Our beloved condo
So, the story begins as we are planning our wedding during a short, 5 month engagement. My hubs is 7.5 years older than me, so he was ready to start trying to make some babies once we tied the knot. Having had baby fever for a couple of years, I was ready too. Either way, we lived in a hip loft in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. Two bedrooms, two baths and 1700 square feet on the top floor with a view of the skyline. We LOVED it! But, with the second bedroom tricked out as a workout room and our storage areas filled to the brim, we realized that having a baby in the space would be challenging. We both knew it was time to start thinking about where we wanted to raise our kids and started browsing listings in a suburb of Minneapolis that is minutes to the city and has some of the top rated schools in the country...yes I said country. While we'd probably not be able to sell the condo in a way that would result in a huge profit (hello..housing market collapse) we also knew that we'd be able to buy our forever house at a great price and so taking the hit would be totally worth it. We both hate moving and vowed that we'd purchase a home that our family could grow into in an area that we loved where we'd stay put until we retire. My husband had this childhood, I on the other hand, went to five different schools from K - 12 and wanted a different childhood for my babies. The suburb of Minneapolis that we now live in and were at the time shopping for houses in, has this cool little area that is a walkable neighborhood with shops, and restaurants. It's like being in the city, in the suburbs. So, with target neighborhood in hand, we began our search, feeling out the market and seeing what we could get in our budget.We browsed and browsed, planned our wedding and decided that while we were on our honeymoon, we'd have a couple of settling cracks repaired in the condo and start getting things ready to list the place. When we returned from our fabulous, fabulous Hawaiian honeymoon, we got serious, had a stager come through, and implemented her suggestions.
One Sunday, just before we listed the condo, we walked through a new construction home about 10 blocks from where we really wanted to be and fell in love. I mean IN - Love. It was perfect and I instantly had visions of my babies running around and baking cookies with me at the huge center island in the kitchen. The location was poopy however, and the backyard faced a busy street causing some noise. The house was priced to sell and after viewing about 20 other properties, we couldn't get it out of our minds. One day over a carafe of delicious white wine sangria from this great little bistro called Lucia's in Minneapolis, we talked about the house and my husband mentioned maybe wanting to build the same house, with many of the same finishes on a different site. I raised my glass, and told him that if I could have that house, I was in like flynn. While all this was going on, we found out that we were going to become a three person wolf pack (love The Hangover), Baby K had implanted and was no longer a zygote AND our condo sold in only three weeks and two showings.
The house that stole our hearts
We were about to be homeless and gestating...ishy combo in my opinion. We went back to the house to make an offer because it seemed to be the best decision, but it was raining that day, and my husband sat at the staged kitchen table and listened to the cars whiz by, even louder with the wet street, and said he just couldn't do it. He wouldn't be happy there with the noise. Our realtor was there and we weren't ready to talk about the pregnancy yet since it was still early and I did my best to not have a Sicilian/pregnancy hormone meltdown in front of him, but when we got in the car the tears started to flow and I begged my husband to make a decision - any decision. I just needed to know what was going to happen. Too much up in the air and a baby on the way is a deadly combo for a girl who doesn't like to feel unsettled.
To be continued.....
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