If you follow along on instagram or Tik Tok, you’re already well aware of the fact that we purchased a cute A-Frame cabin in Upstate, NY. I never formally wrote about it yet, so I wanted to share some more details over here and our house story, and share a round up of the before photos.
Sometime in the middle of 2020, after we sold our camper it dawned on us that a logical next step for us as a family of four was to begin to search for a home in Upstate NY. We thought about where we usually would drive to on camper trips, and honestly, most of them ended up in an Upstate NY campground so we could hike, explore fall foliage in fall months, and enjoy the blooms in the spring. Once we had no camper, we were back to spending lots of money on Airbnb, which made 0 sense to us. We started to narrow down what we wanted, and where we wanted to be, and as we narrowed down the houses that jumped out to us, we landed on a smaller home with a larger yard so that the kids could play. So basically, the opposite of our home in Long Beach, which is a 4/3 but has close to 0 yard space! We wanted to have the best of both worlds. We’ve always loved A-Frame homes, and with our criteria, we realized owning one would fit our exact needs, and would be a fun adventure for us since we’ve always loved them so much. We also have thought about listing the home on Airbnb down the road, and we know from experience that A-Frame homes are ALWAYS rented and are so hard to come by in Upstate, NY, so this played in to our choice as well.
At the end of December, we stumbled upon a really cute A-Frame that needed some love near where we wanted to be, but by the time we called the broker, it had already been sold. It was NOT in good shape, and that’s when we realized that finding a house could take us much longer than we expected, or so I thought.
Fast forward to early January when we were upstate with my in-laws, staying at an Airbnb… I was browsing instagram, and one of the accounts that I follow shared a listing to an A-Frame home. When I checked the map, it was so close to us! The listing had JUST gone up, and then as fate would have it, it turns out the listing agent also followed on instagram, so it was easy to hop on a call with her and schedule a tour for the following morning. Matt got a pre-approval in like 10 minutes lol (you needed one to tour because of COVID) and it all just felt like fate! I know that I am a sap, but I believe that when things line up so perfectly, they were meant to be, and with this home I really felt that. The other thing I’ve found from house hunting in the past is that it’s rare to step into a space and see visions of your grown family enjoying the space in years to come. I’ve definitely toured houses that I’ve loved, but couldn’t exactly see us in. This house instantly spoke to me. The yard especially was somewhere I could see us making pizzas and having bonfires and playing t-ball, and I just felt like it was a place I wanted my boys to grow up.
We drove to the house the next morning at 11AM. My initial reaction to the inside of the house to be honest was a bit disappointed, because the lighting was so dark. That was my biggest concern, but everything else was in mint condition, and totally move-in ready. Matt and I thought about it, and realized that we’d have to commit to putting skylights in to alter the lighting situation, but that everything else was exactly what we wanted and that we were 100% going to make an offer. That, my friends, is when we naively thought we had any control over the choice of whether the house would become ours lol.
A few hours after we put in our slightly above asking price offer, we heard that there were multiple other offers. Let’s just say we had to continue to increase + increase again just to get the house, but we decided to look at everything as a small step in a much larger picture, and just getting the house was the largest step #1. We finally found out the news a few days later after many moments of Matt and I looking at each other and going OMG DO YOU THINK WE GOT IT?? and OMG IS TODAY THE DAY WE FIND OUT??? that the owner picked us!! It was surreal. We still to this day months later look at each other sometimes and say “we cannot believe we own this A-frame and it is ours! We are so so lucky!” and I really do just feel like the absolute luckiest. Sitting in the front yard with the adorable A-frame behind me while drinking my coffee is just so calming. It’s a really quiet and nature-filled space, and there’s so many great towns and hikes nearby. Fixing it up so far has also brought me so much joy. I love sharing it with all of you, and hope to be able to open up the space so some of you can enjoy it as well someday!
Here’s some before photos from the first day that we toured the home!
