Our next adventure

Fall is unexpectedly proving to be a busy season for us.

It started off with my cousin's wedding on Labor Day weekend, then we went to the beach for a weekend with my in-laws to soak up the last bits of summer. Thankfully we had a couple weekends at home after that, which were so, so nice and refreshing. We went to the farmers' market, watched Hokie football, grilled out, biked, and enjoyed time with friends. Oh yeah, and we also started looking at houses.

And guess what? WE BOUGHT A HOUSE.

It honestly happened really fast - way faster than I pictured. We noticed that house prices were going up a bit, as well as interest rates, and decided that we probably should start seriously thinking about what we want. I have perpetually browsed houses online for the past 3 years (it's a hobby, really) so I knew what I liked and what I wanted. We had the money in savings, we decided that we would probably be here in the area for a good while longer, and it just felt like time. I told our Realtor that we wanted to start browsing the MLS listings to see what's out there, and that I pictured us buying in a few months. I told her I would be shocked if we bought a place in the next few weeks. Well folks, that's what happened.

Normally I would think this was an impulsive decision, as I am not one to act so hastily. But something just felt right. We walked into the house, it had pretty much everything on our checklist, and it just felt like this was the place for us. I didn't swoon over the character (it is not an old house). I didn't picture our things in it right away. But we just knew. It had what we wanted, it was in our price range, and we could really make it our home. We found our house!

This weekend we are flying up to New York for our three-year anniversary trip, the weekend after I am helping to throw a baby shower for a friend, some other friends just adopted a baby, and we have a 60th birthday weekend for my mother-in-law on the calendar (and all of our favorite TV shows just started back up!). In the midst of all of that we are pulling statements, filling out forms, calling mortgage and insurance companies, writing checks, signing our lives away, and, of course, moving. My head is swarming with paint colors and furniture pieces we will need, and thinking about the millions of boxes we will need to pack up our current home. We are all of a sudden very busy. But I am so, so thankful. Thankful that we have the opportunity to even do all of this, as cumbersome and scary it may be. I know that we are lucky.

I still have this feeling that it's not final, that something will happen and we won't be able to close on October 23rd. I hesitated even writing this post because I didn't want to jinx it. But I wanted to write about it. You only buy your first home once, and it's exciting! We could potentially be in this place for several years, and that is a great feeling - to feel the freedom to truly invest in a house and in a community.

So we're crossing our fingers and trying to be patient for closing day. And also praying there aren't any other hidden costs we don't know about (there have already been too many). I really can't wait for this next adventure!