Since we’ve now closed on our house, I can finally write a post to describe the whole experience. For being first-time homebuyers the whole process could not have gone smoother. Sure, we did a heck of a lot of research, but most of the credit for the smooth process has to go to our realtor, Zach Goodyear. I cannot give a more positive recommendation for someone looking for a great broker in Nashville.

Zach specializes in city living, be it a house, condo, or loft. He has a love for architecture and old homes, and is also a great wedding and lifestyle photographer to boot! He really held our hand throughout this process and showed us around multiple neighborhoods until we zeroed in on the one we eventually bought in. Some realtors will only show you a handful of houses and pressure you to pick from those, but not Zach. We saw no less than twenty houses, and he was tireless in finding new options for us.

Doing all of the work that a typical realtor does is only half the benefit of working with Zach. He also brings to the table a great network of resources, and we were very pleased with the mortgage lender, inspector, and electrician that he recommended to us. Speaking of which, check out Daniel Ramer with Pinnacle Financial Partners for your mortgage in the Nashville area. He was excellent to work with and got us the very best possible rate. Very professional guy, and I truly felt he wanted what was best for us – rare in that industry.

So many thanks to Zach and Daniel for their hard work on our behalf. And of course, a huge thanks to our parents who gave tons of great advice and encouragement!

Here she is.

She’s a cute little cottage in a nice little neighborhood within the city limits of Nashville. When we walked in we both knew it was the one. We’ve waited not-so-patiently for the past five years to find the right place at the right time, and I think this is it.

We’ve got some work ahead of us with a bathroom and kitchen renovation, but this house was such a major steal and had such great bones she will be well worth the labor. Well, maybe I’ll save that until it’s all done.

We’ll close on the 28th of this month and as soon as we do, we’ll start painting and redoing the bathroom. But that hasn’t stopped me from making four new throw pillows for the living room today! I’m embracing my hidden DIY self and will hopefully have some fun things to show you in the next few months as I nest.

Ok… the sewing machine is calling.

I don’t really understand how I can have so much nostalgia about certain places (like the Pizza Hut near the Court House Metro station in Arlington, Virginia), and very little about other places – the White Mountains in New Hampshire where I grew up, and saw my first in-the-wild moose, and went to summer camp. We had such a WONDERFUL time this weekend enjoying New England’s rainy days of summer, but it was the people that made the trip.

It’s always therapeutic to be around family especially when you like your family as much as Matt and I do. It’s always nice to sleep in the bedroom that you grew up in, except mine has been turned into a walk-in closet for my parents. But I get the same joy out of sleeping in my sister’s bedroom. And it’s always nice to eat birthday cake.

When we touched down in Nashville bright and early this morning I was stunned by how familiar it all felt. It was good to be home. How could a place that I’ve only lived in for such a short amount of time feel so much like home? More like home than the place I grew up in? WONKY.

As I was out driving around this evening, I heard LIVE’S “Lighting Crashes” on the radio. I usually skip over that cause, c’mon! I haven’t listened to LIVE since High School! But I paused to listen and was brought back to the days where I used to rewind and rewind again to hear that song while driving to the beach to make out with my Very First Boyfriend. VFB and I were filled with more teen angst than a WB prime-time show. And more raging hormones than all those boy dogs mounting Berlin when I went to pick her up at Camp Bow Wow today (I could have slaughtered them!). We were so sure we were in love, and very much enjoyed imagining growing old together ala “When I’m 64.”

We were not in love, and we had little in common other than our fantastic admiration for the talent of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Fab Four. And looking back I realized that I feel towards New Hampshire the way I feel towards LIVE and my VFB. Dull and not at all interested. Not even nostalgic.

I love my family and love being with them. However, my home is wherever Matt is. And tomorrow we might make an offer on a home. A home in our new home… Nashvegas.

I call it Old House #1, because I have a feeling it’s going to be the first, but not the last old house that I find, fall in love with, and WANT! WANT! WANT! We saw it yesterday and the only comparison I can make is that it reminds me so much of The Shrink’s house back in our old Massachusetts town. We loved her, and we loved her house. It was a haven… a refuge… a beautiful place filled with things that felt very New Englandy. This is what Old House #1 is like.

It’s a beautiful house. A craftsman bungalow built in the 30s. Three bedrooms to grow into. Two bathrooms – one with a clawfoot tub. A quirky and beautiful fenced in back yard with a Koi pond that Matt would instantly remove, much to my chagrin. A fireplace. A huge shed with electricity in the backyard – the perfect space for Matt to build furniture in. Central air! MY DREAM HOUSE!

This morning we told the realtor we wanted more info on the age of appliances, water heater, roof, ac, etc. So as to make an offer. Then we found out there is another offer out on it. We could act now and make an offer and get in on it.

Matt has been in meetings all day. Then he has his final exam tonight. Like final Final exam for all post-graduate classes.

The timing is off, no?

We’re going to wait it out over the weekend. Either the other folks’ offer gets accepted or it gets rejected. If it’s rejected, we can still make a move. But there’s no reason to be pushed into a bidding war. We have plenty of time. It’s a buyer’s market. It’s our first home, and we don’t want to rush into a decision.

Oh but I can’t tell you how badly I want that house. I would even… possibly… GIVE UP MEAT TO HAVE THAT HOUSE!

Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to look at 2 houses, well one house and a condo. How many times can I make these trips before declaring to our realtor that Berlin has final say in the house we buy? I mean yard size is IMPORTANT PEOPLE!

I don’t know how to explain to you the simultaneous joy and terror that I’m experiencing as of late. Lots of huge things are in the works here, but I don’t feel comfortable discussing them on the blog until I can say with confidence that the eagle has landed. Patience is not my strong suit, but I’m finding myself with no other option. So I’m biding my time by sticking my nose into The Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara which is soon to be overdue at the local public library. (I don’t know how I feel, politically speaking, about public libraries.)

I am also steeling myself for next Tuesday which brings a doctors appointment for a yearly checkup. No, nothing crazy… just a yearly checkup. But you have no idea how much the blood pressure monitor freaks me out. Thank the Good Lord in Heaven that Matt has an appointment scheduled at the same practice at the same time so in the event of my seizing, he can be quickly located and pointed in the direction of Crazy Lady Thrashing In Room F.

Because you have made it through this quagmire of a blog post, I can reward you with the following newsy tidbit that may just be the thing to put a spring in your step on the eve of yet another New England snowstorm: Berlin has a male friend that she is gaga over, and when rewarded with an extensive playdate in the afternoon with said suitor, becomes quite angelic inside the house for the entire evening. Tonight’s behavior has been so remarkably cute that Matt has been pacing around the living room for an entire hour shouting, “ARE YOU EVEN KIDDING ME?”

When all else fails, get yourself a dog.

Thanks. You guys are the best. And can we be BFFs 4 EVA?

There are a number of very logical and normal reasons why I’m feeling ultra-emotional right now. But I’m struggling with feeling very attached to our wonderful neighborhood and my fabulous friends here. Yesterday we were pre-approved for a mortgage so the house-hunting can now begin in a semi-hardcore fashion. When I think about having a little tiny city yard for Berlin’s dog house I get all weepy. But when I think of being far away from our little neighborhood dog park and my dear friends who just walk over for LOST each Wednesday I get WICKED WEEPY.

And Smashing Pumpkins just came on during a TV commercial and that makes me especially weepy because it makes me think of Matt and what a great hubby he is and how I want him to have a nice big basement to build things in.

Home ownership is freaking me out – not because it’s home ownership and being stuck in the same place for nigh-on 5-10 years, but more because Obama is not fixing our broken economy, but instead freaking out investors who are the only ones who can really fix our economy. And I think I’m kinda crazy to be buying a house when the whole world is about to go bankrupt.

How do you feel about the run-on sentences thus far?

Does everyone feel like this when they move to the burbs and buy their first home? And are we going to want to reverse this immediately?

And even though I love the house with the wood paneling on the walls that needs to come down and the all-pink bathroom that will need to be gutted, am I believing in something more than I should? ACK! Make it stop.