We Bought a House!!!

As if things couldn’t get any crazier over here, the Faber’s are packing up because we bought our first home…..in Michigan!!!! I truly have a pinch me moment almost every day because so much has changed in our lives this year.

Back Story

A little back story. I had always dreamed of living in Chicago when I was younger. I came here with my mom when I was in high school and feel in love with the city. After college, I moved back to Royal Oak. This was during the recession, so jobs were hard to come by. When the company I was working for at the time, had a position that opened in Chicago- I jumped on it! 11 years later and I have called this city my home. I have loved city life and living here, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t had its challenges.

Eventually Kurt decided to move here and Chicago is where we really built our family. We got engaged here, got our cat Charlie here, adopted Addie, I bought my first car here and then later on Kurt and I bought our first car together and created our first child here too (with a little help from science!). We grew up in this city and I will forever be grateful for my time here.

Michigan has always been home to us- that is where we both grew up. And we knew living in the city was not our long term goal. Once we had kids, we knew we wanted to raise them closer to family. So once we found out we were pregnant things completely changed.

The Buying Process

We made the decision mid-March to talk to a real estate agent and start the process of looking for our first home. Us and everyone else were also looking for homes too. The market is INSANE right now! Houses going on the market and mere days later are sold. And most of them going for all cash offers or way over asking. I think we put in around five offers (and lost) before we found our home.

The process was so exhausting and still is haha. We would get all excited about a home, put in an offer….and lose. But then days later, a new home would pop up on the market and the we would repeat the process. I really tried to not get too attached to any home because I knew our chances on most homes were slim, but it was so hard! We were on a tight timeline because of the baby coming in September. And we really wanted to move before July 1 so we had a couple of months to get settled and start to prepare for baby.

This home is one that we had toured early on in our search via FaceTime and decided it wasn’t right for us. For whatever reason it sat on the market for a month. Probably because they were asking way too much for it. At the end of April, Kurt and I went back home to Michigan and looked at lots of houses on the market. And for whatever reason Kurt kept coming back to this listing. We decided to tour it because why not, and feel in love! And the best part was we had zero competition.

We found out our offer had been accepted the same week we announced our pregnancy on social media! Talk about a whirlwind of a week!

About the House

The house is an old colonial built in 1927, in Grosse Pointe. The block we are on is absolutely gorgeous. And one of the things that attracted us to this house was our home is the low man on the pole haha. All of the other homes around us are much more expensive and lots of homes are doing big additions. So we are hoping that if we ever go to sell, that we can make a good investment.

The yard is big, not too big and not too small. A lot of homes we were looking at, either had really small yards or really big ones. This one is right in between. And we know Addie will absolutely love it! We keep telling her we have a big surprise for her. She is going to be a changed dog haha. She already can’t wait to have her built in puppy friends over (my brother in laws dog and my in laws dog) haha and dig up lots of holes!

As for the home….it needs a lot of help and TLC. A lot of it is either just not our style and needs some work. I ask myself a lot what the previous owners were thinking haha. Anyone who knows me personally, knows I have always waned a fixer upper so I am SO excited to get in there and get my hands dirty! It is going to take many, many years for us to get this home to where I have envisioned it. But I am so ready for the challenge.

Renovations Before We Move

Before we even move in, we are having all of the floors redone. They weren’t taken care of very well and close up they are pretty bad. And the floors upstairs are really scratched up. So bad, that the previous owner laid down laminate flooring over the original floors to try and hide how bad they were. Luckily, he never glued them down. So we are having all of the floors sanded and re-done. It just seems a lot easier to do before we get in there with all of our stuff and furniture.

And we are also having a lot of the home painted before moving day. The house looks dark and I know a fresh coat of paint will do it wonders. I’ve been agonizing over paint colors these past few weeks haha. I was so nervous I was going to make a wrong decision. And while we can change it, painting is way more expensive than I thought it would be. Welcome to home ownership haha! We have been sent updates here and there on how the home is coming along and it already looks SO good. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

That will probably be the extent of the home renovations for a few months. Remember, we are expecting our first baby in September?! We have a lot on our plate. And I am going to give myself grace in this process too. I really want to live in the house and see how it works for us before we make any big decisions. I really can’t wait to share the process and document how we make this house our home!

We are just so excited for this next chapter in our lives. While I will miss Chicago greatly, I am so excited for what life will look like back in Michigan!

xoxo Amanda