We Bought a House for our Anniversary! Before photos of our new digs
Well, if the title of this blog post didn’t give it away….NEWSFLASH: we bought a house, and have decided it is our anniversary present to each other since yesterday marked 4 years of marriage! My realtor asked me to keep everything on the DL until it was official, so that’s why I haven’t updated too many people until now, our closing day! If you can recall the last house update, we had sold our house but hadn’t found anything else yet, so we were moving in with my folks for awhile! The original plan was to stay with them for about a month, and then move into my grandmother’s townhouse, which my parents own, once she moved out.
What’s the saying? The best laid plans of mice and men do often go awry! After living with my parents about a week, we got a call from a friend about a house that was going up for sale in Foxcroft, one of our top neighborhoods. He was on his way to look at it, and asked if we wanted to join him since he probably wasn’t interested in purchasing it himself. The house wasn’t even on the market yet, and so we literally knew NOTHING about it – but because we (suprisingly!) had no plans at that moment, we hopped in our cars and drove the 30-seconds from my parents house (yep. My new house is like 2 streets away from the house I grew up in).
Once we pulled up to the house, I was a little iffy – I didn’t love the street very much (I have a habit of judging houses from their covers). But that all changed once we got inside and looked/walked around. The house had been kept up and was in really good condition – but still had a lot of potential for a beautiful, open floorplan and a good “flow!” It also had all of our checklist, and was in our price range – WHAT?!?! We walked away that evening interested, but not 100% convinced. Intigued, we decided to ask our realtor to take us back a few days later so we could see it again (since it wasn’t ever listed, there were no photos online, and we were having to go off memory alone). Again, we really liked it! Getting serious now, we asked for ONE MORE TOUR before we put in a final offer so that we could show both our parents and get their feedback. Thank goodness everyone really liked the inside, and we decided to put in an offer! It was a Saturday, and of course I was shooting a wedding all day. I was so nervous, and dying to know what was going on at home with John, and whether or not they’d accept our first offer. On the ride to the reception, I called and John said they’d rejected it…I was heartbroken. Once I got home that evening, we talked more about it – made a list of pros and cons with the house, and decided to increase our offer to our best & final amount. I remember calling our realtor and telling her what price we could do as our top price – and just feeling like there was no way they were going to accept it. I actually spent my whole Sunday trying to convince myself that this was NOT the house for us, and that I needed to be okay with that since there was no way they were going to accept our best offer. But, surprise – a few hours later, our realtor called and said that it was ours! I almost cried, you guys. Like, it was just the best feeling ever!
Since we were under contract, we decided to forego moving into the townhouse (so we could avoid moving two more times, and so we could save some money on rent). It really has gone by pretty fast, but we are SO excited to get into our own new house and make it a home! We are going to spend a couple of weeks getting it ready for us to move in, so we’re not actually living there yet, but I cannot wait to see this house transform. You guys – it’s going to be awesomesauce. I’m sure you’re all wondering what the deets are on it, and without giving away too much online (the internet can be scary), here are my favorite things about the house:
Four bedrooms. We have a big master bedroom with it’s own bathroom. One of the bedrooms will be turned into my office and has gorgeous french doors. One will be a guest bedroom (I’ve never had a guest bedroom!) and the last one will be storage / whatever for now.
Three full bathrooms.
Updated kitchen with gas stove and potential to blow out walls (!)
Huge backyard with a big deck that will be perfect for parties! There is also access to the backyard from each level, which I really like so that we can let the dogs out easily.
Great neighborhood / good school districts.
Living room AND den. The den has a huge wood-burning fireplace that I am so excited about for the holidays! And the living room is right off the kitchen, so I really like that.
Separate office for John and his things (this is necessary haha)
A lot more space than our last home and lots of closets!
A garage! Hallelujah, I am so excited about a garage!
We are just so pumped to get in there and make it ours! We have a lot of painting and projects on our list, and are so excited to see this home transform! Thank you all for your support and sweet words to us as we navigated this journey – it really is amazing to see how every single thing happened perfectly and in it’s own way. Be sure to follow me on Snapchat (katimallory) for some behind-the-scenes of our renovations, and also on Instagram under @katimallory or our new hashtag #mallorysinfoxcroftlr!
UPDATE: Inside our new house! Before Photos
We’ve been living here a little over two weeks, and we love it more and more every day. It’s starting to really look and feel like home, but we’ve got a LONG way to go to make this house feel like ours. Anyway, because we bought this house before it was officially on the market, there were never any photos of it anywhere. I’m all for a dramatic before-and-after, and really knew we’d want to remember what this house looked like the day we got our keys…so that’s what I did! Before we painted one drop, or put one piece of furniture in the house, I went around and took photos of how it looked the day we got the keys. I’m blogging this more for me to remember than for you (haha, sorry), but also thought some of you might be interested in this sweet little gem we now call home! I am kind of hoping to update you as we update the house – after all, I have a blog, don’t I? Might as well post some personal stuff every now and then!
So without further ado, the house.
