TOP TEN #8 Have a Must Have List!!

Just because you shop on a budget doesn't mean you have to sacrifice what you want. (well, all of what you want). Zack and I really thought through things that we knew we wanted out of a house.

Here's an idea of what we wanted:
- community (church, friends, opportunities for ministry) where we live
- good schools, neighborhood
- NO SUBDIVISION
- a yard
- enough bedrooms for guests
- a space large enough to comfortably entertain
- a space for Zack to 'play' :)
- a home close enough to each of our jobs
- more than 1 bathroom. Ideally one with a double sink. I hate sharing sinks.

Don't get me wrong, our house is not perfect by any means, but it did meet most of the criteria we had set.We found that finding a house that meets a majority of your "wants" and is in your budget is doing pretty good :)
Our house did pass the checklist for us... (well, mostly)...
- We are in a great community and have already met some new friends. We host a small group at our houses weekly and hope for our home to continue to be a "hub" for hanging out.  
Check. 

- The house in in Johnston County, which by default means good schools. We are right across from one Elementary School and in the same district as Cleveland (where Zack teaches). We feel great about the neighborhood around us and the district for schools our house is in.  
Check.  

- We proudly DO NOT LIVE IN A SUBDIVISION. There's absolutely nothing wrong with subdivisions at all, but we just didn't picture us living in one. We thought for certain that with our budget, we'd be sort of forced to live in a cul-de-sac. But, lo and behold, we found our gem of a house outside the fences of a subdivision. Along with that, we did start off saying we wanted to have a yard. We do, indeed, have a yard. An acre of yard. Still haven't quite figured out what to do with an acre of yard yet, but it's ours.
Check. 

- When we found the listing for our house online, it said there were 3 bedrooms. Ohhhh why were they so modest?! Our house has a refinished attic that has 2 additional rooms (bedrooms). In total, we have 5 potential bedrooms in our house. These more than cover my want for enough rooms to have guests over.
Check. Check. Check. 

- Our house is perfect for entertaining- whooohooo!! It's in a great area, with a ton of potential for community and ministry (already finding it). The house was a parsonage (owned by a church for the pastor and his family to live in). This means that our house was literally built to have a lot of people in it! It's perfect for entertaining y'all. For reals, even down to the layout of the driveway, it's designed for guests. This is perfect for the Carscaddons!!
Praise Jesus this was a HUGE CHECK CHECK CHECK!!! 

-Zack needs space to roam. The apartment we lived in for a year and a half was nice, but he didn't have a space to call his. Now, he has his own little slice of heaven in his garage and workshop. This was an enormous perk to this house! Him having a yard and his own space to work on his hobbies is wonderful! Well played, Parsonage, well played.  
Check. 

- I was adamant that we move somewhere that wasn't painfully far away from either of our jobs. It's a fact that we couldn't afford to live in the city, or even in Wake County for that matter. So we cast our net towards the perimeters of the Capital County. What we found was living was considerably cheaper outside the city (and Wake Co.) limits, and we could get more bang for our buck in JoCo. So, we agreed that the location of our house was ideal. I have about a 35 minute commute. It's taking some getting used to, but I don't hate it. Anytime I feel the slightest annoyed I remember that I'm driving HOME (that we own. that's right. that is all ours. that we can do whatever we want with). That always remedies my attitude real quick.  
So, reluctantly, yes, check. 

- This last one is kind of a kicker. I did want a big, spacious bathroom, with double sinks and a perfect shower. Instead we got a small, very small, tiny, one sink bathroom. This is one of those areas that we didn't get exactly what we wanted, but the list above speaks for itself that we're more than satisfied with all we did get with our house. Re-doing the bathroom is in our 15-20 year plan.
So, semi-check.

All this to say, that it's totally possible to get what you want out of buying a house, while staying in a realistic budget :) The Lord was SO GOOD to us in blessing us with a wonderful home that really is what we both dreamed of (for the most part)! Be encouraged that it's worth hunting for the perfect house and that there is one out there that's perfect for you!