Saying Hello to Homeownership

So we've (kind of) kept our house hunting on the downlow. Mostly because we weren't sure if we would come out with anything when we first started. It even took me a few weeks into the process to realize we were getting serious. We've been actively searching for a home for about 2 months now. It alllll started with a casual unintended peak at Trulia and finding what I thought was our dream home in our price range. We quickly found a realtor, applied and qualified for a loan and went to look at the house that weekend. We quickly came down from our cloud and realized through our realtor what a terrible decision it would've been to have bought that "flipped" house. There were visible cut corners and even externally we could tell they were hiding some major issues.

Nonetheless, we had opened the pandora's box that was house hunting. We quickly realized how un-fun the house hunting process was when you're limited to a lower budget for the area, increasing demand/competition and a shrinking inventory. The housing market in NOVA has quickly become a seller's market rather than a buyer's market. Houses get scooped up in days, we saw it time and time again. And we were having no luck finding a place that met all of our major needs.

After again, coming out of my cloud, we realized we had to move our house search further outside of Fairfax. We had a few criteria must-haves while we were looking:

• It had to be close to our church: We want our house to be used for ministry purposes and to be an option for hosting church functions, small groups, Christmas parties, etc at our house. Currently, our church has few options where more than 10 people can show up and not have parking issues. We want our home to be open and used for Kingdom work.
• It had to be close to move-in ready. Obviously, this eliminated a lot of the properties we saw that were closer in--like almost all of them. The comparison to what our money could buy closer in was simply not worth it once we saw what we could get 15 minutes (without traffic) out. Granted we'll have a slightly longer commute, but that was really the only con. 
• It had to be detached. I personally was on the fence with this one...I would've moved into a townhouse if it meant we could be closer in and it didn't look like 1970s had thrown up all over it. But Ryan on the otherhand, would not settle for a townhouse or condo. He wanted a yard. I could've cared less about a yard. I think it's because deep down he sees a dog in our future. I eventually came around and besides, who really wants to share walls with people and have to constantly worry about your sound system having too much bass? Right, Ryan?? ;)

I was also picky about a lot of random things that I originally didn't think were a big deal. For example, I hated any house with those old rectangular 70s small windows, I automatically loved any room that had recessed lighting, I actually wanted a fireplace, and if the bathrooms were horrendous it was a no go. All of that to say that last Sunday, we randomly decided to attend an open house advertised on Zillow out in Centreville. We went and fell in love with it. It met every single one of our needs. So we went home, signed all the necessary documents and put in our offer on a house that had been on the market for 3 days. Ryan made me wait until we went through inspection before I could announce anything, but I can now say that on our 6 month anniversary our offer was accepted and we are officially BUYING A HOUSE and will be homeowners! We are thrilled and excited and we are praising the Lord for his sweet provision!

So without further ado, say hello to the new Shaughnessy household:

Christmas Recap

Is it just me or did the past few weeks FLY by! It's always when you're off work, does the week just seem to go so much faster. We had a busy first married Christmas! It was the perfect balance of rest, family, adventure and busyness for us. I felt well rested and almost ready to go back to work (I mean who ever feels fully ready to go back to work?)

We started off our week by heading to Charleston, SC for a mini weekend getaway at a place we've always wanted to explore. We left Saturday morning in the thick of Christmas traffic and after about 8.5 hours we finally made it! Now, I planned this trip as a Christmas present for Ryan. I booked the hotel. I figured out what we would do. I researched where we could eat. I booked the Inn at Middleton Place which was a sprawling southern plantation and not to mention totally out of my normal scope of hotels. I always say that I'm not an inn or B&B type person, but after reading some mixed reviews and looking at pictures I just decided to go for it. We got there late at night, got lost because the place was so big, checked in and set our bags down. As soon as Ryan opened the door I thought to myself, "Oh dear, what have I done." It was nothing like the pictures, but I decided to stick it out because Ryan loved it. Let's just say that after that one night and even into the morning there were so many things that I didn't like about this place that I couldn't imagine staying another night. So I did what I hate doing...I pulled my high maintenance card. The Inn was literally sucking my joy out of the trip. And this is how great Ryan is. He didn't care that he loved the place, or that this was as close to camping as I'll ever get, he just wanted to do whatever it took to make me happy. And that included checking into a tried-and-true Marriott.

We loved Charleston! It was everything we expected it to be--southern, classy yet still had a hometown feel. We just explored the city, ate at some amazing places, did a little shopping at some stores and the Old City Market and ended our day with a carriage tour of the old city. One day, we would still love to find ourselves there. We even made the mistake of pulling up our Zillow app and seeing how "cheap" the houses were. I'm in love with the double porch and ceiling fans! We drove by a couple that we'd scoop up in a heartbeat...if we were down there. Someday!

We headed by to good 'ole Virginia and kicked off Christmas at my parent's house. We spent Christmas morning there, drove up to Northern VA and had Christmas at Ryan's parent's house, headed into DC for Christmas dinner at Carmines, went to see Ryan's brother and sister-in-law for Christmas dessert and THEN went home. It was the longest day ever, but we were so glad to see all our family all in one day. We didn't have a chance to do Christmas just the two of us until about 11:00 p.m. that night. Next year, that will be different! We put lots of miles on our poor CRV traveling all over the East Coast, but we loved it and it was memorable.

We ended our break by watching Melissa and Joe get hitched. I had to give my first (and hopefully last) ever MOH speech, but I'm thankful I had to do it with Rachel. Now, I didn't really cry at my own wedding. I think so much was going on and I was so worried about the clouds opening up. We got to watch their first look and I bawled my eyes out. Didn't even see it coming. And when she was coming down the aisle? There went the tears again! It was such a joy to watch one of my best friends finally find the guy, her soulmate, her husband. It was a whirlwind of a day for sure, but I'm so glad they're finally married!!

Peppermint-Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Every time there's a church event that involves bringing food, I've noticed that I try extra hard to bake/cook something new and from scratch. It's like I'm tricking people into thinking "Shannon knows how to cook". We're having our Harvest Christmas party tonight and due to my new last name, we fell under the dessert umbrella.

Several months ago, I bought a Martha Stewart Living Groupon subscription which also got me a free subscription to Everyday Food (which sadly they're discontinuing!). I've already grabbed so many great recipes from this little digest! It's full of hints and baking tips that are actually helpful for a basic cooker/baker like me. So when I saw a Christmas cookie section this month, I knew I had to make one for our church party. I settled on the Peppermint-Chocolate Sugar Cookie--mostly because how festive they looked and who doesn't like peppermint? Plus I got to use my trusty mixer!

• Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted (just a note, I didn't sift, I wasn't patient enough and it was fine!)
• 3-5 tablespoons heavy cream
• 12 round peppermint candies, crushed, for decorating (I used more)
• *Makes 2 dozen*

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract on medium-high until pale and fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in egg, then flour mixture on low. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and place, 2 inches apart, on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until edges are lightly golden, about 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks and let cool completely.
3. Stir together confectioners' sugar and enough cream to make a spreadable glaze (if you like a strong mint flavor, stir in up to 1/4 teaspoon extract). Spread a thin layer of glaze on top of each cookie and sprinkle with candies (I used my Martha chopper!). Let dry completely on racks.

And here's what mine looked like:

Not to Brag or Anything...

...But I have the best husband. Even though we've only been married for about 4 months now, he's continued to impress me in new ways.

• He's not afraid to make dinner.
• He'll never turn down a trip to the grocery store with me.
• He'll join me on trips to HomeGoods and World Market...for the 3rd time in a week.
• He cleans the shower, because it literally tires my arms out so quickly that I can't finish.
• He cleans on his days off

BUT there has been one obvious thing that I have noticed that he is the bomb.com at...He loves inviting people to church. Ryan has been intentional with almost everyone we know up here (known for awhile or just a little) and invited them to church on multiple occasions. Some we know are saved, some we know are not saved, but either way Ryan loves seeing people we love and care about come to the church we have grown to love and care about. Usually the woman in the relationship is inviting couples over for lunch, or hangout time; nope that's all Ryan! He's constantly reaching out to multiple people to check-in, stay in touch and invite them into community with us. And I just love that. So, I had to brag, and if you haven't been invited to Harvest yet...it's coming :) Love you boo!

Gratefulness in Livin' Small

We live in a slightly greater than 800 square foot condo. We only have one parking spot, we can only park 2 visitors at a time, we have only one bedroom and one bathroom and we live 4 stories up. Real transparency here, I sometimes get bummed out when I see other people's houses, heck apartments that are 4 times the size as our humble abode AND paying maybe half as much as we are for rent/mortgage. Sometimes these ungrateful words want to jump out of my mouth: it's not fair.

Ryan and I have always shared thoughts and dreams about moving South--you know, just somewhere outside of Virginia and well, anywhere below the Mason Dixon line. We would love to settle down in the Carolinas, or maybe even Georgia. I would love for our children to grow up with an adorable southern accent, live on sweet tea and sunshine, and then skooch them off to a college so that Ryan and I can feed off of their school spirit--Clemson anyone? We'd totally be those parents. But we aren't there yet, we might not ever get there. We've been talking about it more, but who knows the Lord might have something different for us!

Back to our itty bitty condo--for a LONG time, I was not a fan of living in Northern VA. The DC Metro area takes a LOT of getting used to. There is a laundry list of things I still don't like about this area--the price to live up here, the amount of time you lose commuting to and from places, the crowds, the traffic. But in living here, I'm finding that I'm incredibly grateful and blessed to be where I'm at in life, living in NOVA, livin' small. Sure we are living in a condo the size of most people's master bedroom, but we still manage to entertain, to set aside time to intentionally invest in friendships we have grown to love, to attempt to cook decent meals and to decorate our small space exactly how we want it.

For now, I'm grateful that we don't have to fill a huge space, because in all honesty I probably couldn't handle it right now! We are incredibly blessed to have a roof over our head, to be living 30 minutes from our Nation's capitol, to both have secure jobs, to live near a metro and to have the time to spend together in an area where time is so precious. I'm grateful for our small space because really, when you think about it, it's hardly a small blessing.