Casa Calderwood... Here we come!

Wow!  What a whirlwind house hunt we've had.  When we realized it had become a sellers market, and that things in our price range were selling particularly quick, we became a little discouraged.  And discouragement was exactly what we didn't need.  As lovely as our little basement home has been, we have felt strongly the time to move is now.... for many reasons I wont even go into.  I'm sure common sense can help you fill in many of the answers.  Anyway, given our budget, and the high prices in the Northern Virginia area, we were starting to feel like we may be trapped, and at the rate we are going we may NEVER end up moving.  It was literally one of the hardest weeks I've ever had.  The girls were challenging, we were arguing with each other, we were feeling pressure from my family, and my work was harder than ever (I had a student make two suicide attempts).  My mom told me, "just remember it's darkest before the sun comes out."

We found out we qualified for a USDA loan, a first time home buyer loan that offers government backing for individuals/families making below a certain income.  We barely met the criterion based on our income, and now in hind site, it's a blessing Shaun hasn't started a new job because that could have kicked us out of the running.  But regardless of having a good loan to use, it made it a little harder to buy from an individual seller because the wait time for the loan is typically 60-90 days, and most home owners don't want to wait that long if they don't have to, especially in this hot market.  And on top of all of that, we were not on the same page in what we we were looking for.

Shaun wanted the more mature home with "projects."  I would love that one day, but I was concerned we wouldn't have the time, but more importantly the money, to put into projects an older home would require.  I have seen these town homes going up in Warrenton over the last year and I LOOOVE them.  They are truly beautiful, walking distance to quaint and charming Old Town, the library, and parks and other community events.  But we had reservations about the re-sale of a town home, the lack of space, the lack of yard...  But the town home accepted our loan, and they pay closing, so we can essentially move in for nothing!  On top of that, utilities will be much cheaper, lawn care will be much cheaper, general upkeep will be much more doable, and they put us in a good school district too.  When we added in all of those factors, we realized we'd be stupid not to go for the town home. 

In the end, after looking at both options (the old and the new), we came to the conclusion through prayer and studying it out in our minds, that the town homes were the right fit for us for this stage in our life.  I'm hoping the next five to seven years this will be our very happy home!  We made an offer on April 23rd, the offer was ratified or accepted on April 25th, and now we are waiting for our little clod of dirt to become our home new home!  We go to closing on June 28th, which works perfectly with the USDA loan because it usually takes around 60 days for them to process.  The photo above is what it will look like.  I think the fourth one from the left looks the most like ours will.  

We are THRILLED!  I know this is a longer story than you probably care to read, but if you want the short of it, we have seen the hand of the Lord in this.  We know it is right, and we couldn't be happier.  We know it wont solve all of our problems, but it certainly will make many situations better.  I know we need to leave our family (i.e.: my parents) and truly cleave to one another.  This will make our marriage happier and our home happier as we try to be our own family unit and let my parents be the grandparents, not the co-parents that they end up being simply because proximity makes it too hard not to be.

I'm so excited to decorate and make it ours, although I know this will have to happen over time as finances allow.  In the end, this was DEFINITELY the right move for us, and we look forward to seeing our house go up over the next couple of months.  I'll post pics along the way.