House Hunting

At one point in time, house hunting, or maybe it was just the idea of house hunting was exciting and fun.  The hope and joy found in the idea of owning our own place, the image of the boys having their own rooms all decorated up, a larger kitchen.  To be able to paint walls! The thought of having an actual pantry to store our canned goods, or to be able to open the dishwasher and the refrigerator at the same time if I really wanted to.  To plant a garden, or to just play in our own backyard....

The idea of house hunting sounded so much fun to me for all of those things listed, but in actuality, it's not the hunting part that's fun, it's the home ownership part.  The hunting is a nightmare!

For the most part, without the help of a realtor friend and my parents, we have gone into this hunt very blindly having no idea what we're really looking for, what we really want, what area we want to be in and how we go about getting what we want.  We're still unsure of a few of those things.  The process with the bank had a rocky start, but we finally got a pre-approval.  We've looked at 4 houses live and in person and we have even put an offer in on 1.  It's been terrible!

We have a small budget so it's been hard balancing what's affordable with what's in a good neighborhood and requires minimal work to be move in ready.  On top of that, my parents have us asking things like how old the A/C is, water heater, roof and all of those major things-- I'm blessed to have them looking out for us.  If it weren't for them, we'd be moving into a new home that looked nice, but have a broken A/C in 100 degree NC August heat, and mold under the house.  Yes, I did mention we have no idea what we're doing.... we looked at and liked a moldy house. 

And just when the going gets rough, we find a GEM!  A beautiful gem-- a quaint little house owned by a widow who happens to be the original owner with her husband.  Only 3 minutes from my parents house, carpet so clean that I could eat off of it, elegant landscaping, perfect flat backyard for a swing set.... just perfect. Perfect in so many ways for us and our growing family.  Absolutely NO work needed to move in which is unheard of in our price range!  So we put in an offer.... only there's a competing offer.  A competing offer so good that it blows ours out of the water.  So much so, that they didn't come back to us to ask for our "highest and best" because theirs was BEST....  I sort of jokingly told our realtor that I felt like Nemo in a world of sharks and it is totally true.  Not a joke.  Even now I get teary eyed thinking about that perfect house.  Just so perfect!  I'm ashamed and I feel like a total scum bag even saying it, but I continue to look at it online and just keep thinking that there's always a possibility their contract will fall through.  I am total scum for even thinking it-- that's like wishing harm on someone else's life.  :0/  The reality is that, though that house seems so perfect to us, it isn't our perfect house, because if it were, it would've worked out.

It's been stressful and hard.  Maybe it's still the post-partum hormones or something, or maybe I'm just an emotional person.  I just keep getting my hopes up to be let down.  The anticipation and the longing is a little too much.  Daniel and I had talked on the car ride home from looking at "the moldy home" (before we knew it was moldy), talked about Christmas there and picturing where our Christmas tree would go.  At "the gem", I pictured my cloth diapers flapping in the wind and sunning so quaintly on the clothesline in the backyard.  I pictured us saving up for a swing set for the boys to enjoy in the backyard. 

Even today, I did a drive by of 2 cute houses that are for sale next to each other.   The 2 houses are absolutely adorable!  The neighborhood, however is trash and not a place I would consider raising our boys.  Another let down.  I don't know how much longer I can do this-- in reality, the house hunting has only just begun, but my heart aches and can only take so much let down.  After a while, a person loses the hope....