House shopping??

Yesterday, Michael and I went house-shopping. I know, I'm shocked too. Both of us are a little like, "Whoa, seriously? This is really happening?" Like, the sparkling ring on my finger, and the many wedding reservations that have been made, and the countless conversations we have had about our lives together weren't enough to convince us that we are actually getting married. Now, now we are looking at homes and imagining our future family living in them. Every time one of us says, "This would be a good nursery," we just look at each other and grin. Nursery!!

Now, we're not ready to buy. Michael keeps telling me we need to start looking now, even though we can't buy until May at the earliest. I'm paying into a First Home Club account, which I pay into for 10 months and at the end of that (May), I get back what I paid in plus about a $7500 grant toward down payment and closing costs. (!!) But Michael, who has done this before, keeps saying, "We need to start looking!" Today someone at church told me that they looked every weekend for 9 months before they found their house. Okay, I'm convinced. The plan is that Michael will sell his house to his neighbor, then continue to rent it month to month until we buy something, at which point he and some of my stuff will move in. We can paint, etc. during that time, before everything is moved in. After the wedding in August (and when my lease is up), I'll move in, too, with the rest of my stuff. Worked out pretty well!

We have already started a list of houses we like that are worth looking at - there are about 30 on the list. We saw three of them yesterday. The first was really nice, and the more we thought and talked about it, the more we liked it. Very useable floor plan, good space, beautiful deck and yard, lots of things we are looking for, fabulous basement, lots of random stuff they left behind (pool table, a couple vacuums, a dehumidifier, some couches in the basement)... some dated cosmetic things that would be easy to fix. It was a little far for me to drive to work, but fairly accessible to the expressway, so not impossible. It was also RIGHT next to the high school parking lot, with no fence in between, so that's not ideal. But, all this doesn't matter, because that very same day, someone made an offer on it, and given that I'm not even approved for a mortgage yet, there was nothing we could do about it. (Note: I'm buying the house because I qualify for First Home Club. Michael's giving me money too, obviously, and his name will go on the deed later.)

The second was cute enough on the outside, but had a lot of strange quirks. There were several changes made to the bottom floor that seemed bizarre, like a built in insert in the wall for the big screen TV - a TV now several years out of date - including surround sound, that is at the opposite end of the room from the beautiful fireplace. So, which way do you orient the long, skinny room - toward the TV(which is also right by the front door), or the fireplace? The laundry room had been moved upstairs, and was right off the master bedroom. Upstairs had several rooms, all of which were tiny. None would accommodate a queen bed, for example, with any room for anything else. So, we crossed it off the list. The third one was in an awesome part of town called the Flats, which is this sort of wooded area right in the middle of the city. Very cool. The house was on the lower end of the square footage we are looking for, and we could tell. Downstairs felt very cramped, and was not laid out well. Also some strange choices, like a drop ceiling in the living room, and wood paneling in the living and dining room. Upstairs, where all the bedrooms were, was lovely. (Strange quirk: the only bathroom downstairs was a full bathroom... off the garage?? The Help, anyone?) The basement was small, and the people who live there had So Much Stuff, it was hard not to feel very claustrophobic. So, we decided to cross this one off the list, too.

So after round one we've got nothing. But again, we didn't want to find our dream house yet, because we're not ready to put in an offer. What we did get was a clearer sense of what we are looking for. We have learned that we like a more open floor plan (the word "claustrophobic" was thrown around quite a bit). We saw that twin beds for kids fit just fine in some of those littler rooms. We have a better eye for cheaply/quickly done updating. And perhaps the best part of all (in my book), is that after our adventure of the house with all the people's stuff, Michael went home and sold a bunch of his stuff, determined that we would never get that bad. *sigh of relief* (Note - I should probably do the same! Having just moved, I don't have TOO much extra stuff, but I don't want to get lazy about it!)

Stay tuned for more in the adventures of house hunting!