Hubby and I have been casually house hunting for a while. It’s not that we really want to move, it’s that we aren’t against the idea. There are many things we like about our home like the great location, the fantastic kitchen, the great layout of the living rooms and the pool. But there are a few things we aren’t really happy with too like the lack of a usable backyard, the girls having to share a bedroom, the triple split bedroom floor plan and the noise. So we’ve decided to keep an eye out for what’s available that might better suit our needs. In all, we’ve viewed five houses in about 5 months.
We’ve done the whole house hunting thing many times. First on our initial visiting trip to Dublin and again after we moved, Honeybun got to ride along to see what was available and find a place to live. Sugarplum’s first house hunting experience was when she was brand new. My parents were looking for their Florida place and the girls and I tagged along. The last house hunt we did when we moved back to Florida, though, we did a little differently: we left the kids behind.
Luckily my parents were in town and able to watch the girls which was super helpful. House hunting with children along can be really tricky for many reasons, making leaving them behind ideal, if possible.
For one thing, house hunting days can be very long, especially in situations like ours where we only had a few days to see everything and pick a “forever” home. We saw probably 10 or 12 houses in 2 days. Doing so many in a row can be exhausting and very boring for little ones who don’t understand why you’re looking at so many houses (Sugarplum has fallen in love with every house we’ve viewed this time and wanted to buy every one!)
The repeated in and out of the car is also less than ideal. With multiple children, and multiple stops, that is a lot of buckling and unbuckling and too many opportunities to decide they don’t want to buckle up again! And if they do get exhausted and fall asleep between houses, do you wake them up to go in or do you take turns staying in the car and delaying your schedule?
Once we did find the house we liked (the only one hubby and I BOTH liked), and after thinking about it, discussing it and debating, we scheduled a second viewing and brought the girls. By that point we were able to explain our vision for our family to them “And this will be your room…” so it could make more sense to them without us doing the “we could put this here or we could…” back and forth that comes with fitting your current life into a new home.
This time we have taken the kids (those who were available, anyways!) to each house because we’ve done them so spread out. The first house was not a good fit at all so was easy to walk away from. The second had a lot of things we really liked and Sugarplum wanted to buy it right then and there, she LOVED it, though I think it was more the toys and pretty little girls’ bedrooms that caught her attention. It’s been hard to get her to understand that we are only looking at the HOUSE and we would not be buying the STUFF as well. She has trouble seeing past the really cool stuff and also doesn’t understand the “unspoken rule” of not touching other people’s things and only opening doors that are permanent (ok to open closets and cabinets, not ok to open dressers and boxes!)
Each house we’ve seen has been nice, hence why we chose to look at it in the first place. But none have ticked all the boxes. One was amazing but the kitchen was below par and I just couldn’t give up the fantastic space we have. Another was in a great location but needed a complete overhaul. And the most recent had an amazing outdoor space but hubby and I couldn’t agree where we would put things and I wasn’t sold on the location.
This is the first time we’ve been able to be really picky. Every other time we’ve house hunted we’ve been on a strict time schedule. We had to pick something and we had to pick fast, no option to “wait it out” and see what might come up later. Our criteria has not changed much since we bought our current home two years ago, but we have re-prioritized what we really want.
Our wish list includes:
- A Walkable location, easy access to shopping, parks and good schools (this was my #1 priority two years ago and is still huge on my list)
- 5 bedrooms or 4 with an office (last time we looked at 4 and up)
- A pool AND backyard (while this was huge on our list last time, it was the one sacrifice we made with our current home and it is probably our biggest regret)
- Master bedroom near other bedrooms (I want to be close to my children while they are little, both for safety and middle of the night convenience. Another sacrifice we made in this home that has been okay but not ideal)
- Three car garage or 2 car and room for a shed (we have A LOT of bike and I’m a buggy hoarder!)
- Lots of kitchen counter tops and cabinets (this is one of my biggest ones this time since I LOVE my current kitchen…it is hard to beat!)
- Double sinks in the master bathroom (we lived with a single sink in Dublin and it was fine but I did accidentally spit on hubby head once or twice when brushing our teeth at night…)
House hunting is so painful. My husband and I are closing on a house on the DC boarder next week. It’s amazing to me how quickly “must have’s” dropped from our list. At the end of the day, we came in under budget, our only win. Oh well, we can live without closet or bedroom space!! No problem!
It is a brutal process, for sure! Especially when you live in a market like DC where quality and quantity can be so low but congrats on the new place. I just keep trying to remind myself of why we loved our house in the first place and focus on how terrible moving is!