A year ago, Mike and I found our first home. 

We didn’t originally plan on even looking at homes until the spring of 2017, but last year on a very chilly winter morning, the Holy Spirit urged me to drive across the street and check out the new neighborhood we wanted to move to. It was there that I discovered most of the homes we had favorited in our Home Scouting app had yet to be built and were just empty lots- save two.

Panic set in when I realized that all the locations and homes we were interested in would have to be built from the ground up- with our timeline, that wouldn’t put us into a home until late June or July, if EVERYthing went according to plan! We had planned on being out of our apartment by March, and there was no way we were going to wait any longer. So Mike and I decided at 8pm that night to run across the street and check out the two houses that were halfway built, just to see if they were even an option for us. 

The first home we walked into was beautiful, and almost finished. Vaulted ceilings, the floor plan we wanted, and in the perfect location (south facing with lots of great light, every photographer’s dream! And no neighbors behind us for miles). To our glee we went out to the garage and saw a ton of boxes with cabinets in them. Based on the colors labeled on the boxes, we guessed our kitchen would either have coconut cabinets or a dark brown- either color was what we had been eyeing this entire time (Might sound silly, but our kitchen was a HUGE priority for us!) And it was the exact price we were hoping for. 

The second house was just a couple doors down, a couple thousand less, but when we walked in we knew it wasn’t the one. Everything had been installed, and the kitchen just wasn’t what we were looking for. Cabinets were not soft close, were the wrong color, and the appliances weren’t stainless steel. The layout wasn’t quite what we had been hoping for, and when we found out the garage wasn’t electric, we instantly walked out. 

It was then and there that we decided- after we went back to the first house we looked at, if it had an electric garage, it would be the one. It just had to. 

I’ll never forget watching Mike walk up to that door at 9 pm at night and jumping up in glee upon seeing the garage door opener. You know when you know, that you know? (LOL). Well, we knew. We just KNEW that God had led us to this house. In the span of just 45 minutes, after looking at 2 partially built homes, we had found the one we had been praying for. 

That night felt like a dream as we emailed back and forth with our realtor and CBH homes (at MIDNIGHT no less!), finding out that this home could be ours with $5k towards closing if we signed before the New Year (Thank you Jesus for urging me to look at homes on the 29th!)

So that’s how we found ourselves scrambling and praying fervently as we rang in 2017.  The next day we put in our earnest money and signed for our home, and I got our taxes prepped and filed in in just 5 days (Perks of being self employed and Mike working for his parents- no W-2 needed for me and his mom faxed us his W-2 on the 30th. Just one more piece that fell perfectly into place).  A few days later we found out we had been approved, and that’s when it really hit us- this was OURS. 

It never fails to amaze me how everything fell into place about buying our home (we basically gave our amazing realtor the easiest job in the world, since she didn’t have to show us any houses, haha!). Some would call us crazy for putting an offer on the first and basically only home we looked at, especially when it was just a few hours after looking at it. But from the beginning, it was all God, and you just can’t argue with that. I tear up just thinking about how he cares about the smallest details of our lives, even down to freaking cabinet colors. I remember telling Mike when we first started pinning to our dream board “I really hope we can get a home with split cabinets, I just love that look!” And he told me it wasn’t super likely since Corey doesn’t often build his homes like that. But what do you know, we found out after signing that our home had split cabinets! We found out a few days after putting in an offer that our home had been a fall through early-on. Someone had built and designed it with every upgrade imaginable- soft close cabinets, vaulted ceilings, the highest quality appliances, even the freaking doors were all upgraded- with every design option that Mike and I were going to go with when we had started looking at houses, and yet we got our house at the base model price because they just wanted to sell it. 

I know it probably sounds super lame to make a blog post on this, but our house was honestly dropped into our laps by God himself,  and because of that, it means that much more to us. The whole process of us looking at homes, finding the perfect one, putting in an offer, getting everything ready to get approved, and then getting approved, took 11 days. It was a whirlwind of a week and a half, but it was SO amazing and honestly, so easy!

It’s been an incredible year getting settled in and being able to call this place ours. I’ve loved getting to fill it with furniture we always dreamed of having, with our plant babies, with our friends and families on holidays, with pictures and memories of Mike and I’s life together. And it never stops being surreal when I tell people that we got married and bought our first home by ages 20 and 21. 

All of what we have is because of God, and Mike and I never take it for granted. The other day I walked around and just admired our cozy little space, and decided to throw up some pictures of what we’ve done with it in the year of being here! It’s definitely not close to perfect or being finished, but I know there’s no rush. We’ll continue to grow  and add to it the next couple years, making it more and more our home. 

This year to celebrate, we decided to do a cozy, in-home session with one of my photog friends, Kylie Morgan! She did such a great job at capturing a pretty average morning for Mike and I with our two kitties. We even got a shot of us watching one of our favorite animes, haha! 

I can’t say thank you enough, Kylie, for these moments of us! We love them so so much.  

For those interested where we got any of our furniture or decor: 

Bedroom decor: Hobby Lobby

Lamp: Target

Coffee Table + Coasters: West Elm

Tv Credenza: Target

Accent Chair: Target

Bookshelf: World Market

Dining Chairs: Hobby Lobby

Kitchen Shelves: World Market

For any of my fellow photographers or self-employed friends, or just people in general who are looking to buy a home and know more about the process and how we went about it, feel free to shoot me an email and I’d LOVE to give you as much info as I can!