As I continue to scower Realtor.com for my dream home I am slowly coming to the realization that it may not exist. We were hoping to find a beautiful, newly built home on about 2-5 acres, not in town, but not too far out of town and live happily ever after. What I am finding are homes built way before I was born, a bazillion miles out of town, and they are still asking an arm and a leg for them. I mean I'm sure you are proud of the house your Grandpa built, but people, give me a freakin' break. It's 50 years old and has ugly paneling in the living room and a sagging porch roof out back. It's almost as if these people do not realize that the housing slump has hit and the market crashed several years ago and we still haven't recovered.
We've placed an offer on two houses. The first one was a disaster. We all loved the house, even though it was built in 1962 and they still wanted $180,000 for it. It was just cool. And even though it only had .8 acres to go with it, the house was just cool. Did I mention it was cool? And damp and a great reservoir for MOLD!!!! Yes, it was a moldy old house. So when the mold was found everywhere and we discovered that in order to get rid of the mold you would have to basically tear it down and build a new one we decided, a big fat NO THANK YOU!!!
On to house number two. It's a newer home. Built in 2001 and it sits on 1 acre. I liked it. It had great color schemes and I wouldn't have to paint a single wall. I was willing to accept it as it was. It had 3 bedrooms which we were thinking was plenty big enough, room for a pool and a hot tub and the dogs. So we made an offer on it. That same night my husband called me from work. "Look at MLS # xxxxxx," he says. So I do. It looks like a freakin' castle. It has 4 bedrooms, 200 sq. ft. bigger, and they are asking $10,000 less for it than the one we placed an offer on. The kids think the pictures are awesome. So naturally, I have to call my real estate lady and tell her we want to look at it. We go. It's in a nice country setting, but still in a subdivision. It's on the outskirts of a small town with a great school system and only about 15 minutes from my work. The house is beautiful. Granite counter tops, nice paint, nice fixtures. Then I look at the back yard. It's small. Big enough for a pool and hot tub, but not much else, and no trees. But it's too late. The kids have fallen in love with it. Forrest yells out, "It's two stories, Mom!" Then Nathan hollers, "Oh cool, Forrest come look at this!" In one of the bedrooms there is a small door that leads to an aclove in the attic. It could be fixed up as a little indoor club house if we are ever so inclined, which I"m sure we will be. Yep the boys fell in love with it. My husband fell in love with it because like I said before, It looked like a freakin' castle. So I guess we are gonna have to buy it. I suppose I can always plant my own trees and watch them grow. After all I have always wanted a flowering tulip tree.
