After having a fruitless search for a decent rental within out budget, we have decided to take a HUGE, HUGE step and buy a home. The process has been exhausting and I am never quite sure if we are making the right decisions, but the idea of having my very own home is incredibly exciting.

I have learned that realtors can be complete and total douchebags who are more interested in nepotismic (ha, I made a word) pocket-lining than looking out for their clients' best interest.
We spent yesterday with a guy who showed us ONLY houses that his father had bought and revamped to "flip" for profit. The houses were all old, dated looking, and in need of lots of TLC despite the nice cosmetic things dad had done to them.

We had a little epiphany today when we realized that these guys show us houses they want to unload, not houses that are a good fit or good value for us (they were also waaaaay overpriced).

Today we ran around looking at houses with a realtor who was recommended by someone from Adrian's work, and this guy was much better. He recommended a couple houses based on our criteria but neither of them were what we were looking for (one would have fit our needs but the previous owners...it was repo'ed...TRASHED the place and it was being sold "AS IS"). I don't get why someone would buy a nice home and go to all that expense and go out on a limb with their credit rating and tear the place up.

We also learned that AS IS is NOT for us. I know lots of people find fixer uppers for cheap and turn them into gems, but we are just not skilled or patient enough to do that kind of thing. We want a house that we can move into and be comfortable without having to make major repairs.

I searched on my own as well and came up with a large list for us to work through. We ended up crossing some off when we discovered, by looking at houses, how many square feet we require for all of us and our stuff to fit. The first house we looked at today was beautiful. It was an older home that had been pretty much completely redone. It was LOVELY and had lots of neat features and the price was awesome. Unfortunately, it had almost no storage space. I would have to use my treadmill (ha! Like I actually use it!) in the spacious, empty backyard.

We passed on the house with the garage that looked like someone had taken a crowbar to it (AS IS my ass!). We were in and out of houses all day and the last one we looked at seems to be the one we liked best.

This is such a huge commitment that it scares me, but I think it's about time we became responsible grown-ups, haha. We'll hopefully know this weekend if our offer was accepted. If things go well we'll soon be paying property taxes on an 1,848 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 living area home with a fireplace, and a large fenced backyard, just steps away from a local park. I'm nervous and scared and excited. And tired of being in this hotel!

I have to give a big, big thank you to LifeHappens and Hyperborean Wanderer. They are just fantastic people and we have been fortunate to have been able to spend some time with them this week. They had us over for a fabulous dinner on Valentines and WATCHED THE KIDS for us tonight so we could be alone! Woohoo! They have given us a lot of really great advice to apply to our house hunt and the entire home-buying process. Haha, and our girl LH knows her stuff! They have been so kind and helpful, and they are a lot of fun, too. I could probably write an entire article on how impressed I am with their family. She also taught me how to hide my double chin in photos. Whether I can apply that new knowledge remains to be seen and the rest of my large, squishy glory is still a photographic conundrum, but it's a good start! (BTW, she is a total hottie, and the kids are just as gorgeous as they look in the pics) They are all GREAT!