In late 2019 we began the search for an upgraded living situation. We were feeling a bit cramped as a family of four in our 1,000 square foot two bedroom apartment. We looked at potentially renting a home, however, were not really excited by the idea of continuing to pay exorbitant amounts of money and having nothing to show for it. With this in mind, we signed a short lease with the apartment complex we were in, hoping that by the time our short lease was up, we would be ready and able to find our starter home and begin the purchase process.
All of the changes brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic only fed the feeling of the walls around us closing in and turned that “a bit cramped” feeling into a raging pile of human heat building pressure to the point of near explosion. My husband began working from home, where I had already created my home office, turning our bedroom into his office, my office, my craft room, the gym, as well as a catch-all storage area with a tiny pathway leading around the bed to the bathroom, closet, and to each desk. We lost the ability to use my heavy bag for its intended purpose of relieving my stress and my fuse became shortened with everyone. Then our oldest, who had only just begun attending school as a kindergartener was forced to become homeschooled and my fuse became shorter still. We were on top of each other. We were all performing separate tasks in a disorderly manner scattered about our tiny space with a toddler under our every movement. It quickly became too much even for the toddler.
While we had been eyeing the market for a while, we began our serious search for a home in mid March of 2020. There was a home that was nearby Aly (as in Or so Aly says) that we had been monitoring for near a year. The price of the home starting at more than $100,000 over our anticipated budget. I noticed that the price had dropped to just $10,000 over what I had calculated our comfortable affordability to be and we perked up quite a bit. We got in contact with the lovely realtor who had assisted us in our rental search months earlier and began the process of touring and applying for loans and first time home buyer assistance and the price dropped into our original range. Though we were unable to physically tour the home prior to putting in an offer due to COVID-19 restrictions, our realtor facetime toured the home for us. It was an older home that was not very aesthetically pleasing but the size and the proximity to Aly made it the one.
April, 29th 2020 we closed on our starter home. At 2,980 ish square feet with 5 bedrooms and a fully fenced in backyard, on May, 6th 2020 our festering pile of human discontentedness was able to release pressure without volatile eruptions. My husband and I each created our own office/studio spaces, we have a room suitable for guests. Our sons still share a bedroom for the time being, but our bedroom in no longer a catch-all. Our gym has expanded. The children have their own living room space separate from ours. We have a room we call the “multi-purpose” room where most anything goes. I still have a tiny kitchen, however, I am okay with this.
For a starter home, this is huge. I anticipate the unwillingness to downsize when it comes time to move which means we will likely spend more than we recently did on a more forever type home. This is fine. Everything is fine. For now. The only thing, other than a large kitchen, on our wish list that was not obtained was an in ground pool. It probably was the right move to not have one quite yet with such small children at home but one day we shall have all of the things on our list.
I am just grateful we no longer have nowhere to go to cool down when the togetherness tension begins to amplify.
