I'm not kidding. If it were just the house. I don't know. But the 3200 finished barn behind the house. That sealed the deal.
I'm seeing three kids on bicycles/tricycles expending energy in this heated barn while its snowing outside---
Let me come clean. We're real estate tire kickers. Live where we live, smack dab in the middle of some of the most expensive real estate in the country and you'd be a real estate tire kicker too. It's spendy. Real spendy. And, on top of the massive price tag you make some massive compromises. Like space, storage and "elbow room".
We love the town we are in. Its great. Its quaint, but after seven years and lots of looking at houses, we knew that there were too many compromises we would have to make in order to afford to raise three kids in the town we currently reside in. To get what we wanted and the space and storage we needed where we currently live, we are looking well into a 7 digit price tag.
So, instead of compromising on space, storage, kids college funds, a large chunk of disposable income and keeping all of our toys and cars stored in various locations around the NYC metro area we decided the compromise would be location. If we looked farther outside of NYC but still commutable then we could get more bang for the buck. So, after the first of the year we began to look a little farther afield, just across the state line in NY.
We narrowed it down to some areas/towns we liked (mostly based on schools and commute) and looked with a realtor. We came across one house that really fit our needs, a large house with a large workshop/garage. By the time we found the house though, someone else had already made an offer.
We thought of building but the timeframe didn't work for us.
Then, we thought next year. Let's get Emma Claire home and then we will move--next year.
Then, houses started selling like hot cakes in our village.
And one night our realtor in NY sent out her standard "this is what came on the market this week" auto-generated emails with a listing of a Dutch Colonial farmhouse on over an acre with a finished barn. Elbow room, storage and in a great school district!! I showed Matt the photos on-line and he shrugged. The photos weren't the best.
About a week passed by and another house came on the market in the same area/school district. It was nice, on more acreage, but didn't have the garage/storage we wanted. The house was very nice though and we wondered if we could build a garage/workshop on the land. We decided to drive by on our way home from the racetrack one Sunday. We couldn't see much of this house because it sat far back from the road. We also didn't care much for the location of this house as it was farther from the train station than we wanted to be for Matt's commute. Since we were in the area, we decided to seek out the location of the house with the barn.
It was MUCH better in person. The pictures online didn't do it justice. I immediately texted our realtor to tell her we wanted to see the house.
Two days later, Oliver and I viewed the house and I knew. Matt was in Chicago for work and we scheduled him to come and see the house that Friday evening. After he saw the house, we made an offer that night.
The house is in the Hudson Valley of NY about 25 minutes north of where we currently live. Chloe will have to change schools, but she told us she is ok with it because she "makes friends easily". Gotta love that kid! Besides, she gets her own wing of the house, which she is super-excited about. She told me last night she might get lost in the new house. So silly.
We hope to move in August. All 5 of us, together in our new home.
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