Starting Anew

It's hard to believe it has been over a year since I have last posted on the blog. Much has happened in that time. Not only have we put our beloved family home up for sale in NY, but my husband and I have moved out of state. Leaving two of our three children, our home of sixteen years, friends, my gardens, and our community was a difficult decision to make and execute. But we believed that God had a plan for us and we chose to trust Him. So, it was Pennsylvania, here we come!

First, I had to find the right real estate agent. I love old houses, especially the stone houses of southeastern PA. I used all sorts of key words in my search, and one name came up over and over again, Scott Laughlin. Scott specializes in historic and unique homes. He also specializes in patience!

You see, I had a list of requirements; stone house built before 1850, three bedrooms, two baths, two (+/-) acres and in move-in condition. Oh, and there was a price limit. I think Scott is still laughing. My husband on the other hand had only one request, one hour from work. Scott had his work cut out for him.

We began the search in February, 2015. First trip was two days and thirteen houses. Now let me go back a bit, I love going through old houses. I don't care the condition. I love admiring all the historic details and imagining the history of each one. So when we began this search, we saw the full range; lovely to nearly condemned. I dare not mention the cat house.

Since my husband had a one hour radius, we looked at houses in six counties. Did I mention that Scott was patient? Our first time out I fell in love with a stone house in Chester County.

Love at first sight.

Well, over the next five months, the house of my dreams went under contract twice, while we placed and pulled an offer on another house twice. Finally I saw that the listing became active again and we put in an offer. Back and forth a couple of times and the house was finally ours!

After a slight delay (Husband's gall bladder decided to misbehave the day before our scheduled move) I was finally directing movers as to what went where. We have settled in nicely and truly love living in such a beautiful place. There is much to do on the property and I will be sharing our reclamation and planting as we go along.