As the title of my first blog states – Home is where one starts from.  I believe that this is true, though I would like to add a bit more to it!

Our story starts when my husband Bryan and I first met.  The chapters started slow, but by the time we reunited and started to spend time with one another and start dating – the story started moving at lightning speed!  After only 8 months and 26 days of dating – Bryan proposed.  On May 11, 2013 we were married and our fairytale English Garden themed wedding was a day we will never forget. You can watch our wedding video below made by my talented friend Chris Roederer.

After our wedding, we had the most amazing honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands.  It was the trip of a lifetime and we will always remember our honeymoon as true paradise.

And now is where HOME comes in.  After two months of being married – we decided to start the house-hunting process.  We initially didn’t intend on buying a house until about a year after we were married, but we quickly realized that interest rates were on the rise and in order to guarantee a lower rate – now was the time to act.  House-hunting was a whirlwind of mixed emotions.  As first time home buyers – it’s safe to say that I was literally CLUELESS about the whole process.  We quickly learned our budget and found it hard to find something decent in our area and in our price range.  Being in Maryland – the cost of living is pretty high.  Several times during the process we day-dreamed of moving south where our budget would buy us a much larger home – but with our jobs, family, and friends here, we knew we couldn’t leave our hometown.  After many home tours of the good, the bad, and the downright disgusting – we finally made our first bid on a house that was in our dream neighborhood.  Sadly, we were outbid but that is when we heard the best piece of advice – which at the time sounded cliché.  The advice was that everything happens for a reason, and if it is meant to be – it will happen.  We were very discouraged but only a week later a house popped up on our lists after a previous prospective buyers’ finances fell through.  We looked at this house that same night, and had won our contract on it by the next day.  Needless to say, we were SO excited.

That is where the present comes in.  It is almost as if we are at an intermission in our story.  The contract is ours, but now we are waiting on the final paperwork and loans to be approved.  Our tentative settlement date is August 22.  We are positive that this is what that advice meant; this house is larger and newer than the other we placed a bid on AND less expensive.  It is also the nicest house we have seen throughout the entire house-hunting process.

We are very hopeful & will keep the updates coming!

love & lots of whit – jen xo