t be the people we are today.  We are so excited, and a tad scared to embark on this next chapter.  I’m mostly scared of tackling the situation in our garage before we move.

Stay tuned, and keep your fingers crossed while we continue our house hunt!