We're Out of Here (most likely and hopefully)

After months (and months) of preparing my house to be sold, it went up on MLS February 11th. J and I have worked hard, with an enormous amount of help from our realtor, to get the place ready.
It has been completely painted inside and out, the deck has been power washed to the point that it looks like new, GFIs installed, pipes wrapped, the floors are refinished, and it's been scrubbed top to bottom. It sparkles, and it makes me a little sad to see it looking so nice, knowing it's almost time to say goodbye.

This was my first house. I bought it all by myself when I first moved to Providence. I lived there alone with my two Basset Hounds, and the three of us had so much fun there. I hosted holiday friend dinners and summer cook-outs, spent countless nights snuggled by the fire with the pups watching movies all night long, I tended my garden, I fixed the things that broke. Every now and again I'd be in the house, doing whatever, and I'd have a moment when I'd realize that I was in my house that I owned all on my own and I'd have a great sense of pride and accomplishment that would well up inside me. It was my home. Mine. I loved it. 
There are many memories in every nook and corner, but it makes no sense to hold on to the place now. We want a city-free setting for our family and I have zero interest in being a landlord, but it's still a little hard to let it go.

 

Before Sev was born, J and I decided to head to white picket fences and (much) better schools. We want our son to grow up in a place with a big back yard where he can play outside with his friends, where he can ride his bike down the street to a park, where it's quiet at night, and green, and clean. We want an idyllic childhood setting for the little guy. And we want our dogs to have more room to stretch their legs and a great walk route, without the nutty head-cases and creepos to run into while they're out there. The city does not fit into that vision.

So we decided to head north into Massachusetts. Most of the towns have great schools (we've been doing our research on which ones those are), and it would be a little closer to Boston for J's commute, but still not too far for me.

Over the summer we started to zero in on Mansfield and Foxboro. We saw a few houses that were alright, way before we were ready to buy, but for the most part the houses came closest to hitting our marks were on through streets, and we wanted cul-de-sac, neighborhoody livin' in our future.
We decided against Franklin, even though we loved the town. It was just too far for me, and not any closer for J since it added to the west whatever distance it took off from the north. We started to search North Attleboro (along with Mansfield, Foxboro and a little Wrentham). Searching consisted of watching Redfin for anything over a half acre, 3+ beds, 2+ baths, garage and the above mentioned cul-de-sacy/neighborhoody areas. Oh, and fairly near the commuter rail, with central air, gas heat, minimal-to-no carpeting, and preferably not in desperate need of cosmetic overhaul, unless the price was really good. Then there was this other thing I have about water. I checked flood zones, searched out every babbling brook and vernal pond and quarry within walking distance of the properties. I do not want to be in an area that has a chance of flooding. I love water, but I don't want it in my house. And we have a little boy who I want very much to keep safe.

As we got closer to being actually ready to buy, winter was closing in and the houses we were watching all started to sell or go off market. This was a mildly painful time as I started to feel like we would never find exactly what we were looking for in the area we wanted.

 

Then I started to focus on one particular house. It was in North Attleboro. It was in a really good area of the town, very close to great schools, it had 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms, a two car garage and a huge, private back yard with lots of trees. It was near everything, had gas and central air, mostly wood floors with some nice, clean carpeting upstairs. It was recently built and still shiny and inviting. We'd actually gone to see it months ago but never expected it to make it past that weekend. I started to watch it, cautiously, as that was usually when the focus of my attention would be sold right out from under my watchful eyes.

There hadn't been an open house or a price change in quite a while. This is unusual for a house that's been up for several months. Naturally I assumed that something was wrong.  There's always something wrong, some disclosure that you can't find out about until you make the effort to see the place. I showed J and he said he'd started to think about that one, too. Within days the open house tag popped up on the listing. My heart sank. This was how it worked. I'd think "this could be the one" then there would be an open house and a few days later the dreaded "pending" would appear on the listing. I'd cry a little inside and then review my rapidly dwindling list for the next house that could maybe be ours.

We decided to go take another look. After all, my house was going to be listed in the next few days. It was Friday and our agent was going to take photos of my place on Monday to get the listing ready to go. Monday was, of course, the day we were supposed to have our fourth big snow fall of the last few weeks, so who knew if it would actually happen.

We went to the open house that Sunday. We liked the place. We really, really liked the place and we couldn't find a gotcha anywhere. It was open and airy and bright, but still cozy and someplace we could see ourselves making a home for our little family. It hit all our marks. Nothing else had done that yet.

On the way home we discussed the possibilities. We could do it. If my house sold soon it would be easy. If it didn't, we could still do it. We crunched numbers and talked about it for a couple days while I watched the listing waiting for the inevitable "pending" to pop up.
 

My house went up on MLS that Wednesday. We talked to our agent about the house we were watching in North Attleboro and talked about our options. He agreed to take us to see the place again. We made an appointment for Wednesday. We showed up with our list of things we wanted to ask about and look into, expecting something to lessen our interest. The place appeared solid and our interest only grew. Our agent gave us the thumbs up, he didn't see any red lights either. We talked outside with him for a little bit. We wanted to make an offer, but it really wouldn't be in our best interest to do so until we had a buyer for my house. Sigh and sad face.
Our agent's phone pinged. It was an offer on my house! The timing was amazing.
 

Thursday morning a friend of ours who had been looking at my house outbid the previous offer and I accepted it happily. I asked if we could work a "must be invited to all parties so she can visit the house" clause into the P&S agreement. My house, going to someone who I know and like, who will love it and take care of it!  That was 90% of my excitement. The other 10% was the offer was completely reasonable and right where it needed to be.

I signed paperwork Thursday night and then we put together an offer for the North Attleboro house. The offer was sent to their listing agent Friday and ... we wait. We received a counter Saturday that was higher than we wanted to go so we waited until Sunday to meet in the middle. There was a little back and forth and a massive amount of stress, but Sunday afternoon we got the "accepted" at the exact price we had used to work out our budget.

Now we're two inspections, two bank estimates and a few logistical headaches into the process. If all continues to go well, we'll be moving into our dream house just a couple days before Sev's big first birthday!