5. buy a hOme (40 x 40)

We started looking for our home after a whirlwind romance, getting married within 10 months of meeting. We were looking for a place that we could grow into with the addition of little ones running around. My husband wanted more of a turn-key property and growing up with a carpenter father, I wanted more of a fixer-upper. We knew we wanted to live in Baltimore but we were ALL OVER THE PLACE, started in Reservoir Hill, then looked in Patterson Park, Hamden (the ubiquitous), Mattfeldt Park, Dickeysville, Lauraville.

We would send our realtor the redfin and trulia links of houses and she would patiently take us to these houses and I'd tear them up and nothing would come of it.

Pinterest was a black hole of a time-suck before those major adult (American) milestones appeared on my horizon: marriage, children, home-buying. I just didn't really understand why I would "pin" a recipe or a beautiful place or a fashionable skirt to a "board" when it was just something interesting on the internet. I would copy and paste links to things that I liked into an email and send it to myself if I wanted to remember and organize places (because fuck bookmarks).

And then came a whole new level of needing to save various corners of the internet: organizing a wedding reception, planning for a newborn, and the ultimate need of dreaming of a hOme (capital "O" for the Orioles).

Maybe I have put the cart before the horse, but I started to accumulate ideas for non-existent house on Pinterest. I definitely put the cart before the horse when I downloaded apps to my phone to start looking at houses before a) checking my credit score (because I assume it's heinous from the wreckage of student loans) and b) cleaning up my credit so that c) we could get a ball park figure for how much we could afford.

While Pinterest dreams flourished, the reality check came in early August when we met with a loan guy. Based on a 4.5% mortgage rate the Debt To Income ratio (DTI) for a 200k home is around 21% of solely my income, and a 300k home is around 32%. Jason and I are definitely not comfortable with a $2000+ monthly mortgage (which is what it would be for the 300k home). We also spoke about the 203(k) loans and about finding a house that may need renovations. Seems like there are a bunch of hoops to jump through going that route, but might be worth it.

Since then, we've been a bit busy with the arrival of the little bodhi man, but I've stayed on the lookout for a house that could be our hOme. I've also kept pinning and searching for the elements of a hOme that I would like to have.

Here's what I'd like for the kitchen:

 I love keeping old houses like they were: rehabilitation > renovation

 The green subway tiles and the white counters, gas range.

 lots of natural light

 black board and space for pictures for the little man and others (maybe...)

 open shelving with the painted pipes, I could do that. Jason never remembers if he has something unless it is visible (object relativity is real), so this might be more funcitonal than aesthetic for him.

 reclaimed and repurposed wood has a big place in our hearts, we care about not making more Things.

 

 this type of mural but with Orioles or Black eyed Susans

Here are some ideas for a dining room:

 to match the time of the house... if we happen to find a turn of the century home...

 for all of the mismatched china plates that we were given as gifts for our marriage

 decorating with green is always a dream... unfortunately, it's jason who always has to pick up the responsibility for my dreams... like watering said dream.

I could go on... okay, okay, I will!

ideas for a yard:

 

 

I'll stop there. Hopefully the next thing I'll be able to update this post is that we found a place and bought it.

January 2016:
Jason became a stay at home dad and we moved to Arlington, VA to save some money by living with my family so that we could have a nest egg for "getting serious" about buying a house. I put it in quotes because my husband was also following #vanlife on Twitter and I don't know if there was ever a couple who could be more ambiguous about "getting serious" about buying a house.

July 2017:
 Finally after a year with my family we were ready to put it on the good foot and we found a few houses and actually put in offers, our realtor (Kim Lally Holmes, from the the Beliveau Group of Keller Williams) made it amazingly smooth. There were a few nights when we sent her some late night text flurries - but she was professional with her boundaries and answered us reasonably the next day. She was always honest and forthcoming about pros and cons on the house that we finally bought. She's amazing, anyone would be lucky to have her representing them when going through this major life event.

And now we have a hOme! I'll post pictures as soon as all of our boxes are unpacked. It kills me that our boxes aren't unpacked yet and that there's still lingering things. Jason says we have a lifetime to make it a hOme, but I'd like to get my pictures hung and our clothes unpacked and the plants in the right rooms and the walls painted NOW. This has been a great lesson in patience and incrementalism and deferred gratification and compromise.