How We Found Our House
We started our house hunt around the beginning of February, but really, I started looking as soon as we moved to Colorado almost two years ago. I’ve always dreamed about one day owning a place that I could put some design work into, so I was pretty much on team “buy right away” when we got here. We decided it was better to rent in the beginning and get to know our new state before making the big leap to buy, and in the end I’m glad we waited.
I’d saved a good amount of houses on the listing website our realtor had sent us, but we were still early in the process and not quite ready to make an offer yet. I would watch house after house go from for sale to pending to sold in what felt like two days and I was starting to think that by the time we were ready, we’d never be able to get an offer in fast enough. Then COVID-19 happened. A lot of listings were removed. Zach and I talked about pushing off the search for a few months. We felt such a mixture of guilt, fear, and anxiety over the circumstances we were now house hunting in. We had no idea if we could still see places in person and didn’t want to make a blind offer on our first home purchase. We also didn’t want to tour houses knowing with each one we saw, we might potentially be carrying the virus into someone’s home or exposing ourselves.
We took a step back and decided to keep our eyes on any new listings, but not to tour houses unnecessarily. We’d found a few we could see potential in, but nothing was feeling like our home. Before moving to Denver, Zach and I lived in a tiny bungalow in Culver City, CA that was built in 1925. It was a small and oddly configured space, but we loved all the older details. Brass doorknobs, original hardwood floors, lots of built-in storage, things you don’t find as often these days. Zach grew up in an Edwardian style house in San Francisco, so his love for older homes goes way back.
Out of curiosity I expanded my search to see if any older places might be on the market. Denver has no shortage of gorgeous brick Craftsman and Tudor homes, but none were even close to being in our price range. I moved my search to a neighborhood not far from where we’ve been living and that’s when I found our house. I can truly say it was love at first sight, but it was also at the very very top of our budget, and based on the photos we could tell it needed work. A total dream house, but probably not realistic.
A little later we threw on our masks to take Finn for a walk and a notification popped up on my phone. The house had dropped significantly in price and was now within reach. And it was being saved rapidly by other potential buyers on Zillow. I texted our realtor and three days later we were standing in it.
Immediately we could see how loved it was by every family who had owned it before us. We made an offer soon after and included a letter telling the seller just how special we thought their house was. After a mild heart attack upon learning there was another offer and some short negotiation, they accepted our offer. Huuuge sigh of relief!
We could only see our house one more time, which was during the final walkthrough the day before closing. The first time we were there I tried my hardest not to get my heart set on it knowing we could very easily not get it. I looked at everything as someone else’s house and couldn’t let myself picture ourselves there too much. During the walkthrough, though, I got to look at it for the first time as ours and picture what our lives would be like there in the years to come.
I still can’t believe this whirlwind of the past three months actually happened. We feel really fortunate things worked out at the time they did and we know the seller was happy knowing we’ll honor the history of this home. We can’t wait to add our personal touches to it and I’ve been deep in my search for hardware and fixtures that feel true to the era the house was built in. I can’t wait to share more as we continue this journey!