In the fall of 2025, Mark and I started talking about house hunting again. We'd been at Prospect for about 4.5 years, and we were interested in finding a place with more elbow room--for us, and for entertaining. This first house was such a great place for us to start our journey as homeowners, but we were seeing some of the shortcomings (small bathrooms, for one!), and things were lining up financially to make it possible to move on from our starter home. To give credit where it's due, Mark was definitely the one who was ready to explore this possibility first. And he knows me well enough to give me a long runway to think about and get used to a big (expensive) change like this!
Once we were on the same page, we started getting things organized, like meeting with a new realtor team (we wanted someone based in BG, now that we'd be both buying and selling, and Mark heard of someone with a connection to the marching band, so that was a great fit). We also reconnected with our mortgage broker from last time to get a preapproval set up. I think we had all of that done by Thanksgiving, and we'd been keeping an eye on listings in BG throughout the fall, so we had some idea of what it might cost to buy what we were looking for and what kind of sale price we might expect for our old house.
It was mid-December when we decided to schedule our first round of showings, remembering that things often look different in real life than in the listing photos! We looked at 3 houses, including one that had been on the market for a few months on Winterwood. We'd been admiring that listing since we first saw it, but assumed it would be out of our price range. Then, there was a price reduction, and we couldn't pass up the chance to see it. It turned out to be just as lovely in person as in the photos, and we were really excited about the floorplan (open floorplan ranch with finished basement).
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| Winterwood house (photo from the listing) |
After our first house hunting experience, and knowing the inventory in BG is usually limited, we were prepared for it to take some time to find what we were looking for. So we couldn't really believe we may have found a house to make an offer on so quickly. One other thing gave us some hesitation: the HOA. This HOA wasn't included in the listing, but our realtor saw it in the notes on his end and mentioned it before we went to the house. We had been planning to avoid houses with HOAs, but by then, our curiosity was too much...and...when we saw the house, we loved it. So we asked our realtors to do some digging about the HOA, took another look at our budget, and set up another round of showings later that week--just to get all the comparisons we could. And we also scheduled a second showing of the Winterwood house.
Seeing a few more houses and the Winterwood house a second time confirmed it: we were ready to make an offer. In light of the recent price reduction, we went for a little below asking price, and after a day or two of waiting to hear back from the sellers, we were under contract! And totally stunned that this had all happened so quickly. We really thought we were just taking a preliminary look around, and that we'd start shopping in earnest after our Rose Parade trip. Instead, we were scheduling an inspection before leaving town, travelling while the financial details got underway (including the appraisal), and lining everything up to close on January 21. We worked with our same inspector from the last time (he's awesome!), and only turned up a few issues. There were a hand full of small things we'll be able to take care of ourselves; another was handled by the seller; and the big one--radon remediation--was paid for by the seller, but installed after we moved in.
Meanwhile, because the new house is less centrally located in town, we knew we'd need to buy another car. We were interested in something all-electric, and we ended up with this cute Chevy Bolt EUV. I miss walking to work, but it has been convenient to have the two cars, for sure.
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| selfie with Mark and the new car in the old driveway |
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| new car in the new (big!) garage |
Closing went as expected, and it was actually pretty fun to hear the small town realtors chat with each other. Our realtor also asked the seller a bunch of questions while Mark and I signed a gigantic pile of papers, so that was super interesting to overhear! (For example, we learned which house the sellers bought and what kind of dog they have :-). Because of the laws in Ohio, the sellers are allowed to stay in the house for up to 30 days after closing. Our sellers asked for 10 days, so we didn't get possession until January 31. But then, this gorgeous house was ours!
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selfie with Mark in the kitchen, the day we got possession
(dining room and living room in the background) |
Unfortunately, there were a few snafus at that stage. Specifically, the contract specified that the sellers would leave the washer and dryer as well as all of the window treatments (various curtains). When we got into the house, though, all of that was gone, except for one set of curtains on the front bedroom. So...we got in touch with our realtors to figure out a plan. Initially, we wanted to ask the sellers for cash in lieu of these items, but we couldn't come to an agreement with the seller on the amount. So, in the end, the seller paid his movers to move the curtains, washer, and dryer back to the house, and the seller's realtor offered his handyman to reconnect the washer/dryer (we bought fresh hoses on the handyman's recommendation). It was actually a real headache to get all of this taken care of, but, it's water under the bridge now.
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| something important is missing... |
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| almost a week later...washer/dryer are back! |
Meanwhile, we had our own agenda of things to get done before we moved in. I'd hired a pair of house cleaners to do an initial clean for us (though we were thankful to find the sellers left the house in good shape, I was still happy to have bathrooms, kitchen, baseboards, and ceiling fans done!). And we had the carpets professionally cleaned, too (they're white--one of the few finishes we would have done differently). As all of this was happening, of course, we were also getting everything packed up and ready to move.
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| at the old house...boxes everywhere! |
We also recruited friends to help us move Mark's percussion equipment, which we tackled one evening that week (after the carpet was thoroughly dry). We had 7 helpers and 8 cars, and we got everything moved in just one trip! It took just about 2 hours to load, drive, and unload. I couldn't believe how quickly we got that done. And I felt so, so thankful for the friends who were willing to help us out, especially with stairs on both sides, and in the cold weather! It was such a blessing.
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| some of Mark's equipment ready to be moved |
After that, the next big hurdle was moving day! I had another friend come help with some packing the day before, and Mark ran out to buy some boxes (up till then, we'd had enough freebies from various friends, which was also amazing!). The movers came on Saturday, February 7. This was our first time hiring professional movers, and that was definitely the right call, but the experience didn't really match our expectations. I won't get into details, but it took quite a bit longer than the estimate, and it was a really long day for everyone. But, in the end, our stuff made it to the new house, and we slept in our own bed that night.
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| kitchen & living room...and lots of boxes |
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| our bedroom--all ready to sleep! |
On Sunday, we took ourselves out to breakfast, then spent most of the day at the Prospect house, getting it ready to go on the market. My main job was cleaning, while Mark took care of some things like changing lightbulbs and taking out an under-the-sink water filter that had stopped working properly. Mark also packed up the contents of the fridge & freezer, and made several trips back and forth to the new house, moving some other things we'd left behind the day before. We were worn out, but the house looked pretty good--ready to go on the market! (Still...strange to see it all empty!)
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| studio & Mark's office |
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| guest room & my office |
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| front door, from the living room |
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| kitchen (looks almost good as new, right?!) |
Our realtors set up a "coming soon" listing that went live the day before we moved out, and the house officially went on the market on Wednesday, February 11. By then, we had 3 showings scheduled for Wednesday, and another 2 for Thursday. This is the first house we've sold, but that seemed like a promising start to us!
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| Prospect house for sale! (a photo from the listing) |
Indeed, by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, we had our first offer. We had hoped that the house would sell relatively quickly, but we didn't want to count on anything, so this felt pretty incredible. Not only that, but the offer was above asking price and waived inspection. Still, we didn't want to rush things, so we set up a meeting with our realtors when Mark got off work and talked everything over. For example: did we want to contact the other realtors and ask for everyone's highest and best offers by Friday? Ultimately, we decided this first offer was already so good, and we didn't want to complicate things or risk scaring them off with competition. Then, as we were getting ready to sign the paperwork, a second offer came in! Turns out the first one was stronger, so we still accepted it, but the next day, we also signed the second one as a "backup." That meant that if the first fell through, we'd go straight under contract with the other buyer. Even with all this in place, the showings still happened the next day, and we got feedback that two of those people might have made offers, too. Totally incredible!
Meanwhile, the only real hurdle to clear with the offer we accepted was an appraisal, which came in at the offer price. From there, everything else also went smoothly, and we were able to close early (as we thought might happen--these buyers used the same mortgage broker we did, and we know she'll close early if possible). In fact, they initially wanted to close while we were out of town in ABQ, but we got it scheduled for the next day--March 4--just 21 days after the house went on the market.
This time, at the closing table, we had only a few things to sign, the buyers signed a bunch of stuff, and we left with a check. Start to finish, the selling process was so much easier and smoother than I was preparing myself for, and even now, it feels unreal. I should also say: the buyers were a young family who work in the neighborhood, so we also felt good about passing the house on to them (and I'm sure the neighbors are also glad another single-family moved in there!). I hope the house works out really well for their family, too!
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Prospect house with sold sign in the yard
(taken after closing; the new owners were
also there, unloading some stuff already :-) |
Now, we've been at the Winterwood house for about 5 weeks, and we are making steady progress toward settling in. We've been ordering some new furniture, too. It'll be a while before we have everything, and unpacking is also ongoing, but we're so thankful to be here! We haven't had any guests yet, but we're also looking forward to hosting friends, family, and students in the coming months. Thanks to all of you who cheered us on and supported us in various ways--we appreciate you so much, too!
.heic)
