Needless to say, after the first day of house hunting, I didn't sleep well. I told the realtor if it was in our price range and wasn't on fire, we'd go see it, so our day was filled with the second string (which was frightening considering what our first picks ended up looking like. Yikes.).
We got up early, and after spending the night looking at MLS pages, I was spending the morning looking at school websites. Hubs told me to hop in the shower and wandered over to see what I was looking at. When he saw the emblem for the Expensive Private School, he asked me, "Why are you doing that to yourself? You know we can't afford to send the kids there!"
And I lost it.
Well, first, I slammed down the computer and stormed off to the shower. Then I got out, started getting dressed, put on mascara and lost it. I was glad the kids weren't with us because (1) they would probably need to be vaccinated for a slew of fun diseases and (2) Momma needed to have a nervous break down.
Cue Veruca Salt's polar opposite.
Instead of the "I wannas," I let loose a string of "I don't wannas!"
I don't want to move here. I don't want to live in a house we can't afford. I don't want to live in a house we can't afford and have to do a lot of work to. I don't want to find something that will "just work" for a few years, and then deal with the stress of having to try to sell it on our own. I don't want to live in a new construction house with no yard. I don't want to pull the kids out of their schools to move here, and I don't want to uproot them again in a few years when we can afford to move to a nicer neighborhood. I'd rather live in a 600 sq foot town house, paying rent and send them to a private school just so they could have one FREAKING piece of stability in their life, something we haven't been able to give them in the past 6 years!
Whew.
I reapplied the mascara and we decided just to see what happened. If we didn't find anything, we didn't find anything.
We headed to starbucks where I decided I needed a venti mocha and a preemptive Tylenol (or 2). Somehow Hubs' name = Jim. Again, way off from his actual name.
We flipped through some real estate magazines, then decided to visit the schools and preschool. A MUCH better start to the day. After lunch, we met up with Realtor, put on our happy places and set out to see what we could see. The first house was ok. Nothing spectacular, but nothing we wanted to put an offer on. On to house #2!
As soon as I saw the pictures for #2, I remembered the first time I saw it. It was the very first MLS listing Realtor sent us, but somehow it became lost in the shuffle. We pulled up to the house which was located on a cul de sac (hmmm. Cautiously checking a box!). The house is as old as the one we have now, which means lots of beautiful, mature trees (could that be another check mark?) and the outside looked great. VERY well maintained. Looking MUCH better than the day before.
We walked in, and the house was adorable! Formal dining room meaning I wouldn't have to kiss my china good-bye! Nice sized kitchen and breakfast room. Great little family room with a fireplace (yay!!). Instead of a screened in porch, this one had an actual room off of the family room, separated by french doors. Smaller than our 1100 sq foot basement, but would make a great little play room for the kids (and as I reminded Hubs, as they got older, their crap is going to get smaller. Gone are the days of giant swings, push toys, learning tables). The master bedroom was a good size, with a closet I'm sure Hubs will take over in no time, and the bathroom was great. The kids' rooms are smaller, and their shared bath is smaller, but they would work. Upstairs was a perfect room for Hubs' office. Still in the house, but above all the noise of the kids. The backyard was even bigger than the one we have now, just needed a fence. AND, we noticed that the driveway extended back beyond the garage. When Hubs walked over, he found there was a plug-in for an RV (Next year, we WILL totally be Christmas Vacation!).
Downsides? The kitchen is very outdated, but still usable. Also? The washer/dryer are in the garage. When I made an, "Ergh" face at that, Hubs said, "But really? How big a deal is it to walk out here to do laundry?" Umm for the person who is doing the majority of the laundry? Kinda a pain. BUT, I'm not walking to a laundry mat, it's not like I have to go outside, and it won't be snowing and freezing in the garage, and maybe this will just encourage us to keep the garage clean and organized.
We kept it in mind and visited a few other houses, but decided that this was the one. We decided to sleep on it and see what we wanted to do the next morning. We took my step-grandma out for dinner, then headed back to the hotel where we both slept MUCH better. We were leaving town the next day, but wanted to visit the school the house was zoned for and go look at the house one more time. We looked again at the stats.
On the market for over a year. Last price drop was a while ago. Figuring they weren't going to get much more traffic, we were going to wait until we got back home, had all of our numbers in front of us and make an offer. We drove to Hubs' sister's house feeling pretty good. Enjoyed a delicious dinner out with her, headed back to her house, exhausted, and crashed. Saturday morning, we got up early, said our goodbyes and started driving home. About 4 hours from our house, we get a call from Realtor saying a couple was going for a second showing at "our" house.
CRUD.
I whipped out my phone and found where the nearest Kinkos was, ready to fax over an offer. We were able to submit a verbal offer to hold them off, but still raced to Hubs' office to fax over our real offer. We breathed a giant sigh of relief knowing we'd just have to watch the clock until 6 pm Sunday. Now it was just a question of how many counter offers it would take to get to an agreed amount.
Sunday morning, I got a call from Realtor. Excited, I answered the phone, pretty much expecting to hear, "Congrats! They accepted your offer!" Instead, I heard, "The other couple submitted an offer as well."
This was not good. Really?! The house has been on the market for how long? And it's kind of the ONLY one in our price range that will work for us. And of all the houses, someone else comes along and fall in love with it, too?!? ARGHHHH!!
We upped our offer and sat back, waiting for the clock to strike 6.
And oh how those minutes ticked by.
At 5:45 PM while watching Toy Story 3 with the kids, we FINALLY got the call saying we got the house.
WHEW!
Now we just have to figure out what to do with half of all our stuff. Craigslist, here I come!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment