Hoping for the best

I understand why there are many television shows devoted to buying a house.  Oh the drama!  Lately, I've been the star in my own real estate soap opera, with Nick as my unwilling co-star.  Hopefully, we are coming up on our happy ending; although I am a little wary to say so.

I will give a brief summary of my HGTV show plot:  We saw "Dream House #1" on Mother's Day and it left lots to be desired.  I tried REALLY hard to like it, but there was a whole lot that I couldn't fix with paint.  Like, the layout, the kitchen and the tile flooring.  We would have hit the very top of our budget just neutralizing the place, before we even touched the basement.  Nick was really disappointed, because he was romanced by the acreage and basement space.  Back to the drawing board I went, to continue to scrutinize over the same listings that I have spent tens and tens of hours memorizing.  A couple of days later, the house next door to Dream House #1 was listed.  The price was within our budget, albeit at the very top (but negotiable as far as I'm concerned,) and the pictures revealed a move-in ready space.  Not to mention, it had the same acreage as Dream House #1 and a nearly as large of an unfinished basement space.  We scheduled a showing that night so that we didn't miss out.  I was so hopeful that this was the one...It had everything both Nick and I were looking for, which I can say is damn near impossible to find because I've tried.

Let's just say, we had a tearful (me) drive home and Nick questioned if we were looking at the same house.  The interior had basic builder-grade everything, but, in my opinion, could be lived with.  Nick thought we'd need to knock $75,000 off the asking price to make it a viable option.  Needless to say, that one didn't work out either.

I just so happened to have a few more walk-throughs scheduled during Emmy's last day of Mom's Day Out, the following morning.  The list of homes to be seen were considered a stretch, because I'd exhausted all of my initial favorites, that included most everything we were looking for within our price range (and there weren't many!)  The "D" team of house options, if you will.  The first house was one that looked nice, but didn't have a basement for Nick, and was therefore pretty forgettable upon viewing it over the past month of looking.

I pulled into a small subdivision from a wooded country road, just a mile and a half or so from a main street.  The house at the address where I was to meet my realtor seemed nice and well-kept.  It wasn't until I walked inside that I realized what a treat I was in for...

I was so impressed with this house, that I dragged a very sick Nick back with me the following morning.  That afternoon we mulled it over, reviewed the comps and made an offer, tens of thousands of dollars below their asking price....And the counter offers ensued...