Cue scary, psycho laughter....

Hahaha! Hahahahahah! Hahahahahahahahah! AHHH!!!!!

You can just hear it, can't you? It's me! Laughing at this whole entire house situation! What happened to the good old days when we pulled up to a for-sale sign in front of a cute little house, called the number, met the lovely homeowners selling by owner of course, took a peek, quickly threw in a respectable offer, and BAM. We're in??!!

Well, those aren't my good old days, but I imagine that's how purchasing a house was before this whole "housing crisis." Maybe I'm fooling myself, but it had to be easier than this, right?

Let's backtrack.

My last post? "Could it be"? Well, it wasn't. Our offer expired on February 17. We drove by the house shortly after for one last hurrah, and decided smugly that we didn't like it there anyway. Pashaw. On to bigger and better and faster-closing houses. Then, the for-sale rental house we live in currently (the house we formerly owned who my dear mother-in-law is now in possession of) received a sooner-than-anticipated accepted offer. Great news for my m.i.l. and we are truly thrilled it happened so quickly, not so great for us - the two extremely picky home shoppers with a 'must-have' list the size of Kentucky, including items that I am pretty sure are mutually exclusive, who now have to find a home, purchase it, pack up, move out and move IN all before the set closing date of March 19. Cue that scary, psycho laughter again....

So C and I were sent scrambling. We went to one house and nearly put an offer in on it, but just couldn't settle on - settling. It didn't feel like the right one. We kept comparing everything we looked at to the bungalow - location, room size, character (or lack of), yard, amount of work needed, and so on. The pro's and con's on the bungalow are fairly matched - it's not the Dream House. But that is not what we are going for with this purchase. We're looking for a house that is a great deal - a house we can fix up and be proud of, that won't hang us out to dry when it comes time to sell it. Somewhere we can grow into for a little while, but not forever. We want to be able to live there and start a family and maybe live on one income, if that's what we decide. So the limitations we've set up are our own, and I'm comfortable with them. Besides, what 20-something semi-urban couple doesn't long for a bungalow at some point in their early homeowner days? (Dreamy sigh).

So we are back to waiting on the 69th Street house. And it's okay. I am happy wherever I get to live with C. We took looking for something else off the table, and breathed a sigh of relief. It is kind of like being back at square one with this house, but it feels good for a lot of reasons. And hopefully, we won't be homeless come March 19.

Let's hope one of these closing dates actually sticks. Until then...

Could it be?

Is it really happening? 22 days after my last post (feels like 2,200) we might have a closing...this coming Monday! I'm not even nervous or excited or anything - not even really thinking about it - because we've been there, done that, and had it all fall apart with one really annoying phone call.

Last week Chris and I came to the conclusion we would wait until the 17th of February, when our offer expires, and if the date came and went we would move on to another house. Then Friday rolled around, and one of the women who works at the bank dealing with our lending called Chris to tell him that our interest rate expired that day, and if we still wanted to house on 69th street we had to pay to extend the rate (Does this sound like a scam or what? The rates are the SAME as when we locked!) But I digress. So Chris called me, and without any hesitation I said - let's forget about it. This house is in rough shape anyway - we can do better. So in turn, he called our real estate agent who by some persuasive magic talked him into just thinking about it before we make any emotional decisions. We've been. Thinking. About. It. Forever. But we did. And concluded, again, that there are no better deals out there right now, and we love a good DIY project. So, $800 later we're locked in (at the same rate - ugh) and tentatively have a closing scheduled for Monday, although we have not received anything officially confirming this.

I vaguely remember all of this runaround from the first time we purchased a home, when three offers prior to the house we got had all fallen through. I found this old email from Chris as I was cleaning out my old emails the other day. It said, "This is what I think of our house buying experience! I love you! -C" Here is the mobile photo he sent...

...and I totally get it.