We bought our dream home, a cottage in the middle of the woods
As much as we try to plan each aspect of our lives, some things are just meant to be, and sometimes when you take a leap of faith and embrace what life throws your way, the reward can be pretty darn sweet. That pretty much sums up how we went from casually viewing photos of a quaint little cottage states and states away on our cellphone, to living in our dream cottage, on our dream property, and quite frankly feeling like we are living our dream life.
Since we can remember, as a couple we have always appreciated nature and all things outdoors, so it wasn’t long before we realized that we wanted to downsize and move somewhere that we had access to a more natural setting. Palmer and I are both into running so finding a home near picturesque trails was the first box to check off, then came access to mountains for biking and skiing/snowboarding so there is fun to be had all throughout all of the beautiful seasons. The next request was a body of water, like a lake or an ocean within reasonable driving distance. I grew up near a lake and an ocean down south and I have always loved all of the activities that come with living near water, kayaking, boating, fishing, count me in! When it came to location we knew we would find what we were looking for somewhere in New England, but we were not exactly set on a specific state or region within New England.
With our list of preferences in mind, and no hard time frame on when we needed to move to this ideal location, luck was on our side when this little picturesque cottage in the middle of the woods came up in one of Palmer’s routine casual house searches. And I am so glad it did.
Tips for finding your dream home
1- Be patient if you can. Finding your dream home is much easier when you have the time for it to find you, if you’re fortunate enough to have the flexibility to wait for “the one” then it also takes the stress out of the process. At the end of the day finding your dream home should be fun and exciting!
2- Have the dream home discussion with your partner. Palmer and I spent years casually talking about what our dream home looked like, thinking back to our first conversations, what we each had in mind was not perfectly identical but through continuing the conversation we slowly but surely built “our” dream home, taking each other’s vision into consideration, making tweaks here and there to land on the perfect home for us.
3- Don’t stress the small stuff. This goes for the house finding process, the house buying process (this one can be especially stressful I know!), the moving process, and the house renovating process. If you’re constantly charging towards the “finish line” you might miss all of the enjoyment and fun to be had throughout the process, so try embracing each piece of the puzzle, it should prove to be much more enjoyable that way!
Hope you enjoyed hearing a little about our journey, thanks for reading
x, Alexandria
