House hunting, part "I don't know"

Still house hunting. We've been out more than twice now, but I can't tell you how many times. I lost count. It's still fun, but we really want to find THE home.

We've realized that raised ranches don't really fit us or our lifestyles and we're much better off with a colonial. We saw one that we LOVED but there are some cosmetic issues that we are concerned with so S, our Realtor, is investigating and asking lots of questions of the listing agent.

When I say "cosmetic issues," please don't think that I'm being a Diva and saying things like "ewww, I hate that shade of pink on the walls, I can't live here!" but "is that spackle job hiding water damage?" and "why is there so much blown-in insulation in the attic?" We want to make sure we aren't buying a lemon. Nasty pink walls can be painted. Serious damage or a lack of good insulation...harder and more expensive to fix.

So, no real updates...not yet...

Otherwise, things are good, just BUSY. Going out once or twice a week to look at houses can mess with your schedule and routine just a bit. DH is settling in nicely with his job--they give new hires TONS of training. My work is busy too.

House hunting, part 2

To be continued, after tonight's house visits...

First--we have a letter from the bank and have been prequalified for what we wanted to spend, which is great!

Saw two houses last night. Both had nice lots but the houses themselves were ehh. Both raised ranches. The first one had great living space, but small bedrooms. The second had MANY bedrooms (I think 4 or 5!) and 3.5 baths (!!!!) and great living space, too. Besides being too big for us, it was overpriced. It's like Goldilocks--this one is too small, this one is too big.

We need one that is "just right."

song poem

Stolen from illini_girl's blog!

You put your itunes of shuffle and write the first word of every song for 20 songs. . . and the 21st song’s first line becomes your title.

Here it is. . .let's hope my weird music tastes didn't screw this up too much. We had some Go-Go's, Dave Matthews, Stevie Nicks, REM, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, Ben Folds...

Title: In a white room with black curtains in the station

Can't seem to get my mind off of you

Satellite

I have finally found a way to live just like I've never lived before

You threw away the ballast and you rowed your boat ashore

Now the radio studders, snaps to life

You could be my silver spring blue green colors flashing

Colour me your colour, baby

Something is about to give


You've got your ball

Hey! Hey! Hey!

Get away from me just get away from me

Loving you isn't the right thing to do


Swaying room as the music starts

I'm on my way I'm making it

And summer became fall

Pangs of silence from the room upstairs

House hunting, part 1

Yesterday, we went out with our Realtor, S. She'd sent us a list of 6 homes to look at (with pictures and all of that jazz) and we liked 3 of them. We had actually looked at the other 3, from the road before we'd even contacted S, and they were beautiful but had issues like right on a major route, too close to those big electrical lines (hello cancer) and the last one had a weird yard--too tilted and we do get our fair share of rain around here, and no one wants a flooded basement!

We decided to take a look at the three that were remaining. All of them fit our needs in regards to square footage, acreage, age of house, town, so we figured why not?

Two were duds, one was awesome. The first one was dirty and smelly, plus the owner's cat BIT ME, when I reached out to let him/her sniff me before I attempted to pet it. Can only imagine what would happen if I'd just pet the cat! The property was also set into a hill and we didn't want that. The house itself was pretty decent, but the driveway was all torn up and would have needed to be resurfaced. No thanks.

The second one was cleaner, but very unsafe. Rickety back stairs off of the deck, which was brand new, so hopefully they were going to be doing new stairs, next! The front stoop had holes in the concrete (WTF) and when S was showing us out, she instinctively put her hand down on the railing and it almost gave way. Lovely. The inside was nicer than the first one, but it shared similar driveway/yard issues.

Both of these homes said they were on over an acre of land. You could NOT see this, and S wasn't sure where the property lines were either. Very sad. I think S felt badly about taking us to see these. They weren't her properties and she had the codes for the lockboxes and knew nothing about them.

So we go on to the third house, which was very clean, both on the inside and out. New windows, updated kitchen, immaculate carpets (which were almost 20 yrs old, but you'd never know). FLAT YARD (yay!) but the selling agent is there and tells us that there was an offer on the property this morning. Boo. It wasn't a house we were totally in love with, but we would have liked to keep it in our options. S was happy that there were NICE things out there and weren't misrepresented!

Hopefully we'll be looking at some more, soon. I meet with the bank tomorrow to start the mortgage process.

Is this a preview of things to come?

Today is DH's first day of work and I am so nervous. I know everything will be OK, and it's more anticipation and excitement for him, but jeez, you'd think I had just sent my kid off to a new school! Is this how I'll be someday when I DO send my child off on the first day? LOL

It's a new adventure, and a positive one for us, so I need to just relax, and remember that I'll hear alllll about it when I get home tonight. (After I return his pants that we bought in the wrong size, of course, lol)

In other news, the Realtor has already sent us some prospective houses to look at. I got SO excited last night, and squealed. I am NOT a squealer.

Met with the Realtor

Went much smoother than I thought it would go, which was great. Now DH and I have to work on the bank stuff--finding out how much we prequalify for, and all of that jazz. This shouldn't take too long, and that's my/our goal for this week. DH also starts his new job on Monday, yayyyyy!!!! He's pumped and in SUCH a good mood. Hopefully we can start looking at houses soon.