First Time Homeowners!

Well we officially bought a house. This is the first time Wes or I have either bought a house. It is also the first time either of us have lived in an actually house since we moved out of our parents house for college when we were 18.  Crazy because that is 15 years of being renters in either an apartment, townhome or condo! Our realtor, who we met through the girls school, Courtenay Cottenden, was very patient and helpful for us during the home buying process. We didn't know the area of Cleveland at all. But after living here for about 3 months we had narrowed down that we wanted to be somewhere in-between the girls school/Wes job and my job. Westside Christian Academy is in the suburb of Westlake on the westside. Cleveland Clinic Main Campus where I work is just east of downtown. We wanted to also stay in this area because it is onto west side of town which supposedly gets less snow than the east side due to the Lake Effect. And at the same time we were trying out churches in the area and wanted to make sure that we lived close enough to the one we landed on to be apart of the community! As you all know we were used to living in an urban context in Seattle and enjoyed the walkability and closeness to things. In Seattle most desire to living in Seattle city limits which drives the housing market prices sky high. In Cleveland, mainly due to some crime and poor school system, most people do not want to live in Cleveland city limits and the housing market is cheap. We too felt uneasy about buying in Cleveland city limits. Some parts are nice or up and coming such as Ohio City or Downtown District but in order to get the space of at least 3 bedrooms we began looking in the suburb of Lakewood. It is just west of Cleveland and in between our jobs. It has a lot of local eatries, stores, old homes, and walkability. After putting an offer over asking on a house there and not getting it we became a little discouraged. Still feeling confused on where to live, wanting to be close to the lake, close to things to do, close to jobs for commuting, close to church, and still getting space and quaint neighborhood I really handed it over to God. I had being praying but at this point I just said wherever You pick will the best. Give us a direction and an opportunity because I do not know what to do. A house in Rocky River I had noticed before, dropped its price $20K so we asked our realtor to take us. We hadn't really looked in this area due to pricing but it is also just west of Cleveland city limits, close to the lake, in-between our jobs, and has a great school district (for resale since we are using private currently). The house is a little 1950s cottage that had very poor aesthetics and nasty carpet. But after we left there I told Wes, this is first house that really feels like a home we have looked at. The backyard, layout of home, garage for the winters, bonus room upstairs for kids/guest, meeting our needs of 3 bed/2 full bath, and not being huge all made it ideal in my eyes. Not to mention the neighborhood is wonderful and family friendly which was not something we were getting in Lakewood necessarily. So we pulled the trigger and went in under asking price. The homeowners countered and then we met in the middle. The whole process seemed long with inspections, closing, etc but it was actually very smooth I think. Since moving in, the neighbors have all been welcoming. There is not a lot of turn over in the area so most people recognized we were new to the street and reached out. Below are some outside shots and stay tuned for inside before and afters as currently there is laundry everywhere and a slight construction zone happening!