House Hunting, Part II

Our new home! 

Sergio and I are proud co-owners of our new home! It didn’t feel right to share all of the details until everything was finalized. I am not usually a superstitious person — but there is no need to jinx something this important.

Between moving up the signing dates and getting the financing squared away at the last minute to getting Sergio's house closed out and dealing with a long walkthrough, it felt like there was a big weight sitting on my chest.

Whenever it felt like a lot, S just held my hand and reminded me what it would feel like when the house was ours.

And now it is.

 I could tell you about the square footage or the rooms or the nice neighborhood or all of the quantifiable details about it. I don’t really care what the countertop are made from or the quality of the millwork. I’m grateful for our new home because it is beautiful and something I am surprised to call ours.

But this home feels like so much more to me — for us — than anything that we can reduce to dollars or fees or pages. As Sergio said to me when we signed the final papers on Monday afternoon, it’s our first home together — the place for us as a family.

When I look at our house, here is what I see.

I see the place for our chairs on the front porch where, even in the rainy spring or fall we can sit together with a blanket or, in the summer, with a book as the sun sets.

We love our porch! 

Then there is the room that waits, expectantly, for the piano. It won’t be long before the walls echo with Chopin and Bach and Mozart. 

Spoiler alert: This room will be grey! 

The two front rooms upstairs face west and are blessed with sunshine in the afternoons. When I close my eyes, I can picture Astrix stretched out, belly-up, in a sunny square on the carpet, eyes half-lidded in lazy pleasure.

Imagine this with less ladder and more cat.

When you look east from the house, you’re greeted with the snow-capped Cascades and a view into the valley below. As the seasons pass, we’ll be able to watch the trees bud and bloom and leave and wither and die and then see it happen it again and again. 

Dreaming of bringing people together on our new deck! 

I hear the padding of feet up and down flights of stairs and the shouts of kids — laughter and the utterly frightening silence that follows.

I picture a house filled with family and other visitors — and our special “guest suite” that we’ll prepare before they arrive. 

This is part of what we jokingly call "The Rico Suite."

We will have more time to do all of these things because we will spend fewer minutes fuming (me) or relaxing (Sergio) behind the wheel of a car. This house isn’t just a thing — it’s a gift of about an hour a day that we can use for things that we love and with each other.

More than anything, I see us together at the end of a long day side-by-side in the kitchen in our choreographed kitchen dance — chopping and sautéing and braising and sorting and cleaning together, four hands working together.

I can picture us working in our kitchen together.

That is what this house means to me. That is what sticks in my head when I step away -- not the numbers and not the to-dos. Because we are blessed to be moving and we look forward to it so much. There is nowhere else I’d rather be right now than settling in with S.

Love this guy.

xo,

Sarah

P.S. If you or anyone you know would like to buy a fantastic Bothell home (mine), stay tuned. It will be on the market in a month or so.

Love this house so much. I'm going to miss it.