I didn't always want to buy a house. In fact, for most of my life, right up until the past two years or so, I specifically did not want to buy a house. I was perfectly content to rent for my entire life, the way people in bigger cities often do. No, I wasn't falling prey to the "You have to own a house to be an adult" thing society tries to foist upon us.
But then we got pregnant. We thought we were starting a family, & while it would've been perfectly fine to have a baby & even a toddler in our duplex apartment, we thought, "Hey, should we look for a house after all?" We started to look... & then we found out we weren't pregnant anymore, & then the pandemic hit, so we stayed put.
We tried again in early 2021, but that was a nightmare. Things were selling so quickly (& for so much money) that we couldn't even get out to see them before they were off the market. We were looking in my hometown of Cuyahoga Falls, & we literally couldn't even get down there before the houses we liked sold.
This fall, we'd just decided to try again. We contacted a realtor our friends used & set up showings with her — six houses in one night. We liked the first five of them, but we didn't love any of them. That was OK, though. We didn't expect to find our house on night one, anyway. And then we got to the sixth house... which was just about as close to a dream house as could get.
We put in an offer the next day, & our offer was accepted within a few hours. The sellers had already purchased a new house, so they moved out pretty quickly; we closed right after Christmas. And last week, on January 6th, we moved into our very own house — just as it celebrates its 100th birthday.
The house is old, but it's in very good shape. "Good bones," the inspector told us. It has big windows, a large backyard, a nice deck & patio, a two-car garage, & even a sleeping porch. It's got a finished attic with tons of storage, & an unfinished basement that is blessedly not at all dungeon-like. It has a gorgeous staircase & marble countertops & even a beverage fridge in the kitchen. Oh, & a fireplace!
The best part? Aside from, like the house itself, that is? It's not far. We were worried about ending up someplace super suburban, about being too far from Cleveland proper, about not being able to find anything that still felt like the city. But we've just moved to Lakewood!
If you're not familiar with this area, Lakewood is what I sometimes affectionately call the Brooklyn of Cleveland. It's city-adjacent, & some of the city's best stuff is actually there. It's right near a Metropark. It's on Lake Erie. It's full of trees & outdoor space. And some of my favorite Cleveland businesses are actually Lakewood businesses — Rood Food & Pie, Cleveland Curiosities, Caffeine, Coven, Deagan's.
After almost five years in our current duplex apartment, it was admittedly a little sad to say goodbye. And I love Tremont, which really became home — the people, the places, the paths we took every day. But we're thrilled to be someplace new, someplace ours, someplace we can stay forever.
Hello, Lakewood. We're glad to be here.
P.S.: You can follow along with some of my new house updates on Instagram, where I've created an aptly named "New House" story highlight to round up those posts.
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