On Buying Our First Home //

Last November we bought a home. Our first home. At the respective ages of 21 & 23. Yeah, it kinda took me by surprise too. My husband had received a great raise in June, and one night we were looking over finances and thinking, "We probably have enough money to afford a mortgage. Why are we throwing away rent money each month??" 

So began our hunt for the perfect home in September. We didn't really have a lot of preferences. We didn't even really care too much what city it was in, as long as it was within reasonable distance from Colten's work, we were good with it. We looked at all kinds of houses, fixer uppers, brand new, in fancy neighborhoods, in run down sketchy neighborhoods. And each time I'd find a house I liked, Colten didn't like it. And each time Colten found a house he liked, I didn't like it. 

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I'll be honest. For me, house hunting was NOT fun. It was stressful. We bid on 2 houses that our offers were turned down. The first because someone else had bid just a few hours before us, and the second counter offered us higher than their list prices. Weirdos. I cried a lot. I had a lot of meltdowns. I just wanted something to work out for us! 

Colten wanted a fixer upper because he likes to build and do fixer upper type things. I wanted a finished home because I never knew anyone who finished their basement if they bought an unfinished one. Colten goes to school full time and works full time and I sure as heck don't know how to finish a basement. 

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I remember the day that we went to see about 6 different home. I was tired and somewhat cranky. We had a random house in a city I'd never been to on the list. We walked into the home and I said, "Colten, I want this house." The more I saw the more I wanted it. It was in our price range, plenty of rooms, updated carpet and paint (nice carpet was a real winner in my book!) and overall it was just so cute! Colten fell in love with it too. We knew from the moment we walked in that this was the house for us. It felt... right.

The neighborhood seemed quiet. The house had it quirks (aka a backyard of all cement and a huge sideyard of grass) but we BOTH wanted it. We made a full price offer that night, the next day it was accepted with only a change of the closing dates.

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Because an investor had bought the home to fix it up and re-sell it, he had not owned the property very long. In order to avoid additional inspections/appraisals, we had to wait until the investor had owned it for 90 days. The 90 days was up in November and we signed off on our home. There were a few other bumps in the road (aka my credit score dropping 1 point below what I needed for a certain loan during the 90 day period and adding $80/mo to our mortgage) but after the home was purchased and we moved in, it was all worth it. 

We have LOVED our home. We love the neighborhood, the neighbors, our church family and the quietness and peace we feel here. It was the first home that we both wanted. We wanted it so badly. And we feel so grateful to be living here in our little small town part of Salt Lake. 

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For our 2 year wedding anniversary, I got Colten this home drawing from Breezy and Co. Isn't it adorable?? You can get your own (or anything else in the shop) 15% off using code BROOKLYN15. Be sure to let me know if you decide to get one, I'd love to see how it turns out!