Home Sweet Home

Seven years ago Sky and I purchased our home on the Westside of Indianapolis. I was in my first year of teaching in Wayne Township and Sky had just returned to the States and worked in the business park by the 'old' airport. Having not been in the Indy area more than a few months, we weren't very familiar with amenities and personalities of different neighborhoods. We did know that we wanted to be close to work and live in Indianapolis, so it made since to look in Wayne Township.

It's hard to believe now, but when we searched we actually went to the grocery store and got booklets of homes for sale and looked at the classified section of the paper to find open houses. I remember purchasing a paper map in order to see where each of the listings was located. We didn't have a list of 'must haves', rather we worked more by location, square footage, floor plan and overall feel of the house and neighborhood. We found our home when we attended an open house for a different place in the same neighborhood, Parc Estates. We contacted the selling agent (for our home) whom we felt comfortable with right away. She ended up representing us in the sale as well, so we never signed with another agent.

We took possession of our house at the beginning of December, 2004. Since then we've learned a lot about ourselves as home owners. Yearly maintenance isn't something we diligently keep up with, but when something needs to be fixed, we are quick to find an economical, practical solution. Flower beds and patios can quickly turn to weeds in our yard, so a wooded lot that can be left mostly natural would be our best bet. White tile in the kitchen and entryway is not our friend; we don't clean floors often enough and white tile shows everything! We like to entertain, so having a comfortable space to entertain family and friends where they feel like they can make themselves at home is a must. These, among many other things, have influenced our search for a new home.

We plan to say in Indianapolis, moving to the north, central part of town. We love the established neighborhoods, amenities, and proximity to family and friends. It's farther from work for both of us, but that's ok. Completely detaching from work and having time to catch up on NPR on my commute are things I'm looking forward to. We will miss our Parc Estates neighbors as they have become our friends over the years. We also have a good friend who lives close to our current place, so moving farther away from her isn't going to be easy as we like to get together weekly to watch our favorite shows. However, we'll be closer to our favorite stores, city amenities, and most of our friends and family which will all be nice. The move is bitter-sweet, but I'm hoping, in the end, the sweet things will outweigh the bitter.

So, I plan to blog about our search for our new home and the process we go through to move into and create our home. We have already done some of the searching and planning, so those posts should be coming soon. It's good to be back :) I hope you stick around!