The House Wars

Just over a year ago I decided that I wanted to move. I love my house in Sag Harbor but I was yearning for a little bit more space (things are, ahem, snug here to say the least), plus I wanted a small pool in the backyard, something that was either not possible due to village setback ordinances, or way too costly because the house's septic tank is smack dab in the middle of the yard, it would need to be moved (if possible) to the front yard. Sounds like nothing but dollar signs to me! Separately, I had wearied of the Hamptons...wearied of the high cost of living and it's remoteness. It would be nice to live closer to NYC to see shows, make apppointements with my doctors, see more of my firends, etc. Also, it would be much easier for Scott, my partner, to commute in seeing me. The 3 plus hour train ride out East is a killer. But where to look? Forget Middle Long Island...no style quotient AT ALL. The Gold Coast closer to the city was too expensive. How about New Jersey? Well, the property taxes are exhorbitant and I didn't know much about the towns out there. There was upstate New York, i.e. Columbia County, Duchess County, Ulster...but I never loved it up there despite many friends who now call it home. It's very rural and, alas, not in a good way, too 'Trumpy' in my opinion...you don't have to look too hard to see trailer homes with burn barrells in the front yard. Just not my jam. That left Connecticut. Scott was a HUGE proponant of the this idea. He owned a home there several years back until a new job located in Jersey City pushed him into buying an apartment in the city. He also had many old friends there and missed all those connections. And truth be told, I had always had a secret desire to live in Connecticut. Watching all those old episodes of 'I Love Lucy' when they moved to the country had a pull for me (yes, I know that was all a Hollywood set but STILL!). I had a VERY clear idea of what my dream Connecticut home consisted of: besides more space inside and out, I wanted one of those classic homes built in the 1920's, 30's, or 40's that had so much built-in character...well-proportioned rooms, interesting layouts, lovely millwork, and super well built. We focused on the 'shoreline' towns of Fairfield County...Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Fairfield, Westport, and the ultimate winner, Stamford (but I'm getting ahead of myself).

We quickly found out that the home search in this market was OFF THE CHARTS CRAZY. We would arrive at open houses and the line was out the front door. Or we'd arrive only to be told that there was already an accepted off THAT MORNING. Worst of all, I would make an offer on something on a weekend and told it would have to be 'best and final' by MONDAY.

I bid on a handful of places, all very nice, and lost out on all of them. One was this adorable Tudor Revival gem, I love it, but I was the NINTH highest bid. LOSER!

This was a process that stretched out over several months with many looong trips to Connecticut from way out here in Sag Harbor. I hate care travel and driving so this was torture for me. One day Scott spied an interesting place in Stamford, he said "look at this one, it's really cute". We drove out that weekend, there was a packed open house. I made my best offer, it was almost 40 thousand over asking price. I found out a few days later I lost out again. At that point I was done. I texted my agent and said "I'm pulling the plug on this search in this group of towns. I don't think this process and my budget will work here". It was over. And then a week and a half later I got a text from the broker, it wasn't over yet...