drumroll please....another house update

i started a blog entry early yesterday morning but before i was even half way through, the little ones woke and i didn't finish.

i woke up early again today. hello? can you say i'm turning into my mother? please don't, even if i am. but i woke up early again today in hopes of completing yesterday's entry but the desktop monitor is all hosed and i was going to restart the computer but decided against it because i always hate to do that if awesome papa is in the middle of something, which is most all of the time and maybe he knows a trick for getting the monitor to turn on that doesn't involve powering off the entire system. or maybe he doesn't, but it's his computer and i feel better when i don't have to reboot it.

that said, i could not access the photos i was going to post yesterday so here i am. nursing, with coffee in hand, about to talk about the housing situation even though i was going to take a break from the whole thing.

so let's back up...my last house update was probably near non-sensical. i didn't edit it well, i haven't re-read it since i posted it, and i have no idea what i was talking about or at what point in the process i wrote it because i think after that update i found the perfect house! it was so beautiful and had the greatest backyard and was actually a home we were supposed to look at several days before we did but it kept making it's way to the bottom of our priority list.

it had a spacious chef's kitchen, oversized bedrooms, tile throughout the kitchen, dining area, foyer, laundry room and bathrooms. the his and her vanities were separate which was awesome. there were medicine cabinets! such a small, inconsequential thing that means a lot to me since so many homes are built without them nowadays unless you want to pay a god-awful amount extra to have them installed as the home is being built. anyway, i could go on but i won't because as awesome papa reminded me, we're not chefs.

he is of the opinion that the builders of this most awesome home did not make "practical use of the space" so he couldn't have cared less that the bedrooms were oversized, that the foyer was nice and inviting and had room for a bench and coat rack. he didn't like the kitchen because he couldn't "pivot" around a small area containing the sink, stove, and fridge. i told him, i'd cook more, no doubt because that kitchen inspired me...i don't like to pivot, i don't like to feel cramped. and did i mention this kitchen had two pantries? and the laundry room had a utility sink? so cool, but we did not agree on the importance of these features and we were back to considering older homes, built in neighborhoods that lack sidewalks, and generally possess all the traits i've grown to hate about the homes in this area.

after i accepted that my husband really didn't like this house, i got weepy. i'd looked at more than 20 homes and never felt so defeated at the thought of not getting a single one, except this one. i wanted to give up, i was upset, i got over it but was still uninterested in looking at anything else.

*then* we got our loan approval. i had resigned myself to waiting another weekend when the mortgage guy texted my husband at 5:00 on friday afternoon. i thought i'd make the case for this home again but *then* we sat down to talk hardcore about our decision to rent or sell our existing home and it occurred to us that the very first house we both fell in love with - the only house we both agreed on - was the first short sale we happened upon. we went to look at it, unaware that it was a short sale because the listing agent had conveniently entered it into the MLS incorrectly. this began our long journey through the world of incorrectly listed homes but anyway, yes! this house had everything we needed...two separate living spaces, a tiled eat-in kitchen, four bedrooms upstairs, an office (which would be my studio) downstairs, a pantry, under-the-stairs harry potter closet...it was damn near perfect so we agreed that maybe, just maybe we'd go through the short sale process and make an offer.

i got online only to find (of course) it is now off the market. soooooooooooo.

there is one more next to perfect house that the kids and i saw without papa. it's been high on my list of possible homes but it's bank owned. putting in an offer on a bank owned property isn't as long winded as a short sale can be but i have no way of knowing the status of that home until our realtor gets back to us, since it was never listed online. i am not good at being patient. it's actually listed a little out of our range, too, BUT with comps in the area, it would be possible to put in a more reasonable offer considering some of the damages to the home. they're minor, but would need immediate attention. it's been sitting in the hands of the bank since at least november, according to the winterization notice but it was only put on the market this month. it has a broken window and several holes in the wall from large works of art and LCD TVs. these are things that might be worth negotiating if we put in a lower offer than the market value the bank is trying to get.

but. before i get ahead of myself. must. hear. back. from. realtor.