house hunters

I keep meaning to write more about this whole buying a house process, because I know someday I'll want to look back and re-live it all. Some days are really frustrating, some days are really hopeful, and some days are just plain stressful. We've been going out with our realtor every weekend to see houses on our list, which has really been fun. We've seen a few houses that we love, a few houses that are decent, and a few houses that need a ton of work. It's amazing how horrible some houses smell...like, do the people notice the stench when the walk home everyday or what?

The first weekend we went out, the very first house we looked at...oh my gosh. It was beautiful. It was a ranch, completely remodeled and just gorgeous. I would have bought it on the spot if I could have. It had a detached barn with garage, good sized lot, and seriously...I loved the house, the layout, the architecture, everything. The second house that day was beautiful, but in a bad neighborhood and it had a shared driveway...which John promptly knocked off the list. The third was in a great neighborhood, cute house, but no basement. It had the water heater and stuff in closets throughout the house so the only storage spaces were in the bedrooms and the garage. The kitchen was kind of small, but it had a mudroom which I loved.

The second weekend, we saw mostly so-so houses. The first we didn't even go into because the outside needed so much work. The second was really nice, full basement, remodeled, garage, absolutely perfect...just out of our price range by $15,000. It even had a great backyard, but fifteen grand isn't going to magically appear in our laps. The third was a disaster...the inside was circa 1970 with a mammoth amount of work necessary, but the outside was resided and landscaped really nicely. We didn't even go upstairs in that one...clearly that was a no. The fourth was alright, it was a ranch and the square footage was on the small side, and the layout wasn't really functional. John didn't like the driveway, and the basement had a really odd layout...it was like one big room with random walls put up. Odd. It did have a really nice deck though, which I liked. This past weekend we went to one that seemed okay in the pictures we saw ahead of time but it absolutely reeked...plus it was really outdated, and I didn't like the location at all. No garage either, which we really want.

We realize that we arent'y going to find a perfect house, but we're starting to learn what we can live without and what kind of work we're willing to do on the house we buy. I would really like a basement and a dining room, John really wants a garage. A good neighborhood is absolutely necessary. We'd much prefer two bathrooms over one. It's a matter of give and take, and hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have a place to call home.

We're going up to meet with a mortgage company to officially get pre-qualified, and then once the end of August arrives we'll get pre-approved and lock in at a rate and with a loan program. Exciting, but seriously stressful. One bank that I contacted last week was telling me that because John is self-employed, he needs a certain kind of bank account in order for us to get approved (which he does not have) so we were scrambling on Saturday talking to different banks to find out if this was true, and luckily it's not a requirement with ALL banks. Insert huge sigh of relief here! It's just a stressful process because it's hard to know which bank to go with, which bank is really going to give us the best deal. Everyone's out to earn money, and I get that, but I want to find a bank that's going to let us keep as much money as possible.

I had a small medical problem that halted my 30 day shredding, so I've got to start that up again soon. I got really mad at myself for having to stop, but I couldn't really help it. I have John's oldest nephew's 5th grade graduation tomorrow night, the meeting with the mortgage guy Thursday, a wedding on Saturday, ahhh! I thought I'd have a lot more free time when the semester ended but clearly that's not the case. I forgot to do my laundry today too, so I have to find something to wear to work tomorrow.