We Bought A(nother) House

This spring I experienced three major life changes. Two of them, finishing the dissertation and starting a new job, I’ve already discussed. Today, we’ll take a look at the third and final change: relocating to Norfolk. This move involved not only finding a new house and taking all our stuff across the water, but selling our house in Williamsburg. Let’s take a look!

Selling Our First House

When Brandon and I bought our house in Williamsburg in 2021, our primary motivation was financial. Our rent had gotten untenable, and switching to a mortgage would save us hundreds of dollars a month if we found the right place. We weren’t looking for a long-term home, but something that would let us comfortably pay our bills while I finished my dissertation. The house we found fit our needs at the time, a challenging feat considering the average home value in Williamsburg.

That said, although we bought our house with practical motivations, it became home to us while we lived there. Between painting the interiors, removing the old carpet, and upgrading appliances, we made it our own. When we started considering moving to Norfolk in earnest, we couldn’t help but feel bittersweet about it.

We started the home-selling process in March, after I’d handed in my dissertation. Our goal was to be fully relocated to Norfolk by summer. To sell the home, we used the same agent who’d sold us the house, Jill Williams. In late March, after having the house photographed, we had it listed. That would give us a few months to complete the moving process.

A Harried Search

As it turned out, we had to find a house in Norfolk sooner than we expected. Due to the lack of affordable housing in Williamsburg, homes under 500k don’t stay on the market long. Case in point: we listed our house on a Friday, had viewings through the weekend, and accepted an offer on Sunday night. While we negotiated a back rent agreement through May, we couldn’t dawdle on finding a new place.

Initially, we considered townhouses in the Ghent district, given its proximity to the Museum, but everything went under contract before we could get into them. We also worried about Ghent’s vulnerability to flooding. So we expanded our search to include single-family homes as well as townhouses and apartments, and considered neighborhoods beyond walking distance to work.

Initially, the results were frustrating. One house had an eave so low Brandon had to duck his head just to get inside. Another place felt like walking through a funhouse because it had absolutely no level framing in its construction. One place had potential but the selling agent wasn’t answering their phone. The search for a new home was off to a rocky start.

Finding Our House

Until it wasn’t. The Friday after we’d listed our house in Williamsburg, we looked at three different places in Norfolk. The third and final house for that day was a single-story ranch located in Estabrook, a neighborhood located about ten minutes from the Norfolk Botanical Garden and the airport. Built in 1976, the home featured three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a backyard. It also had only one owner between its construction and its listing, a fact that I’m still wrapping my head around.

The house needed work, to be sure. It was mostly covered in carpeting. The second bathroom would also need a complete overhaul. But it had a lot of potential. We could provide overnight guests with their own bedroom and bathroom. I could turn the second bedroom into a study, while Brandon could use the den for his computer. The yard wasn’t overwhelmingly huge but could easily accommodate raised garden beds for vegetables, a fire pit, or a meadow dedicated to native plants and wildflowers. It was a house with the space to accommodate all our interests.

One week after listing our place in Williamsburg, we’d found our new home.

Making it Our Own

We closed on the new house in early May, and spent the month preparing for the move. Using leftover paint from our previous house, we painted accent walls in the kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and study. Rather than replicate the same color combinations we had in last house, we tried new ones. Instead of yellow and blue for the kitchen, for instance, we used red and tan. For the living room, we used the same earthy ochre color Brandon had used in his old study. For my new study, we used the last of the yellow we’d painted the old kitchen.

We also redid the floors in the living room and den. The living room carpet was replaced with a wood laminate in a lighter color than the old house. For the den, we opted for a faux marble vinyl tile, since the room was already paneled in wood.

We finished moving our things to the house over Memorial Day weekend. For the first few days, we had most of our furniture crammed into the kitchen and guest bedroom to accommodate the reflooring. Once that was finished though, we were able to spread our things out into the rest of the house. And that’s when it really started to feel like a home again.

An Ongoing Project

We’ve quickly learned that this house will be an ongoing project. Because of the increased square footage, we couldn’t afford to redo all the floors at once as we had been able to in Williamsburg. Until we have guests staying overnight, renovating the second bathroom is not a priority. While I’ll eventually paint birds and other critters on the walls, I need to spend a few months getting familiar with the local wildlife first. I also need to research raised beds if I’m going to have a vegetable garden beyond my containers.

But that’s okay. My parents spent 15 years renovating their first home. My sister had been working on hers for a decade. As Brandon and I have learned from our last house, home ownership is a marathon, not a sprint, and there will always be something to work on.

In the meantime, Brandon and I have found a good place to begin this next chapter. And while we don’t plan to spend the rest of our lives here, I am looking forward to not packing our stuff again for at least a few years.