Slowly coming together

The past 2 weeks have been so emotionally and physically draining.  More emotionally though. 

I've heard from many many people that if a couple can buy a house together, if they can deal and cope with that stress, then they can deal and cope with anything.

And I believe it.  Boy have we've been stressed! But I think we are handling it okay.

It has been a long road, and while the end is very near we just can't quite get our hands on it.

After getting the keys we decided that we want to paint before we move any furniture in because it would be easier. And it was, except it wasn't.  We completely underestimated the amount of paint we needed.  Word of the wise here - even if the walls were recently painted, if you are going with darker colors (which is anything other than white) count on needing AT LEAST 2 coats.  There were a couple that actually needed 3 coats. Or use primer. Live and learn. Live and learn... And painting a ceiling is such a pain in the neck - literally. I had trouble turning my head the next day.

And I do have pictures of the rooms, of the pretty pretty colors that I love love love. And I promise I will share. But I'm still just getting computer time on my lunch break since my evenings are driving home, getting kids fed, bathed, and in bed, playing catch-up with my laundry, and keep up with the dishes all while unpacking a box or two.  Robert was able to get the rooms painted during his week off of work, he just missed the bathroom and now is questioning my color choice so I have to come up with a new color for it or convince him on the gray again. He has been setting up computers, TVs, hanging closet shelving, replacing light switches and plugs, and finishing up moving stuff (we just have 'little' stuff left).  When replacing some plugs he found a couple outlets where there was bare wire just hanging there - fire hazard. Just crazy I tell ya.  He also had a whole saga on trying to hang his LCD TV for his computer monitor - no studs in the wall where he wanted to hang and the anchor broke and .... whole saga, poor guy.

I've decided - I don't like having to drive to work. I love my lazy commute of walking from the kitchen or bedroom or whatever to the office. LOVE IT!  Nothing like having to miss something to make you appreciate it that much more!

We have one more week of commuting kids to school and me to work, and then I get to do about 3 weeks of kid taxi juggling until the end of the school year.  The way I drive home is GORGEOUS though, and I have pictures of that too - hopefully - I'm pointing the camera towards the window and hitting the shutter. I hope some of those come out.

To top things off, today we go to court to testify as witnesses in a domestic abuse case. Fun fun...

(Just to be clear, that 'fun fun' was completely sarcastic. I am not looking forward to it, am very very nervous about it. And not just nervous about being in court for the first time ever!)

Lift with your legs!

Moving day (weekend) is here.  We hope to spend our first night in our house tomorrow night!

I'm working today (this is my lunch break) and Robert is loading up by himself.  Well, until I get off of here and go help for my lunch break.  Eating on a lunch break - psssh - eating is for woosies. (I will grab something to munch don't worry). I'm having so much trouble sitting still because I have so much to do but I have to work. ANXIETY!  Where is the ability to clone yourself when you need it!

Tomorrow, we finish up loading the beds and such and will head on over to get those up first.  They are priority since we wanna sleep there.

Robert's mom will be here to help and I'm assigning her to finish off the kitchen - and then clean bathrooms. I hate cleaning bathrooms.  THANKS A MILLION BARBARA!!!!

Anyone else wanna come help? I have tons of jobs I could assign ya and I pay in coffee, pizza, popsicles, and soda.

End of an era

We've been renters for 10 years, almost to the day. I am so glad it is over!
Yup, we've signed papers and got our keys. We are officially home owners!!!

It's the end of an era so I want to share something I learned from every place we have lived:

Our first place living with friends - Some friends you cannot live with, well maybe just friends' with bitchy wives.  I can never let another person parent my kids & I am very aggressive when it comes to standing up for my kids and/or for my right to parent my kids as I deem fit.

Our first place alone - I do not want to be kissed by a Mario-look-alike. (Mario-from-Super Mario Brothers-Mario.) Always assume the sliding glass door is closed, even if you just opened it; someone else can close it. I bounced several feet off of that sucker after running at it full speed! When there is a shooting at the convenience store around the corner, it is time to move. You can eat too many hot dogs & Mac 'n' cheese. Because we were so broke; that's pretty much all we ate and I still have trouble eating them now.

My favorite apartment/our first place as a married couple - After Carus was born I learned that a family of 4 does not fit into a 2 bedroom apartment. Teenagers with drum sets should not be in apartments, especially not ones above a family with young children that need sleep. Clove cigarettes are the stinkiest! There is such thing as TOO MUCH CURRY! I really like having a swimming pool.

The duplex (3 months) - When going to sign a rental agreement, ask if they plan on selling in the near future. Roofers usually start work on replacing a roof at 7 a.m.

The in-laws (for a between-places-time-period) - I love ya, but I cannot live with ya. We won't go into why that is; if you have in-laws you can totally use your imagination!

The town home - even the sweetest neighbors can be a little looney; upstairs neighbor was scamming couples into adopting her unborn (non-existent) baby. Also, I love love LOVE cooking on a gas range.

The big house - I hate ants. I hate popcorn ceilings. Even when neighbors aren't on the other side of a wall, they  can be a pain in the ass. Pot can be smelled across the cul-de-sac from a closed garage, especially with a good wind. The more space you have, the more CRAP you accumulate. SERIOUSLY HOW DID I GET SOME MUCH FREAKING JUNK! The designers of the 70s should be smacked. Cul-de-sacs are the best! Squirrels climb on roofs and could fall down chimneys - cats will stare intently for hours at a blocked off fireplace until you figure out there is an animal in there and then freak out when trying to remove that animal. Big windows attract hand prints, cat boogers, dog nose prints, and kid’s nose prints like mad! Wood sheds attract the biggest spiders I have ever seen (just short of tarantulas).

Wonder what I will learn from our first home.

I had nothing to do with it

Guess what Robert decided this weekend.

He decided that since we are paying a full months' rent in May that we might as well take advantage of it.  I will be driving the kids to school in the morning and then coming here to work and they will walk here after school like they currently do.  It will be like working in an office.  Yoda will be coming with us too.  Then after work - I drive back 'home'.

The fact that I suggested that EXACT SAME FREAKING IDEA five million times had nothing to do with this idea suddenly popping into his head.  Normally I don't like sharing credit for my ideas, but since I'm getting my way I am letting him have this one.

I think me reminding him how early he would have to get up to drop the kids off at school on time made him come up with such a great solution - which I am remembering for further use in getting my way.

June is back to the taxi/after school care schedule and he'll be the one getting up extra early and doing the extra driving! (I will be too cause someone has to make lunches and supervise getting ready)

Today was the day

Today was supposed to be our closing date, but instead of signing papers and getting our keys, we signed an addendum to extend the contract.

Thankfully, our broker thinks we only needed to extend it by a little over a week.  He also thinks that we will be able to sign by next Friday.

We'll see. 

I am still trying to be patient. But I don't want to wait anymore! 

So anyhoo, looks like we're almost there.  Almost there. Almost there.  Sorry, repeating it might help me with the wait....maybe

The plan (now) is to be completely moved in by the end of May.

I kinda like that - it will help me get the kids through the end of the school year. 

I have to make it to June 17th. 

The news on that is that thanks to Barbara (Robert's mom), my neighbor Abbie, and my wonderful boss - afterschool pick up/care is covered. *knock on wood*

Getting them to school will be mostly on Robert's shoulders - I'm making the poor guy get up an hour earlier every morning so he can drive them to school.

Not much longer!!

I have all the patience in the world!

I have all the patience in the world! I swear I do. 

I've been saying for weeks that I don't have the patience to wait for our closing date for the house anymore and here I've been left waiting and waiting and waiting.  I have decided, I do have patience NOW JUST GIVE ME MY CLOSING DATE!

The news is that our closing date is being pushed out a bit further.  As of two days ago, word was that they hoped it we be mid May, but we got word Friday afternoon that the first step of our funding has been approved and that the papers will get forwarded to the second step on Monday.  This coming Friday, April 23rd was our original closing date, but hopes are that we will still close before the end of April.

We will see.

My mom told me before, many times actually, that sometimes God answers our prayers in ways that we don't want him too, or in the wrong way "in our opinion".  And that he has a sense of humor. 

A story I remember most, especially at times when my patience is getting thin is how she was taught patience when us kids (me and my brothers) were very little and her days were full of crying and dirty diapers and sleep deprivation, you know, motherhood.  She would pray for patience and it wouldn't be long before she was pregnant again.

You wouldn't think it would take four kids born two years apart to figure it out, but it did.  Lack of sleep. Its a bitch. She found her patience though!  Or she just got wise and stopped praying for it. HA!

That's why I've decided to stop saying to myself and out loud that I have no more patience.  I have all the patience in the world.

I've been dreading the teenage/puberty years - I've dreaded them because I've seen first hand through myself, friends, and siblings just how much of a pain in the ass teenagers can be, and how much trouble they can get themselves into - but they are sneaking up on me more and more each day.

Adam has had acne for awhile now, and we're working on it. It improves when he washes regularly and well, but it's a pain to get him to wash.  Soon I won't have to worry much about that; wanting to look nice for girls will take care of it. 

Not only does he have acne, but his voice is starting to crack.  Just a little bit, but I swear a month ago it wasn't. And by next month. BY THE END OF THE SUMMER! By his 12th birthday!

I am still taller than him. HA!

He is also getting a bit of an additude, being really snippy with everyone, especially with Carus.  We are constantly reminding him to watch his tone.  Last week he tried to get all up in my grill and have an additude with me because I told him to do some chores. (I know, CHORES! the nerve of me.)  I reminded him of his tone and warned him to watch it before he got himself in trouble, but it was all I could do not to just start laughing at him. I am finding it absolutely hilarious!

Ask me again in a few months to a year if I still find it funny.

Speaking of finding the kids funny, Carus has her first singer crush.  Justin Bieber.  Just saying his name in her earshot will make her blush. And if one of his songs come on the radio, "TURN IT UP, IT'S MY JUSTIN!!!"

In the checkout line at the grocery store the other day and she noticed his picture on People magazine - she nudged me, pointed at the magazine and grinned.  When I giggled she blushed, which made me laugh.  By then she was beet-red, telling me to shush and looking around to make sure no one else noticed.

Think she might kill me for writing about it? 

Who was your first celebrity/singer crush? - I remember crushing HARD on Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Randy from Home Improvement).

Boxes, tape, and .... a label maker

Friday both Robert and I got off work early so we used the free time to start cleaning out and packing downstairs. Our hobby room/guest room/catch all room.  We've been avoiding it.

FINALLY some packing got done!  Not much, but its a start.

I have 2-1/2 boxes packed, 2 bags ready to go to goodwill, TONS of stuff tossed and recycled.  Oh and a crate all sealed up for the move.  I have a crate full of fabric, I just added a bit more stuff to it and then we screwed it shut. So progress, YAY!

Robert did some tossing and recycling of his stuff too.

Robert did bring home a label maker - but it didn't get used...yet.  He might use it when packing his stuff.  I guess my Sharpie isn't good enough for him. HA!

As for the house stuff progress thing...

We've had our inspection and nothing was found that we didn't already know.  Foundation is good, roof is good, chimney is good.

The bank has done its appraisal and it came back just above our offer, which means we still can buy.  Bonus - it will lower our property taxes!!

We've meandered around Home Depot and priced a few things on our to get list and put a few million things on our wish list, and got a few paint samples.  Home Depot feels so different when you actually own (almost) a home.

It begins

You already know of my issues with having to plan so this shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but I've started again.

I am remarkably LESS stressed about the planning this time.  And it is amazing to be able to actually start implementing plans instead of just making them.  The self-imposed and non-self-imposed deadlines feel good too.  We are aiming to be moving around the 1st of May.

This weekend gramma (Robert's mom) is taking Adam and Carus for a couple of days and Robert and I will have a date night.

But instead of date night consisting of a dinner and movie - which is what we were planning to do - we will be here at our rental:

• Packing and cleaning downstairs, which has become our catch all room
• Cleaning and painting the master bathroom
• Cleaning and painting the main bathroom

(Our landlord is elderly and so we would like to help him save a bit time, headache, and money by painting and cleaning for him. White is an easy paint to slap on so no big deal.)

And if there's time we'll throw in:

• Packing the dining room

Not to mention that we want to make a 'scouting' trip to Home Depot

PAINT!!!! IN COLORS!!! NO MORE WHITE!!!!

And hopefully a clutter freeing stop at Goodwill.

The part where I can't stop crying...

But its okay. They're happy tears. And scared shitless tears.

Mostly happy tears.

That's how I work - get mad, I cry. Get sad, I cry.  Get happy (like really happy), I cry. And on and on.

Sometimes it's annoying. 

Sometimes it works to my advantage.

Anyhoo...

At 4 hours from our deadline I was staring at my phone wanting it to ring. 

Willing it to ring.  RING DAMN YOU, RING! 

Robert's phone was the one that rang. (Which was probably because I think he had already called our realtor for an update 10 times this morning.) Then he called me and tried to play dumb.

Me: "Hey, what's up?"

Him:  "Oh, not much."

Me: "Well?"

Him:  "Well, what?"

Me: "Did Christina call?"

Him:  "Huh? Oh, yea she just called."

Me: "Well?"

Him:  "Well, what?"

Me: "Did they accept? Did they deny? What?"

Him: "Oh, that."  *silence*  "Yeah, they accepted."

BRING ON THE TEARS!!  I immediately began crying - and resisting the urge to start jumping up and down and screaming.

It almost wasn't accepted.  The sellers were told another offer was coming in this morning and when it didn't show up they got nervous that ours would expire before/IF the other one came in and they would be left with no offers.  And they already had their eyes set on another house and just had to get theirs sold first. Thankfully for us, they played it safe.

We are home owners!!!! (almost)

Now to get to closing. Fingers still need to be crossed (PLEASE!!!!).  Closing date is April 23rd.

I expect your fingers to be crossed now!

After running from "Flower Power" last night, Robert asked if we could pop by "The 90s" house again, just for one more look and our realtor agreed to let us in.

We went over there, went through the house and the yard again and discussed what we want to do where and how we would 'fix' this and that.

After some more discussion and such Robert and I decided what we don't like we can fix - except for the steps all over that annoy Rober, but he thinks he can live with it - soooooo


We signed offer paperwork last night and our realtor emailed it in and.....




We'll know Monday (the deadline) if we were denied......


we were countered.....


or we were excepted....



I expect your fingers to be crossed now!

The Red House and Flower Power

Yesterday we saw 2 more houses.  We started with "The Red House".  I had wanted to see this house for the kitchen, which was newly remodeled and looked so pretty in the online pictures.  Then we got there and I told Robert I'm leaving him for the kitchen.  It was THAT pretty!  Granite counters, lots of cubboard space, lazy susan cubboards, amazing glass top stove, DEEP sink, on and on. They only thing I would have done with it was added the soft close sliders to the cubboard doors and drawers. 

The laundry room/mud room was amazing too and the bedrooms and backyard were all good sized.  The 2 bathrooms, however, were small. And the backyard, while a good sized, allowed ALL of the road noise from the busy road next to the house to be heard.  There were points were we couldn't hear each other talking.  There was also no space for my office, the living room was on the cozy side.  We loved the house, but it was too small :(

As for Flower Power - we didn't like it.  It was beat up.  It was built in 2001 and the carpets were crap, the prego floor in the living room was bent and popped when walking on it, the paint was all crooked and messy, and the backyard was dirt and weeds - all things we can fix with a lot of time but when we went upstairs we had a funny feeling walking on the floor, especially in the bathroom.  It felt uneven.  Then Robert called me from the garage.

Yup, mold and sagging.  Water damage. The upstairs bathroom where we felt the uneven-ness the most is right above this spot. There must have been a leak of some sort.  The mold was not only on the ceiling of the garage, but down both walls and the garage smelled like mold so badly.

Even if we could get finance on a house with water and mold damage (and with USDA we can't) this just completely killed it for us.

Our realtor summed it up great, "We came, we saw, now we're leaving." Perfect sentiments. 

Sneak peak

How about a sneak peak of what we're doing tonight - viewing 2 more houses.

Flower Power

The Red House

Robert named these so don't look at me!  Flower power because of the name of the street the house is on (Begonia, which he giggles at every time he sees it) and The Red House because of the kitchen. 

He is a dork.

I know this.

But I still love him.

Looking at houses again - The 90s

This house was built in 1991 and it feels it! It's near the top of our price range (again...gggrrrr).  3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1808 sq ft on a rather good sized lot. It has a fireplace and AC and is on a cul-de-sac.  It's been on the market for a little bit and just had a 20K price drop which made it pop up on our search perimeters late Monday night and by Tuesday afternoon we got more info from our realtor and decided we wanted to see it.  Because of the major price drop and from what we could see in the listing pictures we thought it would be one that would go fast so we had an unplanned viewing at the last moment.  We didn't want to lose our chance...

There are skylights in almost every room, a sun porch, and a great view from the front window.  There is new carpet throughout including the dining room/living room which isn't our preference considering there is real wood floors in the entry.  There is even carpet on the front steps - weirdo's - althought it's outdoor carpet and it is also in the sun porch (think of that green stuff, just not green).  The rooms are a great size.  The kitchen isn't horrible, but it is kinda dated.  I can live with it though.  I think it makes up for the ugly with its size.  I was not concerned about storage! There isn't a separate, closed off room for an office, but we thought of using the living room or the family room area for one.  There are steps throughout and the bar in the kitchen that opens to the living room is about half the 'normal' height, which feels very odd.  I can see myself tripping over the steps for the first few months. Wait, who am I kidding. I'll be tripping the entire time...  The door from the sun porch to the backyard opens on the wrong side (in my opinion) and you have to go around it to get to the backyard.  We can put in another door though.  The backyard needs a bit of work to get it like we would like it but it's a good start. 

Last night I was already to make an offer and did get Robert to agree.  Today he is feeling apprehensive, and because he is, so am I.  Sometimes I can see more long-term and sometimes he can - we kinda balance each other out and pick up each others slack when needed.  He thinks it would be best if we wait until Saturday to see the other 2 houses we had planned on seeing before making a decision. And he is probably right.  My big wants - backyard and large kitchen - were there and I was excited about both.

We have the offer papers all drawn up just waiting our signature - now to decide if and when we sign...

Whatcha think?

We haven't given up yet. . .

Bad news, more bad news, good news.

Bad news:

We didn't get the house.  The bank received another offer that they liked better than ours and accepted that one. Too bad they left us hanging for 4-1/2 weeks!  We didn't stop looking and we didn't count it as we were for sure getting the house, however, we were still planning and hoping we would.  We did find out that the buyers that stole the house from us (not really, but yea) have 60-90 days ahead of them before closing. HA! Take that byatches! It sorta makes up for the annoyance and dissappointment we are feeling.

More bad news:

Our financing has a deadline.  We are going with a USDA loan because we liked the terms better than the regular loans, but *newsflash* the government is running outta moola so they are ending the USDA loan program thingy April 30th. To get it we have to be CLOSED by then.  Which means we have like 2 weeks to find a house, make an offer, and have that offer accepted - then the whole inspection, underwriting the loan, blah blah blah blah... DEADLINE! Aaaggghhhh!

Oh, and short sales and foreclosures are no longer an option because of the time crunch which is like 85% of the listings right now...

Good news:

We haven't given up yet. We are still hopeful and being positive - so very annoyed right now, but positive.  It sorta feels like we wasted a whole month.  We didn't really, it just feels that way.  We continued to look online for houses and we even went and looked at a couple (not sharing the pics, they were way far from even being considered by either of us), and we haven't found anything.

We went through the listings again this morning and even expanded our search to Cornelius which is right next to Forest Grove and we have a few more we'd like to look at.  One in particular I have my eye on, I hope it lives up to its online pictures.

So yeah, short sales SUCK!

The waiting game sucks

After talking and stressing and thinking and talking since we looked at houses on Saturday we did decide if we liked one of the houses we looked at well enough to try to buy.  So we called our realtor to let her know we want to make an offer on ....

And everyone that commented helped when we started feeling like maybe it was too soon or too much or just plain nervous!

It's a lot of money.

It's a HUGE commitment.

It's a giant drain on your emotions!

And as I signed page after page after page of our offer contract last night I started to get a little more nervous.  It was a short sale house so not only will the sellers have to approve, but so will the bank and it could take FOREVER! 

Thankfully it is just one bank.  Unfortunately, the bank will accept no less than asking price and have already turned down several other offers that were under.  That meant we lost most of our negotiating ability.

And now the waiting game begins!

Can I go back to bed?

I'm a planner.

I could be really really organized if I wasn't such a horrible procrastinator. Or if I had the ability to focus on something to completion.  For example, since starting this post I've already ran off in two other directions, one fully in my head, and one online.  And this is only the 2nd paragraph, oy.

For months I've been working on menu planning every week, and have done fairly well.  I've just stepped it up to making an entire month's menu so each week I only have to make the grocery list and head to the store.  It has helped me get our grocery budget under control and I've cut it by half most months with more than half thrown in here and there.  Not to mention the headaches, whining, bitching, and moaning we were experiencing when it came time to decide what was for dinner and start cooking.  WOOHOO for me! 

We aren't moving yet, we don't have an offer accepted, shoot we don't even have an offer made on a house yet, but I'm already planning.  I'm waking up in the wee hours of the morning unable to go back to sleep because my brain starts going a mile a minute.  I need to plan.  I need to be sure that everything will work out before hand - even though it never helps, even though it usually overly stresses me out, even though I am not psychic and cannot predict and plan everything, I still must try. 

Oops, sorry ran off again.  Where was I? Oh...

I'm planning my new approach to laundry, -which has actually been in the works for months; first I tackled dinner, now I'm taking on laundry.  Tomorrow I take over the world! Ha haha!  I'm planning which cupboards in the kitchen will hold my glasses and which will hold my plates. I'm planning where the furniture will go.  Which colors I want to paint the walls.  What things I can toss or give away before the move, what can I sale for moving money and to pay for that paint?  I'm trying to foresee any and all problems and working them out before hand.  And I can't stop.  Eventually I will have enough planned that I can relax and let things take its course, but until then I can't shut off my brain.

My biggest worry though is the approach to the kids and school.  Specifically changing schools.  If things go as I plan (I'm not being naive I swear, I just have to plan!) it is likely we will be moving before June so, do we try to work out a way to let them finish the year at their current school? Or do we switch them with only a few months left and leave them to try to make friends before summer and to not let their grades drop because of the stress of learning new teachers and rules?

After my parents divorced and my dad got custody of us kids, my dad worked out a way to let me and my brothers finish our school year and I'm sure it was hard on him.  We got up super early and drove an hour to a friends house to wait to catch the bus with them while he drove another hour back to go to work.  Then after school we'd go to that friends house again and stay until he got off and made the trip back to pick us up.  As a kid it was just fun playing with a friend every day, and I got to enjoy my 5th grade year without having to worry about making new friends on top of all the other changes I already was dealing with.  I know there was a few months of that, but I'm not sure how many.  And I'm not sure if he paid the friend (well the mom) for watching us.  When we moved to Oregon from New Mexico at the beginning of my 8th grade year I was very concerned about making new friends and found the move a little hard.  Now I'm concerned about how my kids will take the move.

We won't be moving Adam and Carus nearly as far, but we are moving more than halfway through the school year.  The drive would be about 45 minutes in the morning, and I might be able to make it in 30 in the afternoon to pick them up.  And while we have friends that I would feel comfortable with them staying with after school I don't want to impose on those friends and ask for them to do it for free, and I can't really afford to pay them and I surely can't afford daycare!  My initial thought was to have Robert take them to school in the mornings, and for me to use my breaks (an hour a day) or ask to split my shift temporarily (might not even be an option) to accomplish the pick up.  But then there are days that Robert will be traveling for work - what do I do then? 

I know they are resilent and they will make new friends, and that they'll do so more easily than I will, but I worry.  I don't want them to be mad at me or hurt.  I'm trying to honestly discuss all this with them so they understand why we end up making the final decision we do make, and they like the finishing the school year idea, but know that it might not be doable. 

So thoughts please? Have you moved as a kid and switched schools mid year, beginning year, end year?  Were you mad or happy or sad? Any other ideas on how I could make it work?

The 6 Kids

Last, but definitely not least, meet The 6 kids!

It boasts 4 bedrooms, 2.1 baths, and is 1346 sq ft.  Downstairs we enjoyed lovely plush carpet in the living room and nice 'pergo' wood laminate flooring in the kitchen/dining room combo.  As you can see, the dining room is really good sized.  The selling family has 6 kids (and we actually saw them because we arrived to the house early, they are all under 4!). The backyard is a great size, and has a garden area for me already!  The kitchen was great with a center island and a walk in pantry.  The garage was a good size too. 

Upstairs we saw more of that great soft carpet, 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths.  The master bedroom was the largest, of course, but the other 3, at the exact size, felt small and probably wouldn't work.  Adam and Carus have a lot of furniture so we felt this house would be too small for us, which is odd because they have 8 people living there!  That's probably why they're moving, that many kids means they're out of rooms to put them in! HA!

It got my vote (mostly for the kitchen) but no one else's...

The HOA

Round 3

This one is 3 bedrooms, 2.1 bath, 1647 sq ft. It's mid range of our price range and actually felt like we'd probably be able to get it below our price range, IF the bank agreed.  It is a short sale so....

The positives:

I love the carpet on the stairs and upstairs! It was plush and soft and oh so nice. I also loved the lazy susan cupboard in the kitchen, that was great.  Actually I really really liked the kitchen, and the pantry I wish I could've put in my pocket and brought home.  I also really liked the front porch swing.  Carus and I sat on it for a bit and just swung back and forth.  It was very nice.

The negatives:

The short sale. And HOAs, they aren't bad at 292/yr, but it is mostly the fact that you have to ask before doing anything to 'your' house.  Actually because of the HOAs Robert doesn't even want to consider it. 

BUT it got 3 votes.  Robert's, Carus's, and mine.  Adam couldn't say why he didn't like it, but it was probably just because he was so done looking for the day (and he had already decided the handyman was the one he wanted).

The Snapdragon

Round 2.

This is a 4 bedroom, 2.1 bath, house at 1620 sq. feet.  The price was towards the top of our budget. And I don't have much else to say about this house.  The bedrooms were small and the downstairs layout just didn't really work for us.  The backyard was a great size, and the wood laminate (pergo-like) cherry floors were gorgeous, but it just didn't get any votes from us.

The Handyman

Welcome to the first edition of help us pick a house.  I'm leading with our top choice and we are calling it the handyman because it was owned by a handyman/contractor guy.

This house is 3 bedrooms, 2.1 baths, and 1813 sq ft.  It also has a bonus room, a shed in the backyard, and RV parking.  (Not that we need RV parking, but its all good).  It is near the top of our price range (but not too near) and it is a short sale so it might take awhile if and when we put an offer in to get a yay or nay back from the bank.  And the bank might be a smidge less flexible on price than a person...

Now without further ado, the pictures!

 

The positives as I see it, with a little input from Robert:

The carpet on the stairs and upstairs was sssssssooooooooo soft and cushy. Downstairs was laminate wood floor and laminate tile like stuff in the kitchen.  The master bedroom was HUGE! The kitchen was decent sized with okay storage. The sink was extra deep, which I like.  The backyard was a good size.  If we bought it, we would tear down the fence to the RV parking and expand our yard and have an area for a garden on that side of the house. It has central sound, and the bonus room has surround sound and all sorts of great wiring features.  The garage - oh the garage was Robert's favorite!  It is wired for 220 and for a central air compressor. Seriously, you should have seen his face when he saw those lines and tubing.  When leaving we saw 3 boys around Adam's age playing basketball, so the kids would have kids to play with.

 

The negatives as I see it:

Near the High School - literally 3 houses away. This could be good or bad, but right now I'm going to list it as bad.  Could mean trouble makers during the day, could mean extra loud Friday nights during football season. Could be no big deal at all....

The master bath floor is kinda ugly, but that's a pretty easy fix really so no big deal.  There is no fridge so we'd have to buy one of those.  But the kitchen cupboards are UGLY! They aren't horrible, but they're 'meh' in color. They are an yellowish, cream-y, very light wood.  It screams early 90s' to me.  But those are an easy fix with temporarily painting them and eventually changing them out.

It is a short sale - it could be too much trouble to even try. OR it could be a really good deal...

 

All in all, this house got all four of our votes.