Choosing the Location

Emily and I have always wanted to buy a little home in the woods as a getaway from NYC, and to set up as a short-term rental property. When we were ready to really start house hunting, our first important decision to make was choosing the location. Would we look in upstate New York in the Catskills or look in Pennsylvania in the Poconos?

We’d previously visited both locations, and loved them equally. Both locations are within a 2-3 hour drive from New York City, offer recreational activities during all 4 seasons, are a nature lover’s paradise, and had lots of homes for sale within our price range.

Emily’s parents currently live full-time in an RV and my family lives in Kentucky (see Hometown Tour). We ultimately decided that the Poconos was the more desirable location for our vacation property because of proximity for both of our families. Purchasing in the Poconos means that our families will not need to drive through New York City to get to us!

Our Top 3 Houses

We focused our house hunting search on properties that were around 1,000 square feet, had at least two bathrooms and three bedrooms, and had space for entertaining both indoors and outdoors.

We finally narrowed our online search down to 3 properties we wanted to view in person. All 3 properties were in the same neighborhood, had large decks, and were within $10,000 asking price of one another.

Here were our top 3 choices:

Number 1: Traditional A-Frame

This traditional A-frame mountain chalet was built in 1967 and has 1000 square feet. The kitchen, living room, dining room, and 1 bed/bath are on the first floor. The other 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom are upstairs. The bathrooms were recently updated and the home features rustic wood ceilings.

Number 2: Contemporary Cottage

This contemporary cottage was built in 1974 and has 1150 square feet. The kitchen, living room, dining room, and 1 bed/bath are on the first floor. The other 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom are upstairs. The entire home was recently renovated and has high slanted ceilings and large windows in the living area.

Number 3: Secluded Chalet

This secluded chalet was built in 1978 and has almost 1150 square feet. The kitchen, living room, dining room, 2 bedrooms, and 1 bathroom are on the first floor. There is 1 more bed/bath upstairs. This was the only home we viewed that has an attached screened porch.

Our Choice

At the end of our house hunting process, we chose to put an offer on Home #2, the Contemporary Cottage. After a few rounds of negotiations, including adding some of the furniture and all of the appliances to the purchase price, the home was ours!

One of the things that ultimately sold us on the cottage was that it was already completely renovated and updated. When we first decided to buy a property we thought a fixer-upper could be fun, but quickly decided it was too much to take on from a remote distance from NYC. We also wanted to make sure the home is completely ready before Baby #3 arrives (see Our Third).

Another feature we love about this home is that on the main level, the living and dining areas are one large room, adjacent to the kitchen. The living space will be perfect for entertaining. The high slanted ceilings make the large room feel even more open and airy, and the large windows stream in lots of light during all times of day.

We are planning to set up a queen bed upstairs, a bunkbed room upstairs, and a queen bed downstairs. When we use the home for ourselves, we will have the downstairs bed/bath available as a guest area, and our bedroom and the girls’ bedroom will both be located upstairs, with the second bathroom. The girls love sharing bunk beds at home, and will have a similar setup in this house (see Bedroom Redo).

Work Balance

Before even starting the house hunting process, Emily and I had an honest conversation to talk about the impact this decision may have on our family. We have both made a conscious effort to tidy up our lives, focus on what’s important, and spend time doing what we love (see Tidying Up My Life). We wanted to make sure this home would be adding value to our family.

We also talked about how we would manage the maintenance of two properties: our apartment in New York City and the house in Pennsylvania. How often would we travel back and forth? Would we use it or rent it during school breaks and summers? Would we hire someone locally to help us manage the property, clean it, maintain the yard? Some of these questions still don’t have final answers, but it was helpful to brainstorm our ideas together before we moved forward with the purchase.

Buying this home has definitely been a lot of work. Emily and I spent many nights getting paperwork together, pouring over financial documents, and scheduling appraisals and appointments.

We quickly realized that we wanted to chose a home that would be fairly low maintenance, mostly move-in ready, and with a small yard. We plan to spend a lot of time outdoors exploring the woods, lakes, hiking, skiing, and playing. We believe we were able to find a gem of a home with this cottage (see Our Newest Project).

Now that the house hunting process is finished and the home is officially ours, we are excited to focus on the fun parts of home buying – furnishing, decorating and making the space our own! We have some fun projects planned, and can’t wait to share tips and tricks about the process with you!

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