It's the Final Countdown

(Cue Europe for your mental soundtrack)

We’re less than a week away from becoming grown-ups. Just three more days left to relish yelling at a management company for repairs. Yes, three more days of risk-free rental status. Only three more days of “you’re just throwing money away instead of building equity.” Yes, it’s three more days until we close on the new Hayley Home.

Wow, I feel like such an adult just typing the phrase, we close.

It’s seems like just a few months ago when Kelly and I sat down to talk about purchasing a home. At that time, a house purchase seemed an eternity away – particularly after my love told me that we really needed to save up to make a good down payment and keep our loan small. (I think I cried a little that day.)

It wasn't long before I agreed this was the right plan. We focused and we saved. We still had fun – NBA season tickets, anyone? – but we kept our eye on a long-term goal.

When the weather was nice, we’d go for a constitutional through nearby neighborhoods and provide our own commentary about the homes we’d see.

That siding is awful.

The yard is too small.

What a neat front door!

We need a mailbox like that.

We captured these thoughts in a spreadsheet to use when it was time to house-shop. We called it the “Must Have – Would Like to Have – Don’t Want to Have” spreadsheet. As we added to our bank account each month, we added items to our spreadsheet. We also cruised realtor.com to get a better feel for home values, pricing strategies and managing our expectations.

It all kept house fever away, somewhat.

Finally this January, Kelly said “We can start looking.”

I didn’t waste any time. Three prospective realtors identified and interviewed. One team selected. Budget parameters and search criteria spreadsheet shared.

Off we went and on the sixth day of looking, we found the Hayley Home to-be. We still had to endure negotiations (note to sellers of the Hayley Home: This is a buyer’s market, you don’t have much leverage) and multiple days of hurry up and wait.

Yet here we are. Just three days away from closing.

Now that I come to think a little more about it, maybe by waiting patiently and saving up, we’ve shown ourselves to be pretty grown up all along.