Househunting Day 1

Glenn and I signed up for USAA's Movers' Advantage program. I heart free money. They assigned us a realtor and we've been working with her over email for the last couple months. I told her where I wanted to live and we've been getting listings. I took a look at them and mostly just hoped a few would still be available. We weren't about to buy a house without seeing it first.

We got in to town on Friday night and checked in to our hotel room. We're in a Candlewood Suites for the next week for so. It's cozy studio apartment but Stella's slowly getting used to it and not barking at every single noise at night. Slowly. She's worse than a baby right now. We can't leave her back at the hotel alone and we can't take her in to most of the places we're going. She's got a nice little set up in the back of the car now because we have to leave her there from time to time.

We met with our realtor, Jill, on Saturday morning to check out 4 houses. I sent her a list of 7 and only 4 were still available.

House 1: In a great neighborhood. Beautiful old trees, well manicured lawns. Some kids' bikes. All good signs. $100K below our budget in this neighborhood? Awesome. The house is very cute from the outside. Colonial style, driveway space. We'd been warned that this house needed to be "completely redone". Hmm...wallpaper? New kitchen? Floors? We'll take a look anyway.

OMG.

We spent approximately 10 minutes in the house. Every wall is cracked. The kitchen looks like the original from 1919. The bathroom is only half there. There is a baby grand piano in the front room.

"What do you think this room is used for?"
It had a whole in the floor, windows on 3 sides and a sink in the corner. Nothing else.

"Where does this go to?"
I open a door to what appears to be a pantry off of the kitchen, lined with shelves but with 4 ft. ceilings. Glenn dubs it the "murder room". Don't worry, the house had 2 murder rooms.

We're adventurous but lack the $200,000 it would take to even start fixing this house.

House 2: Also in a great neighborhood. It has great curb appeal and it appears to have been updated recently.  I'm optimistic. Anything is better after house 1. We walk in to a recently painted and large living room and dining room with at least 10 ft ceilings. New central heat and air. I'm a little excited. We go through a kitchen with new granite counter tops to the backyard. Here we notice that the back of the house is unpainted. So is the side which is also missing a great deal of the siding. The two parts that don't show from the street. This house is now the "lipstick house". They did a little work to make it look nice, but I'm just too afraid of what they didn't want to fix up and covered up instead. This house is also a shortsale so who knows how long it might take to actually get in to the house. We're here, our Unaccompanied Baggage (express shipment from Japan) is in town, in storage, we want to move in soon.

House 3: Well, we didn't get to see house 3 because the woman who is renting it is sick and won't let us inside. Ok....

House 4: This house is in my favorite neighborhood so far. A very cute, renovated house. I love it from the outside and the pictures I've seen. I'm hoping the 1423 square feet feels bigger than I think it is. It doesn't. I like the house a lot, but I just know that we'll grow out of it too quickly. Also, who renovates 2 bathrooms and puts in 2 showers? We'd have to reduce the already tiny closet in the master bedroom to add a bathtub to bathe dogs/children. We don't have any kids yet, but we're on shore duty now. That's the plan.

So I'm a little bummed. Not that I thought we'd find our dream home on Day 1, but wouldn't that have been awesome? We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around our favorite neighborhoods and checking out a few that I wasn't familiar with. I sent a new list to Jill and we'll get started again on Monday.

In the mean time, we're hunting down and furnished, pet-friendly, short-term-lease-possible apartment. We're hoping we can find a month-to-month rental that doesn't cost us a ton. If it didn't cost us $90/night to stay here (10 days is all the Navy will pay for), I'd just stay here. Free laundry, a gym down the hall? Yes, please. Ok, maybe the 200 square feet might get old.