Lebeaux Drive... It's French

When Meaghan found out that she was going to be spending the next four years at UMass Memorial, we knew that our apartment in Watertown wasn't going to work for us. The commute for Meaghan was going to be too long, so we decided to move out West.

Since we knew that we were going to be here for a minimum of 4 years, we decided it was time to buy a house. We got hooked up with a real estate agent and started doing the required research on-line. We set our target area around Westborough, Southborough, Northborough, or Shrewsbury. We wanted to find a place that was close to the hospital in Worcester, but not across the street. While it proved to be a great time to buy real estate (prices had dropped significantly in the area), finding the right place for us was a challenge.

Every place we looked at was decribed as charming, cozy, and fixer-upper, or just adjectives for old, small, and needs work. We realized that a starter home is just that, you pick a place to start, and just start fixing. After a marathon day of seeing around 15 houses, we realized that a condo was the way to go. Besides being newer construction, we actually could get more space, and more amentities if we went the condo route.

We were able to narrow down the list of possibilities to three choices. It actually proved quite easy, as we took Meaghan's mom with us and she was the deciding vote when we needed to decide if we were going to walk through a house or not. We found a condo in Shrewsbury that we felt fit our needs and made an offer.

One of the things about the real estate market right now, is that there is a lot of supply and not so much demand. Our condo had been on the market for around 8 months and in talking to our real estate agent, we knew it was overpriced. We offered $25k under asking, and after a little negotiation, we settled at $20k. The amazing thing is that we paid around $47k under what the previous owner had paid 3 years ago. We just love a bargain.

Our new home is just perfect for us. I don't have to mow the lawns, and Meaghan has a deck for her flowers. We have 2,400 sq ft with 2 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a finished basement with a wetbar and a fireplace. It does need some updating as the kitchen is totally 1985, but that allows us to make our personal choices and customize as needed. Meaghan is excited to have colored walls and curtains and Adam is excited about spending time at Home Depot and trying to get the handy gene from his dad... Here are some pictures... Check out our new home...