how did you know the house was the "one"?

[Anonymous]

We knew because we weren't seriously looking when we saw our house, and got serious right away after seeing it. It had rooms that made us want to stay there just staring at them, and a yard that looks like a fairy tale little forest. Yeah, the bathrooms and kitchen were original 1986, and there was so much wallpaper in the bedrooms. But we knew.

[Anonymous]

10:55 - THIS.

We happened on a LOT more house for the money. We moved from a really good house that most who could afford it would consider outstanding - to an even better house.

We were not looking, it really did find us. When we walked in the door it really felt like home! We love the extra space - inside and out. Wouldn't change a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We could afford it. Seriously. We were looking to spend under 450k in DC and found a totally un-updated house on Cap Hill that had 3 beds and a basement. I was kind of depressed by it at the time but now I can't believe what a smart investment it was.

Because we are NOT smart investors. Now we LOVE the house.

This. We'd settled on a particular neighborhood, and there were three houses available. One was in terrible shape with major structural issues; one was priced too high (in terms of our budget and in terms of what we thought it was worth); one was in decent shape and just barely within our budget. All three were tiny and ancient and virtually identical in design. We got the third and are happy here. It is smaller than what I would like to own, and older and crappier, but we love the neighborhood and I would not want to be any farther away from work. The other neighborhoods we would consider we cannot afford. So it was the "one" because it got us where we wanted to be. It is not my dream house, but it works for us.