As many of you know my husband and I are the proud owners of a new home! We shared our exciting news last week, but as of Monday, we hold the keys in our hands. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the outpouring of sweet comments, emails and messages. It feels so good to finally be able to share our exciting news.
There are so many moving parts to finding, selling and going under contract on a home. As mentioned in last weeks post, for us this process unfolded a lot faster than anticipated. Initially, Justin and I didn’t plan on going into too much detail on Style Soufflé outside of interior spaces, but this was so much fun that we felt inspired to share the details leading up to owning our first home.
Prior to Monday, we lived in a townhouse in Ballantyne that Justin purchased prior to our engagement. Over the years the demand to live in that area grew significantly, increasing the property’s value. Knowing we sat in a position to make a profit on the townhouse, and in turn purchase a home at a historically low interest rate, it seemed only natural for us to move. Everything from that point on kind-of fell into place. You can read more about the moment we found our beautiful new home in last week’s blog post, Soufflé’s Sweet Home.
We loved this house the moment we saw it, and spent the rest of the evening thinking about it! We yearned for a place outside the city, with our own backyard, maybe even some land; a home we could grow into. This house had all those things.
Below is a little window into the two months that followed…
January, Week 1
The first week of January, quite literally, we spent gathering information and weighing out our options. We knew we had to hit the ground running in that the house we loved was located in a highly sought-after, new construction development. In fact, at the time, the neighborhood was only 80% to completion giving us the option to build that same floor plan on a handful of available lots, if desired. While we loved this house, there were a few minor things we would do differently if given the opportunity. For that reason, the ultimate debate was either purchase that house and do renovations prior to moving in, or build that exact floor plan, with the desired materials and upgrades, on a premium lot at the end of that same street.
January, Week 2
As soon as we felt certain this was the home for us, we scheduled a meeting with our realtor to put our townhouse on the market. We needed the townhouse to be under contract before we could write-in an official offer on our hopeful home. Too excited to wait, Justin and I made a mad dash to the Container Store (our favorite store) to purchase bins and moving materials. The following week, Justin and I spent every spare moment cleaning out and carefully packing our things.
That Saturday, I remember being at Justin’s flag football game when we received the first request to view our home through the ShowingTime app. Over the weekend we received a total of 13 requests spread across both Monday and Tuesday. Justin and I got sooo excited with each request that came through. It was such a relief to see people interested in our home.
January, Week 3
Our house was on the market, and showings began.
On Monday, we had a total of 10 showings. Three of which were within the same hour. For the first three showings, I sat outside in my Jeep… our toiletries, Tucker and his toys in tow. I was surprised at how emotional I was over seeing people one-by-one parade through our home. For Justin, our townhouse was a commodity, whereas for me, it was space that held some of our most treasured memories: where we returned after getting married and Tucker’s first and only home.
Late that afternoon our realtor contacted us with exciting news. We received three offers on our home. Because of this, we decided it was best to not accept any more requests outside of the confirmed showings for the next day.
That Tuesday, 5 showings were scheduled. Several more came through that day with little to no warning. For those of you unfamiliar with the ShowingTime app, individuals can request to view a home 30 minutes prior to their desired time. This can be rather cumbersome when you work out of the comfort of your home. After two days, we were at our wits-end, feeling as if we lived under a microscope.
Our house was on the market for a solid two days, with 5 offers and 2 counter-offers! Sold!
January, Week 4
Now with our townhouse under contract and a closing date set for March 6th, we were now in a position to put an offer on our first real home.
The day we submitted our offer, I worked remotely from Justin’s office to be close to him when (and if) we received ‘the’ call. When we received the news from our realtor, we were in the car riding home. It was Friday, January 27th. I remember it like it was yesterday. He and I pulled over, hugged, cried, laughed and hugged some more. That evening we drank champagne, while waltzing through Crate & Barrel putting gift cards to use that we received for our wedding. We were homeowners (or soon to be)!
While the past three months presented my husband and I with challenges that we found joy in working through together, it also fostered a new love for all things home, garden and HGTV. My husband now has a crush on Chip Gains and has added “flipping a home” to his ever growing bucket list, haha. I can’t say I’m opposed.
This was such a rewarding experience and we are excited to share more with you as we make this house our home. After announcing our move we received a handful of questions that I wanted to answer below. That said, if any of you have any questions or advice please don’t hesitate to message me! The whole construction thing is very knew to us, so we are more or less learning as we go.
Q & A:
What were you looking for in a home? We knew we would have to make sacrifices, but in a perfect world we wanted an open floor plan that offered custom features and site finished floors.
What was the process like? Incredibly fast! I really enjoyed the process and probably asked way too many unnecessary questions. My natural fascination with the housing market enabled me to retain information like a sponge.
Did you factor renovations into your budget? Absolutely! We factored the renovations in our budget prior to purchasing the home. I also want to add that we have zero furniture… nothing! So we are completely starting from scratch. Therefore, having a budget was vital!
How did you go about selecting a designer? I was introduced to Traci Zeller of Traci Zeller Designs by way of a customer builder here in Charlotte. I loved her work and had an immediate connection with her (we were coincidentally wearing the same shoes at the time we met). She was within our budget and I felt would do the best job in helping us create a home that matched our style.
What are your thoughts on a contractor/ how did you go about choosing one? My one tip of advice would be to thoroughly consider a contractor before hiring them. Ask to see photos of their work and speak to their past clients. I could go on and on about tips on choosing a contractor. For that reason I have a whole blog post scheduled that is dedicated to this one topic. We’ve had a so-so experience thus far. UPDATE: 10 Things You Need To Know When Hiring a General Contractor.
Pink Couch? haha, I laugh because I love that speculations over the pink couch has brought about so many social friendships with y’all. We’re either considering a blush couch or blush velvet chairs with gold hardware for the dinning room. UPDATE: We have consistently committed to pale blues, emerald hues, ivory tones and shades of white! Sorry, no pink for now.
Thank you all so much for the outpouring of love and support. I was so excited to finally share the news with you and hopefully explain my absence on Style Souffle as of late.
All my love,
Taylor-Rae