Hey Honey, I Bought Us House, Without You

There's a great story about our house that Matt loves to tell. 

He bought the house without me.  

To some that's no big deal, but to most to whom the story is told it's complete lunacy. 

In the fall of 2015 Matt spent more time back in American than he did in London. It only made sense that he use those trips to scout for a future hometown. We had decided that the mid-Atlantic was our first choice due to the desirable weather and the minimal time zone difference to Europe. The internets was a huge help to narrow our city choices based on our desired house criteria & budget. The more we looked, the more Raleigh seemed like the place for us. 

So Matt added a weekend detour to Raleigh on one of his trips to the US to look at houses. We found a great real estate agent to take him around. They started at some of the houses we saw online and soon found that those houses looked better in pictures. So they regrouped and scoured the listings for a second day of touring. Matt fired up FaceTime and took me on tour of the newest listings. Some views were short (or nonexistent) as he knew immediately that a house was not the right fit.

Then he walked into our current house, and there was a complete change in his attitude. It had everything our family needed, and oh my goodness a whole lot more. He summed it up by saying this was the house for us; no other house came close to this one. He was going to write an offer straight away.

My reaction?  If you think it's the one, then go ahead. I'll admit that I wasn't the most invested in the home finding process.  I was still in the anger stage of the grieving process.

The negotiations were quite straightforward. We made an offer, they accepted. Done. Matt bought a house that I had not seen with my own eyes, in a city I'd never visited. I was OK with that. Why? We've experienced a lot in the last two years, and the abode was never an issue. As long as my husband and kiddos are with me, we can make it a home.

The most anxiety occurred for the home inspection.  

Matt: "You are coming to Raleigh for the inspection, find a sitter for the kids."

Me: "WHAT?!"

Matt: "Yes, you are going to Raleigh.  You need to see the house before the deal goes through."

Me: "WHAT?!"

I agreed that I wanted to see the house, but goodness sakes finding someone to watch our kids for a minimum of two nights was asking a lot of someone. It's one thing when you go into the city for the night, but it is a whole new situation when we travel across the ocean!

It was not difficult at all to find places for the Kiddos to stay as we made some really awesome friends in London. Each stayed with a different family, and they were beyond happy for a weeknight sleepover. Once the Kiddos were set, we booked my flights. Get a load of this itinerary - I left Thursday morning for a Friday morning inspection and caught a return flight on Friday night that arrived back in London on Saturday morning. 

You know how this story ended. The kids had a great time with their friends and our inspection went just as expected. Matt closed on the house a few weeks later on another of his trips back to the US.  

I didn't have to go back for that.  Whew.