Moving a Family of FIVE and trying to find out home sweet home wasn’t easy, but we did it.
It’s been a little over a year since I moved to Orange County. We moved from the hot and dry Palm Springs area to the sunny and 70 degrees City of Orange. In the almost 15 years together, my husband and I have moved over five times all over Southern California, so we are used to moving all of our heavy furniture.
But this moved was different because we had two children in elementary school and one child on the way.
I am obsessed with looking at homes on sale on the real estate apps, so I was very excited about the hunt for a new home in a new town. We knew how many bedrooms and bathrooms we needed. Of course, we had a budget since I was going to stay home with the children. I knew about the area through friends and visiting here and there. I had a shortlist of must-haves to make sure we found a place we can call home.
Good Schools
At the top of the list were good schools! I wanted schools with high ratings and good track records. I also wanted to live within the school’s boundaries, so we didn’t have to wait to be accepted into the schools. The real estate apps made it easy because it showed the ratings under the homes for sale information. When I got the hang of searching areas, I chose three areas and then went on to the next thing on my must-have list.
Things We Love to do
With two elementary school-aged children and one on the way, I wanted to look for activities that we like to do as a family and as a couple. As a family, we like to be outdoors, so I looked for hiking areas and the number of parks in areas. I went as far as looking at each of the park’s playgrounds and other amenities for the kids because my kids love monkey bars. For me and my husband, not like we go on many dates, I looked for fun nighttime venues and restaurants in different areas. I cross-referenced these areas and it narrowed my areas down to two different areas.
Home with a Backyard
Finally, we had to have a backyard! Moving from the scorching hot desert, we knew we were going to hang outside all year long, so we wanted to have a backyard we can create an outdoor living space. My husband wanted a place for his grill and some grass to play catch with the kids. I wanted some sort of patio to put some furniture and we can eat and entertain. This narrowed down the search even further.
Home Sweet Home
After looking at 15 or more homes, we found a home in an area with all three must-haves. A home happened to pop up on one of my real estate apps and I immediately told my husband to go check it out that day. He did! Since I was still out of town, he video chatted with me and we made an offer on the house that day. We got a counteroffer and accepted! Now, a year later we are all settled in, and during the 2020 pandemic we can call it our “Home Sweet Home”.
