We are Christian and Bre, and we bought our first home together!
We had been dating for a year and a half and had countless conversations about living together and what we envisioned as our ideal home. We knew it was time to take the next step in our relationship, which meant finding a place we could call our own.
We were excited to start looking for a house on the north side of Indianapolis. There were a few homes we liked and many we didn't; however, most homes felt overpriced for what you were getting. The market was crazy. Everything "decent" was selling in a day or two for more than the asking price.
While I love beautiful move-in ready homes, Christian and I both wanted a slight fixer-upper. We both like working on home projects and thought updating a house would be fun. Fixer-uppers also expanded our search options since we were willing to do some cosmetic updates. Our must-have was that we wanted privacy and a larger yard with mature trees for us and Christian's dog, Odin. And nothing cookie-cutter!
After months of searching, we found a charming Cape Code-style home on a quiet street in a cozy neighborhood on the west side of Indianapolis. We knew it was our future home as soon as we turned the corner onto the cul-de-sac. However, I remember throwing my head back and saying, "I didn't want to like it!" Shocking, I know! I loved the north side, it's shopping, selection of trendy restaurants, fitness centers, and my group of friends, and refused to move back to the west side where I grew up.
Yet, as we drove up the driveway, the house looked like something out of a fairytale with beautiful towering trees over a charming cape-cod style home with perfect symmetry, painted in a classic hue of blue. It had a steeply pitched gabled roof and a set of dormers that added a traditional charm. The spacious and private backyard was lined by a stunning mature forest that filtered sunlight through the leaves. This home had stolen our hearts before we had even stepped inside.
The home's interior had a beautiful living room with vaulted ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out to the beautiful trees, and a wood-burning brick fireplace. It also has a large kitchen, a formal dining room, a downstairs office, and large bedrooms. The home had a great layout and good bones, but we knew it would be a project to update it from the 90's and make it our own. But, that's what we wanted, right? We made an offer and went to war to get the house with three other offers on the table. We were a nervous wreck until we got that phone call that we were under contract!
Exterior photos of the home were borrowed from the listing posted on Zillow.com.
