Mike interviewed for his new job the week Owen was born, and started a couple weeks later. We knew that eventually we were going to move closer to it, just didn’t know exactly when. His commute isn’t awful at 55 minutes, but it’s not a great one. Eventually we started searching with the mentality that if we found an awesome house we’d jump on it but it wasn’t a huge deal. Lots of houses in our price range were available but nothing really called out to us.
Then there was the Foxglove house. We almost didn’t look at it because it sat on top of a large hill with a steep driveway. But oh, the house was wonderful. Big backyard, huge garage, plenty of space, and a great flow that made it feel just right. It was slightly out of our price range, but it had been on the market for a while so we though we might be able to offer lower. Mike decided to drive out there after work one day to see how the commute was and it turned out to be a not so perfect house. The commute took him through the busiest section of Raleigh and was over an hour.
Womp womp womp. So no Foxglove house for us.
The search continued into different areas that would avoid the traffic. One day Mike sent me a listing that looked really familiar. The finishes were different but, wait a second, is that? It’s the same layout as the Foxglove house!! It turns out the floor plan was built all over the place! That one was too far, another one we ended up touring another had a terrible front yard, another one was too expensive. It seemed everywhere we looked there was at least one Foxglove house around. It wasn’t the only house we were willing to take, but man was it nice. More than one house didn’t stand up to the “Foxglove House” test and we passed on it.
When we found the house we ended up buying, we had pretty much decided to stop looking for a while. But it was a great house, in a great neighborhood, and we jumped on it. No Foxglove House test was administered. A couple days later my father in law sent us an email and told us the house looked really similar to the Foxglove layout but in reverse.
Whaaaat? No it’s not the Foxglove house is it? But then we looked again. Same foyer, half bath off to the side, island in the kitchen. Yep it was the same layout, but backwards. There were a couple of differences, like an entryway closet and the layout of the laundry room is different, but it’s the same house. No wonder it feels like home to me already. The house we were searching for was there all the time, we just needed it in the right order for it to be ours. We got our Foxglove house.
We move in 10 days, and even with all of the stress of packing and carting the kids around it feels like Christmas to me. And isn’t the house just beautiful?
The Wild Williamsons 