The Butterfly House
Last Saturday, Chase was in the back seat of my car whining that he didn’t want to spend every weekend looking at houses. I promised we would only look at four that day, but snuck in a fifth when he was asleep. He woke up and called me out on it.
We have been a mad hunt to find a place to call home, opening up our search to more or less the entire Twin Cities area. And I mean, full Rand McNally map spread out on the dining room table with a sharpie in hand searching. Like Zillow alert, MLS alert, Realtor alert, schmooze every agent at every open house to see if they have something off market, follow every listing agent on Instagram searching. Everything is figureoutable and I was going to figure this out.
We had seen all the houses to see, but the inventory was low and none felt right. This picture of Steve standing in one of the houses, pretty much sums it all up.
So last Saturday, Steve was up North for a boys weekend, Anders was at Skijammers and Chase and I saw open houses from Edina, to Minnetonka, to Shoreview, to Woodbury. We ended the day at an enormous house with a space that even moved Chase, but was just too big for us. He said that we like each other, so we don’t need to spread out in such a big house. I agreed and on the ride home I felt defeated. We stopped to grab some candy which made Chase feel better, me not so much.
That night, I woke up at 2:30am with an idea (which often happens when Steve is out of town.) I texted him like crazy from 2:32am until we finally chatted around 8:00am. He picked up, only because he thought something was wrong. Instead, something was right.
I realized that a house that I had seen the week prior was OUR house. Here’s why it checked every single item on our brief:
1. Good School - The house was located in a great public school district. And hey their mascot is the Mustang, just like the American School In Japan. Could it be a sign?
2. Community - I finally understood that everyone loves their neighborhoods so much because they are just that, THEIR neighborhoods. This house was in our old neighborhood and I couldn’t shake that of all the places and spaces, it just felt like home.
3. Nature - The house sits on 1.3 acres, surrounded by trees with a path leading directly to a huge lake I used to take Lobster on long off leash hikes around. I can already see the fire pit, twinkle lights and the silhouettes of our family in the yard.
4. Right Size Right Price - We kicked off our home search with a certain dollar amount in mind and wound up raising it hundreds of thousands of dollars when we kept coming back empty handed. This 2500sq ft house will give us enough savings to invest back into the house remodel and still keep us adventuring.
5. Unique - The house was weird and wonderful and my dream has always been to work with an architect to design something uniquely ours. After our call with SALA where I learned I could’t afford to start from scratch, but felt all the good feelings, I thought this gave us the most beautiful bones to begin with. Plus, it has a similar layout to our old house, which made it feel familiar.
6. Extra - And while this last point wasn’t on the brief it means a lot. After having such an adventure the last five years, simply moving into a finished house in a well landscaped yard felt like the end instead of the beginning. I want to have another adventure. I know remodeling a house/adding an addition will bring with it headaches and cost and delays and frustrations, but that is a life that I want to live. A life where you feel feelings and create change and make things better and keep improving as you move forward pivot after pivot.
So last Sunday, Steve came home from his boys trip and we all hopped in the car to see the house. Inside of it, was a cardboard model that sealed the deal. It let me see the home as it was intended to be, and with another look at the butterfly roof, we named it “The Butterfly House”. We all agreed it was right and put in an offer that night. It was accepted the next morning and we are now negotiating some final bits and pieces before we close.
Do I regret moving us into Edina? No. Sometimes you need to date around to realize your high school boyfriend was actually the love of your life. If we hadn’t tried, I would have always wondered.
Do I hate that the boys have to switch schools? Yes, but after only 5 months they will be ok. Plus, they have been part of the decision making process and are as resilient AF.
Does it kill me that I have to figure out activities/camps all over again. Yes. Just yes. But already I am discovering that our new neighborhood is much less competitive. After school care is just available. Just like that. No lottery, no scarcity, you just sign up. How beautiful.
Will a better house pop up tomorrow? Possibly. Will we regret this decision? I’m sure a few times. Am I glad we are moving forward towards our close date? Heck yes. In fact, we are so close, I went to include the Zillow link to the house and it is already removed.
I feel a peace I haven’t felt since we found out we were moving. We almost have a home. A place to envision a life. I won’t stop mood boarding and I couldn’t be more excited about the future. Whether we are in “The Butterfly House” for the next 5 years or next 50 - we are almost home.
The Butterfly House - North Oaks, MN