The Hunt

Today we resumed our house-hunting expeditions, and I can say I'm feeling a lot better about this whole house purchase thing now than I did about a month ago. The last time we went out and looked, there were two houses that we really liked, and both had two offers on them in 24 hours. Not being interested in a bidding war, we walked away, and then I freaked out and thought "oh crap! this is too fast! must move slower - perhaps will rent for one year..." My wonderful husband said "no problem" and we didn't do anything for a few weeks. But reality has set in that we must grow up and make a commitment to a house (especially since the rental market looked really dismal) and we started looking again. A few potentials today, but nothing we're going to make an offer on. Our realtor gave us some homework, and suggested that we each come up our top ten criteria for a house, and to see if they match. So far I'm at functional kitchen, at least 1.5 bathrooms (that make sense - not a random toilet covered by a shower curtain in the basement like one house we looked at), good light and hardwood floors. A lot of other things come to mind, but aren't really essential like central air (could be installed), a entry way instead of entering right into the living room, and room for me to have my own home office. But I've been a lot better at coming up with things I don't want, all of which are changeable, but sometimes hard to look past. For example, drop ceilings, yucky carpets, kitchens that make no sense and kitschy bathrooms tiled in forest green and pink. I'm trying not to love a house because I love the decorating (i did love a house primarily because the owner had some of the same shoes as me, some knitting stuff in her study and a perfume that I love) but sometimes its hard to look past. I know our house is out there - fortunately, we have a few months before we need to find it and move in!