{"id":4100,"date":"2014-07-14T08:23:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T12:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=4100"},"modified":"2016-01-18T16:38:41","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T21:38:41","slug":"on-the-hunt-for-a-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/on-the-hunt-for-a-home\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Hunt for a Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hubby and I have been casually house hunting for a while.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that we really want to move, it\u2019s that we aren\u2019t against the idea.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But there are a few things we aren\u2019t 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\u2019ve decided to keep an eye out for what\u2019s available that might better suit our needs.\u00a0 In all, we\u2019ve viewed five houses in about 5 months.<\/p>\n

\"DSC01631\"<\/a>We\u2019ve done the whole house hunting thing many times.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Sugarplum\u2019s first house hunting experience was when she was brand new. \u00a0My parents were looking for their Florida place and the girls and I tagged along.\u00a0 The last house hunt we did when we moved back to Florida, though, we did a little differently: we left the kids behind.<\/p>\n

Luckily my parents were in town and able to watch the girls which was super helpful.\u00a0 House hunting with children along can be really tricky for many reasons, making leaving them behind ideal, if possible.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cforever\u201d home.\u00a0 We saw probably 10 or 12 houses in 2 days.\u00a0 Doing so many in a row can be exhausting and very boring for little ones who don\u2019t understand why you\u2019re looking at so many houses (Sugarplum has fallen in love with every house we\u2019ve viewed this time and wanted to buy every one!)<\/p>\n

The repeated in and out of the car is also less than ideal.\u00a0 With multiple children, and multiple stops, that is a lot of buckling and unbuckling and too many opportunities to decide they don\u2019t want to buckle up again!\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 By that point we were able to explain our vision for our family to them \u201cAnd this will be your room\u2026\u201d so it could make more sense to them without us doing the \u201cwe could put this here or we could\u2026\u201d back and forth that comes with fitting your current life into a new home.<\/p>\n

This time we have taken the kids (those who were available, anyways!) to each house because we\u2019ve done them so spread out.\u00a0\u00a0 The first house was not a good fit at all so was easy to walk away from.\u00a0 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\u2019 bedrooms that caught her attention.\u00a0 It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 She has trouble seeing past the really cool stuff and also doesn\u2019t understand the \u201cunspoken rule\u201d of not touching other people\u2019s things and only opening doors that are permanent (ok to open closets and cabinets, not ok to open dressers and boxes!)<\/p>\n

Each house we’ve seen has been nice, hence why we chose to look at it in the first place. \u00a0But none have ticked all the boxes. \u00a0One was amazing but the kitchen was below par and I just couldn’t give up the fantastic space we have. \u00a0Another was in a great location but needed a complete overhaul. \u00a0And 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.<\/p>\n

This is the first time we’ve been able to be really picky. \u00a0Every other time we’ve house hunted we’ve been on a strict time schedule. \u00a0We had to pick something and we had to pick fast, no option to “wait it out” and see what might come up later. \u00a0Our criteria has not changed much since we bought our current home two years ago, but we have re-prioritized what we really want.<\/p>\n

Our wish list includes:<\/p>\n