Could this be our new home????

Could we actually have our own home- rather than moving every year? The last few years of our lives have been very transitional and are getting increasingly difficult to bear with a 2 year old and one on the way. As Perry and I made the decision to continue his PhD- we felt it only made sense to bite the bullet and purchase a house, since we will be here longterm (at least 5 years).

So the quest for a house began a few weeks ago. With this being a "buyer's market" and low interest rates, it would behoove us to get serious about it now, rather than this fall after the our little guy has arrived and is a few months old.... Are we totally crazy?

With this decision, came a slew of questions... such as, should we buy close to Perry's work where we can get a 1980's larger house for our money OR should be buy between work and school where the houses may have more character and are older and cuter, but smaller? The more we looked, the more we realized that I can make any house look awesome, I can't however, create a larger space on a little floorplan, add a garage and provide the space we need with a 2 bedroom house (which is all we could afford in the more affluent area closer to Perry's university). This is all assuming that the neighborhood we purchase in is promising, safe and prosperous, for resale value, of course...

We stumbled upon this one and imagined our happy family in it, so put a bid on it about 10 days ago. We bid significantly less than the asking price, ended up being second in line for the house and were outbid. Our realtor told us it was a "long shot" and "not to count on this one". So we looked at other houses, but compared everything we saw to this one. Well, Saturday afternoon our realtor called us, sounding very shocked and said it fell through with the first bidders- if we were serious about it, the sellers would lower the asking price by $10,000 b/c they absolutely need to get rid of it NOW or it will be foreclosed upon.

We jumped at the chance- although still very shocked ourselves. It's now a short sale- which means if everything clears w/ the inspection and with our closing costs/downpayment, we could move in March 7th! Less than a month! Freak out!

There are still a few items that need to fall into place, such as the inspection, but it's become a very real possibility. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully this isn't a roller coaster ride b/c I'm not sure my pregant emotions can handle such turmoil, but we'll go with the flow and follow God's lead. If this all really does happen, I'll be thrilled to redesign this place on a shoe string budget and will be sure to send before and after photos b/c this 80's house needs some updates!