Category: House & Home

Well it looks like we’re not moving because those unethical jerks got another offer today and decided to accept it even though they had agreed to ours. That is just mean. I am very sad and angry. I’ll get it over it eventually. It wasn’t meant to be. Blah blah blah. But it still hurts.

We saw four more places tonight – all townhomes with either two bedrooms and a basement or three bedrooms. The last place we looked at we knew we’d like from the pictures online, plus we drove around the neighborhood on Sunday scoping out the area. It did not disappoint either, so we put in an offer. After negotiating the price back and forth, the sellers accepted our offer. They were a bit stingy at first with the price, but according to the listing agent, the owner really liked Joe (the family was home when we looked at the place) which made him more willing to accept our final offer.

I’m so excited I can burst! This place is really nice – 1519 square feet of pure goodness. Almost twice what our apartment is! It has a huge eat-in kitchen and spacious living room, plus a big master bedroom and two smaller bedrooms, and two full baths. It also has a 1 car garage, but the driveway is extra long allowing two cars to be parked in it. Very very sweet! If all goes well, we’re due to close on September 1st. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight. I’m excited and scared all at the same time.

Well … I’m extremely unhappy to report that all the places we looked at last night sucked. If the place was decent, the neighborhood was not, and vice versa. I cannot believe the nerve of some sellers and the asking price on their places. I’m starting to wonder if we’re expecting entirely too much for what we’re willing to spend, or if we’re just not looking in the right places. Or maybe, just maybe, considering the state of our economy, if we’re just not being foolhardy enough. Seems to me like most people are what they call house-poor. Which essentially means their mortgage is so high that they are neck deep in debt. I refuse to go into debt just to get a nice house. I have my eventual retirement to plan for and I’ve seen too many people in their “golden” years get stuck with a tiny budget because they have no savings and social security does not pay much.

So the search will continue, but it’s not looking very promising. We either settle for something kinda blah for (in my opinion) more money than it’s worth (but still within our self-imposed budget), or we move even further away from the city. That last option isn’t very feasible between Joe’s commute into the city and having to already drive 45 minutes to get the kids (if it wasn’t for them, we’d both be seriously considering moving out of state, but that’s not an option). If we move any further out, it’s just gonna suck way too much. Why have a gorgeous house if you’re never home because you’re stuck in traffic?

I honestly don’t know what to do right now. I guess we can just wait until the right place comes along, but Joe’s parents move to Arizona next month and they have been giving us, and want to give us, a bunch of items we don’t have room for, including a freezer that we can’t possibly take unless a) we have a place or b) we don’t mind spending more money a month for a bigger storage space. And what if we don’t get something in a reasonable time frame and end up spending more money in storage fees than the freezer is even worth? I’m drowning in stuff as it is and I’m not much of a pack rat (anymore). We just shifted stuff this morning from our building’s storage unit to the one we pay for, but we’re still in serious need of some extra room. The apartment is getting more and more cluttered and seems to be shrinking every day. I’m not happy about any of this. It’s stressing me out.

We got pre-approved for a loan through two mortgage companies, so that’s out of the way at least. It’s a relief to know that we were being pretty realistic in what we could afford too. We don’t even want to buy a townhome that costs as much as they are willing to loan us just because we’d like to continue putting a decent amount of money into savings every month.

We have a realtor taking us to see half a dozen places tomorrow. We ended up going with the new guy for now. He seems nice, easy to get in touch with, returns calls, and isn’t pushy. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m excited, yet scared to death. With assessment fees and additional utilities, our monthly housing costs will be half again more what we pay now. While we can totally afford it, I like having all that money every month to put into savings, or spend, if something unexpectedly comes up. Oh well. I’m sure most first time home buyers feel this way, right?