We decided to search for our new abode in the greater Manchester in towns such as Auburn, Goffstown and Hooksett. We did a drive though Auburn in February and couldn’t find real estate that wasn’t too far off the highway and pretty much wrote it off right away. Goffstown is nice but wanted to find something near route 13 to allow for a smooth commute for me but still giving Mike access to Manchester. But never really saw an “us” house on the market.

As we continued to drive through these towns we came across some interesting prospects in Hooksett and decided to find a realtor. A couple of our coworkers recommended a few, did some interviews and decided to work with Rhonda Rood at Country Houses And we started the search!

We started with a few cute homes in Hooksett. Rhonda was very patient with me and my anxiety of home buying taking quite a while in the very first home we looked at. As we saw more houses it was obvious to me we we would know what we liked pretty soon after walking in. Some of our initial showings always stuck in our minds but also wondered, what else is out there? Our top 2 homes in Hooksett then became unavailable; one was sold and the other being leased for a year.

We couldn’t find other houses in Hooksett we were super excited about and decided to look in Manchester, our roots for the past 7 years. Mike and I spent some time doing drivebys all around the city. Nothing quite felt right until we found a few houses (within our price range) on the north end…our neighborhood for the past 7 years in 2 different places.

It didn’t take long to find the one. Still has reasonable access to downtown and only doubles Mike’s commute to work (a whopping 2 miles total!) So, with a 60 day closing…we found ourselves to be homeowners as of July 19th!

We had an overlap of the apartment through the end of July to finish packing, move, and clean…so nice. It was hard to say goodbye to Pete and Kate, our Landlord and Lordess of 5.5 years. Mike scheduled Easy Days Movers to move our big items from the 3rd floor…ahhh. They were very reasonably priced and efficient, they were the labor and we drove the van. We finished out the apartment the end of July and had time to focus on the house and unpack!

I took a day to focus on unpacking the living room and kitchen just to have a livable space. Then 2 weeks later we had the opportunity to host our friends Karyn and Rob, and the kids…so took another day off to set up our bedroom, spare bedroom and unpack more!

Throughout the past 3 weeks we have met our neighbors (mostly due to being outside weeding or doing yard stuff). We were a bit sad to hear that they had no idea the house had sold…just thought it was off the market.

They came to our rescue letting us borrow lawn mowers to mow, but also for us to see what would work best on our sloped hills. The gas mower was too heavy, the reel mower got jammed up, and the electric mower was just right, but the cord was a bit annoying. So we put an order in for a similar electric model…but with a battery!

This weekend I also had the chance to tackle the weeds in the raised beds, quite pleased with myself (though the boxes themselves need some TLC).

Then the mower arrived last night, Mike assembled it…

…and I mowed the lawn today!

(just the front yard.) did the back and side with ease too!

So far things have gone as smooth as expected…learning as we go!