Home Needs and Wants

Today officially marks one month that we've been in our new home! Our homebuying adventure kicked off in April and let me tell you - it was quite the experience. There were lots of ups and downs and stress that I didn't share anywhere publicly. Now that it's over and I feel like a sane person again, I'm going to share the whole experience with you.

I LOVED our condo. What sold us on it was that we loved its location, we loved that it was brand new, and we loved the open floorplan. I remember when we first walked into it that it gave us the THIS IS THE ONE feeling. We were so in love with it that we didn't even look at other places! Well, we quickly outgrew the space after the first year or two. We were tired of not having a lot of storage, we were tired of paying a high monthly HOA (when we left it ballooned to $332!), and we were tired of noisy neighbors.

I think one of the most important things to do when you're looking for a new home (aside from the obvious - for example, take care of your credit, know how much you can afford, check to see how much you're pre-approved for) is to have a list of reasonable needs and also have a list of wants. What do you refuse to budge on? What do you want in a home, but wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker if you couldn't have it?

After daydreaming for several years about upgrading to a larger space, Sean and I had a clear picture of what our Needs and what our Wants were. Here are the lists that we compiled:

Needs

• South side Anchorage
• Large master bedroom with WIC
• Large master bathroom with a separate bathtub, a separate shower, and a double vanity
• 4 bedrooms
• 2.5 bathrooms
• All bedrooms upstairs, kitchen/dining/living areas downstairs
• 2 car garage
• Built within the last 15 years
• Large kitchen with pantry and an island
• Large living room with fireplace

Wants

• New construction
• Laundry room upstairs
• In a cul-de-sac
• Office or den
• 2nd bathroom to have double vanity and another door to get to the shower/toilet (this makes it convenient so that someone can shower and still have their privacy while someone else is brushing their teeth)
• Minimal or no HOA
• Large driveway
• Family room
• 5 bedrooms
• 3 car garage

We fulfilled everything on our Needs list and most of what was on our Wants list too! We don't have a family room, a 5th bedroom, or a 3rd garage... They would have been nice to have, but they definitely weren't dealbreakers. I feel pretty fortunate that we were able to check off almost all of the items on our lists with the house we picked.