No More Houses Please!

I typed this post once today and thought it was fairly good. Alas, that post is no more and I will begin anew.

I have spent two days and much time on the web researching and looking at houses since the last house hunting update. The first time out since "flood zone house" produced a winner! It had everything we were looking for plus a water purification system for drinking water! The basement was a walk-out into the backyard that would eliminate the worries of dog allergies as AllergyDog could live in the downstairs with easy access to the backyard and Actress's bedroom (her dog). There was even a deck off the master bedroom for drinking our coffee while soaking in the morning sun. It was so right, so perfect, so cute! Unfortunately we weren't the only people who felt that way.

We made an offer just slightly below asking price with a deadline of noon the next day. Our realtor called that evening to inform us that the sellers had told their realtor that they would make no decisions until 3 days past our deadline. What they said was that they planned to take a look at all of the offers on the day of THEIR choosing and accept the highest offer. WTF?!?! I was livid! That's not how the system is set to work. If that's how you want to sell your home then you have an AUCTION! Highest bidder wins. If you're not going to follow the rules then don't play the game people! Feeling highly miffed (well I was anyway) we chose to let our offer expire. I sincerely hope that when their chosen day arrived they had no offers to choose from! Not very nice of me, I know but dang it! they didn't even give us a chance to negotiate. In our tiny little corner of the world, the housing recession is just something we read about in the papers and on the web. It's not the reality here. Our reality is that houses are selling quickly and there's almost always a sucker who will offer more than the asking price to guarantee that they get the house.

After a couple days of pouting and scouring the realty websites I ventured to the big city for another round of house walk-throughs.

*House number one was in need of far too much repair.

*House number two was hiding water damage in the foundation.

And house number three you ask? Well...

*House number three was just right!

Almost.

House number three wasn't even officially on the market yet. Our realtor knew the owner and had asked to show it to us pronto. It was a rental that they had decided to sell. House number three was in the suburb that we really want to be in. It had size! Oh, be still my heart...the square footage it would have when the basement was finished (almost 2500!)! The kitchen wasn't a shoebox, the bathrooms weren't closets, the basement was a WALK-OUT (eliminating the problem of AllergyDog). The family room opened up into the backyard and was huge! It could easily be renovated into two bedrooms for my girls or one very large room that the girls could share. Mr. Irony's daughter could have her own hidey-hole on her visits home from college. Mr. Irony could have a study. Action would have lots of room in his bedroom. It even had a sunroom (mine! I claim it right now!) off the garage.

Are you waiting for the "but"? I know you are. Well here it is...

The siding and the tub surrounds in both bathrooms, as well as the basement bathroom ceiling, must be replaced prior to closing on the home in order to qualify for the mortgage. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? No, I didn't think so either. Here's where the problem is. It's summer. Contractors are very busy right now. Getting someone in there to get the work completed, and then getting it inspected so that we could close before mid-August, may be a major problem. The owner's nephew is a local contractor (and apparently quite a favored one as the realtor and the mortgage broker both showered him with compliments) and he has agreed to take a look at the repairs needed this weekend and work up an estimate. But (there's that word again!) he would definitely not be able to do the repairs for another three weeks or more.

Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal but I really had my heart set on moving before the kids come back from their dad's at the beginning of August. I wanted us to have a chance to settle in before starting school and possibly be able to meet some of the neighborhood kids so that the first day in a new school would be a little less traumatic. Also the "cheap" side of me didn't want to have to pay rent for August. I'm trying not to despair, though. It will all work out I know. If worst comes to worst, we put everything in storage and move in to Mr. Irony's apartment for a couple of weeks. Hopefully it won't come to that though (his place is too small for six of us and pets are prohibited). I'm trying not to get my hopes up on this house but I have to admit to already thinking of color schemes and types of flooring, not to mention which wall would best showcase the piano. :)

Keep your fingers crossed and send me some good karma please! Hopefully we'll have a better handle on what will happen by Tuesday of next week.

Happy lattes to you! I'm making mine a caramel one.