A House For all Seasons

I have had nothing but houses on my mind this week.

Ok I guess I pretty much always have houses on my mind, given that I'm pretty close to being obsessed with them and spend my odd hours combing through Refin and Zillow just dreaming of the perfect 1920s spanish-style cottage with enormous windows and a working fireplace and a porch and a succulent garden in front and fruit trees in the back... (cough, cough)

But I digress. This week specifically, I have houses on my mind because Jared and I have just put our darling home in Iowa City back on the market.

We bought it in 2008 when we moved there for graduate school. It seemed like a crazy move to some of our friends, but the mortgage rate we got was so low that we ended up paying far less than we would have as renters, and more importantly, we got to live the dream of having the perfect home all to ourselves.

It really was wonderful. The sweetest 1930s three-bedroom bungalow with wood floors and these great big windows and a huge shady, grassy yard. We had a hammock between the mulberry trees, and flowerboxes under the windows. We had friendly, caring neighbors. We were a bike's ride from downtown, but just far enough away from the craziness that is Iowa football culture. Serene would be a good word for it. We had the most perfect three years there.

We even considered staying on for a little longer after school ended, but when Jared was offered his job out here we quickly put it up on the market (too late in the selling season, it turned out) and starting making plans to move to the big city.

When we didn't get the right kind of offer right away we decided to rent it out for a bit. We took to Craigslist and in two days received 63 (!) offers from prospective tenants. We chose one, then said goodbye to our sweet home and neighborhood, and headed west in our tiny, overflowing uhaul.

Now, nine months later, our tenant's lease is ending and it is time once more to put our beloved house back up for sale. It's a strange feeling, being so far away and unable to add the little touches like baskets of flowers and plates of fresh baked cookies for buyers. But the house itself is so beautiful, we just have to trust that those little things won't matter in the end.

Here's hoping our first home finds owners who will love it as much as we did!