Hello friends! I’m gearing up for vacation and couldn’t be more excited. This weekend we are heading out of town for a well deserved vacation. Stay tuned on Instagram and follow along with out trip to Acadia National Park, in Maine! I just need to pack now. Usually I’m packed a week beforehand, but we recently moved into a new home and my time is spent with getting things in order.
On to the biggest thing in my life right now…we bought a new home!! It’s literally my dream condo and I couldn’t be more excited to finally be in the place. It was a quick, but at the same time, long road to get here. We searched for a new home for the last two years. When I met Mike we both owned our condos in Chicago. When we got married I rented mine out and moved into his. We made a cute little home for ourselves there, but I always wanted to find something that was ours together. In fairness, Mike basically let me come in and take over his place (he’s the best), but I still wanted something we both picked out together.
The Open House Circuit
We spent a lot of weekends going to open houses. Our focus was on location, price and size of the actual condo. Since we both lived in downtown Chicago proper, moving to a neighborhood like Lincoln Park would be an adjustment for both of us. Pretty early on in the search we stumbled across a great unit in Streeterville. The building and view blew us away. This was it, this was the dream condo, however, the price was too high.
Flash forward two years and 50 plus open houses later, and we still wanted to live in that Streeterville condo building that we fist discovered 2 years earlier. We almost had a unit there in the fall of 2017, but negotiations didn’t work out and I told myself that it wasn’t meant to be. For the time being I gave up on the dream condo. We took a break from looking and enjoyed the cold winter in our condo.
Getting Serious About Finding a Home
In the spring of 2018 we decided to start seriously looking with our agent. She took us to several buildings in Streeterville and nothing felt like our new home to us. We just couldn’t picture ourselves living in these units and it was a bit depressing. The last unit we looked at was in the dream building. And the moment we stepped into it I knew I was home. It just felt like home.
We left that night and decided that we had to do whatever it takes to get into that unit. Turns out the current owners would only entertain non-contingent home sale offers. This meant we had to sell our current condo first, before putting an offer in on the new place. It also meant that the new home we wanted could be gone by the time we sold our place. I threw caution to the wind and agreed to list our place without having anything lined up for us to live in. I must have lost my mind momentarily when I agreed to this. I’m pretty uptight, so not having a plan for the next step is completely outside the box for me.
We listed our condo on a Saturday, and had an offer on Monday morning. I couldn’t believe it and neither could our agent. Not only did we get what we wanted for the place, but the people buying it wanted to close on the sale in 30 days! We agreed and were so excited! Right away, we put an offer in on the dream condo and they accepted the next day! We were still in shock and couldn’t believe this was happening so fast!
We hit a small snafu with the mortgage company and had to delay the closing by a week. In addition, we also wanted to have the floors redone in the place and that took a week. This is what lead to my two week hotel stay in Chicago. I learned a lot those two weeks (read the full post here) but we moved in and have been loving it!
Now What
There is so much to do and so much to unpack, but we are having a good time doing it. We painted the whole unit ourselves. We changed it from yellow to grey and it looks beautiful. I don’t think we’ve ever worked so hard on creating something, but I’m so glad we did. We are literally creating this beautiful home together, which is what I pictured us doing for so many years.
I pinch myself when I wake up in the morning because I can’t believe I live here. This condo felt like home the minute I walked into it years ago and now it is a reality. I learned that you should think big, set your goals high, and work your tail off until you achieve them. Having your eye on the prize and not settling for something else is the only way to go.
Fun Stuff!
Lots of projects to do in the new home and I’m sharing my to-do list with you. All suggestions welcome!
Re-stain floors – Done, we picked Boca Stain in Cocoa
Buy a console table for the front hall – suggestions needed!!!
Paint entire condo – We are halfway there. We picked a grey color from Benjamin Moore called Barren Plain
Buy a chaise lounge or small seating and table for bedroom – suggestions needed!!!
Buy a media stand – Looking for suggestions. Right now I’m leaning towards the Smith Media Cabinet at Room and Board
Buy artwork for bedroom – suggestions needed!!!
Hang current artwork – I love my art, but crisp, clean, freshly painted walls are so nice to look at.
Fun Fact – The art work featured here is an original drawing of our new condo building. Mike got it years ago at a charity auction and it hung in our previous home for years. We didn’t even realize we had it until we were packing for the move. It’s so special to us and is a treasured piece of art!
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