House Update

Last Wednesday we had some folks through who stayed a long time and promised an offer, Thursday we received the offer and countered, Friday they accepted. It's a done deal - we are under contract! It was almost too perfect - we were going to keep the house on the market through the end of the week and then pull it, also they are paying in cash and since their offer was $500 less than we were asking, they saved us $1,000 in appraisal fees - in short, giving us an extra $500! The only problem was they asked for us to be out in two weeks, which put us moving the weekend before the wedding and completely stressed me out! Com-plete-ly. Our counter was to be given 4 weeks; we are SO thankful that they accepted.

NOW the problem is where/what to buy. House inventory is at some kind of record low, according to our real estate agent. And he's right, we've literally looked at everything out there that was right in our budget, in a nice neighborhood, and roomy enough - but there just aren't many. Most houses are around the price we sold for or less, or their just out of our budget's reach. We are starting to get frustrated. More Todd, than me, but that's to be expected right... women are just more picky generally - and I am no exception. We could always build, but again that would probably be just a little too high for us to get what we want - plus we'd have to rent something for 2-3 months. 

There is one house we looked at today that we both quite liked, it's actually only the second one (out of probably a dozen) that I've really liked.

The first one was this... it has issues though, it was built in 1935 after all. Pros- it has lots of character, great layout, curb appeal, basement. Cons- the kitchen, closets, etc. are small, one working bathroom, and you can't see the kids whey're playing in the backyard. Some work has to be done on the house immediately, but it's lower in price so we could afford to do it. 

The second, from today, was this... This one was built in 1993. Pros- it's quite charming and homey inside, great layout, amazing backyard (which you could see the kids in). Cons- it's pretty homley outside, the neighborhood is a bit older and not the nicest (although not as sketchy as the one we live in now) and just sort of old/tacky looking. At least it looked like people took care of their yards and houses pretty well.

Please pray for us to make the right decision about buying a house. God really took care of us during the selling, but that was the easy part. Either it was going to sell or wasn't, and either way was fine, and it was totally in God's hands. But buying is different, we have to do more work and be proactive. Pray that we agree (ie. don't kill each other in the process), have peace about our decision, and pick the right one!