So guys… big announcement here… WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! =D 

Like I have a mortgage, house insurance, and we have to buy a lawnmower!! What is life?! 

We are so freaking excited and weirded out at the same time that we are officially real adults and homeowners. After 4 years of being in an apartment together, we are ready to have a little bit more of our own space to spread out. I can’t wait to insta story it for you guys once we officially close and move in!

I wanted to share with you this journey just so you could see how similar buying a house is to searching for the perfect candidate for a job. (You will also start to notice how this theme can be applied to many other areas of your life).

When I first started my house hunt over a year ago my Senior Researcher at my company told me that buying a house would be like a recruiting search. She had said, “Looking for a home is like looking for a candidate for a job. You go into it with high expectations, and have a laundry list of things you want and need the house to have. Then once you start looking around you start to realize that you have to get flexible. You will have to be okay with letting go of some of the things you “need”.” 

Even though this was presented to me in the sweetest way possible, being the stubborn person that I am, I hated that advice. I believe in the power of the law of attraction and that you can manifest your dreams into reality. Those beliefs run so deep it’s like they are a part of my DNA. So when I first heard that advice I was a bit resistant to it. I didn’t want to believe I couldn’t “have it all”, so I just told her, “I’m not in a rush, I’ll just wait for it to come”. 

I want to give you guys a better idea of what our “must-haves” were. Dan wanted 2-4 acres of land and I wanted water of some sort. We preferred a “forever” home, with a very open layout. We wanted to make sure the house was big enough to host holidays for our families, but not too big to be overwhelming. Not too big, not too small, just the perfect size, like goldilocks and the three little bears. We were also DEAD set on living in Guilford, CT.

At first, I did not think this was a lot to ask for. I would even take a house I had to totally redo to get here. I assumed that I would find either a perfect house that had all of these things or at least a house that had the perfect piece of property and we could redo the inside.  

We first started looking late summer, and casually looked over the fall and winter, and right when we started looking more seriously early Spring, the pandemic hit. Then we started to notice that there were fewer and fewer houses on the market that we liked. After months of us both making work calls in the same room, our 700 square foot apartment became very very small and loud. We were itching to get out, find our home, and move onto that next step of our lives. 

We did a little “stay-cation” late May and decided we would commit to being more “open-minded” and start looking at houses that didn’t have everything that we were asking for. Our real estate agent, who was fantastic, had pushed for this all along, but we were finally open to the idea after months of looking. 

Then finally the day I was going to reach out to my real estate agent with a new list of houses, this beautiful house popped up on my screen from her. It was smaller than we had hoped for, and the land was just an acre. But it did still have this beautiful flowing river in the background, and it looked like a waterfall as well. I didn’t even ask Dan about it and just sent it to her, with the thought “just to see it”. Headed to the house we were trying to be more “open-minded”, and the minute we parked our cars and heard the rushing waterfall I got butterflies in my stomach. Then I walked into the front door, saw the beautiful kitchen, the open layout, and we both immediately fell in love. 

Our real estate agent even said to us, “Did we just find your house?!”. Two days later we put in an offer, and the following day it got accepted. It all happened so quickly and so seamlessly.

Even though we love it so much, this was NOT the house that either of us pictured. We both had to get “flexible” and be more open to not having everything we want right now. With that being said, neither of us has any regrets. We are still so incredibly excited to have a home and take this next step in our lives.  We both believe that this “non-perfect” house, actually is perfect for where we are in our lives right now. It’s exactly what we needed, we just didn’t know it yet and if we weren’t open to it then we would have never found it in the first place

This idea of “being more open-minded” can apply to so many different areas of your life. It applies to finding a candidate for the job, a life partner, a dress for the party, or your next home. 

If you go into any situation with high expectations and an unattainable laundry list of “must-haves” then you will always be disappointed. But if you just have an idea of what you want, let it go of needing it all perfectly right now, and open your mind to everything that is out there, you will be surprised not only by what you find, but also by how satisfied, happy, and excited you still will be.  

There is no such thing as perfect. So let’s loosen our grip a bit on life and strive for “practically perfect” instead, just like Mary Poppins. =] 

So excited to share this next journey with you guys! 

Love, Em