A couple of years ago Our Suburban Cottage hosted a "How I Met My House" blog party. I had just sold a house and hadn't yet found a new one at the time, so I'm a little late for her party, but I thought it would be fun to look back at how we met the beach house we've spent the last year remodeling.
We were living in a tiny temporary apartment in Seattle, and house hunting in our spare time. Every time I thought we had found *the* house, my husband found a reason to hate it..... Finally, we realized it wasn't the houses he hated -- it was the idea of living full time in a city. He felt like living in the middle of a giant city was killing his soul, so he presented me with a plan: We could live in a more rural area and he would travel into the city a few days a week for meetings, but work from home during the remainder of the week. I wasn't crazy about the idea, but I am crazy about the ocean, so when my husband suggested buying a beach house he won me over.
On our first official day of house hunting, he asked me to put together a list of properties I wanted to see. I found an ocean front property that I thought looked intriguing, but seemed ridiculously under-priced. One thing was certain: if we were going to drive two and a half hours to our home in a beach town, we were going to have views of the ocean. This seemingly under-priced house looked like it should have a great view....
It didn't. And our first view of the house had my husband wanting to walk away! The decks were rotting, and the fence was falling apart.
The courtyard was full of trash and debris.
And yet, the house had soul.....
In spite of her neglected condition, she had grace....
I thought she was beautiful. My husband thought I was crazy....
We peaked inside the windows....
.... and saw that she had lovely bones....
... my husband thought she was in pretty rough shape, and I thought she was a diamond in the rough.....
We were living in a tiny temporary apartment in Seattle, and house hunting in our spare time. Every time I thought we had found *the* house, my husband found a reason to hate it..... Finally, we realized it wasn't the houses he hated -- it was the idea of living full time in a city. He felt like living in the middle of a giant city was killing his soul, so he presented me with a plan: We could live in a more rural area and he would travel into the city a few days a week for meetings, but work from home during the remainder of the week. I wasn't crazy about the idea, but I am crazy about the ocean, so when my husband suggested buying a beach house he won me over.
On our first official day of house hunting, he asked me to put together a list of properties I wanted to see. I found an ocean front property that I thought looked intriguing, but seemed ridiculously under-priced. One thing was certain: if we were going to drive two and a half hours to our home in a beach town, we were going to have views of the ocean. This seemingly under-priced house looked like it should have a great view....
It didn't. And our first view of the house had my husband wanting to walk away! The decks were rotting, and the fence was falling apart.
The courtyard was full of trash and debris.
And yet, the house had soul.....
In spite of her neglected condition, she had grace....
I thought she was beautiful. My husband thought I was crazy....
We peaked inside the windows....
.... and saw that she had lovely bones....
... my husband thought she was in pretty rough shape, and I thought she was a diamond in the rough.....