House Hunting continued

Two weeks later I have officially seen every house for sale in Oconomowoc in our price range. That equals approximately 30 houses all of which had a deal breaker of some kind.  No normal basement, no basement at all, no front entry, 1 car garage, strange layouts, gut jobs, 1 bathroom...right off the kitchen (poop...what?), 3rd bedroom by the front door (sorry baby, fend for yourself down there because mommy and daddy can't hear you upstairs on the other end of the house), creepy recording studio in the garage, main street...you get the idea.  Our price range provides us with a lot of small houses built in approximately 1910 with lots of character...and one bathroom OR houses built in 1960 that are still living (and cooking) in 1960.  Lots of potential if you're willing to put in the sweat, blood, and tears or course.

So, I was getting discouraged.  I discovered that me, of all people, was having a hard time seeing past the strange wall colors, awful curtains, or ugly couch.  Me?  Me! House hunting proved to be much more difficult on me physically and emotionally that I thought it would be.  I knew I would have a difficult time viewing my life in someone else's space, but I found myself wondering about the people that lived there and imagining a story about why they were moving or why the home was vacant.  Had someone died and their children were cleaning out the house? Had someone lost their job and that's why the house was in foreclosure or being auctioned?  To say the least, it was a bit depressing.

We found a home, that after imagining an entire remodel, could be the perfect home for us.  I painted a picture for Vain of where a wall could come down and how the new kitchen would sparkle so he could see the perfect home as well.  He did, he found it in his mind, and then the news that there was already a cash offer on the house came.  It was higher than what we would have offered so our remodel would go down the drain and we'd be living and cooking in 1960.  Sadly, cash is king and we couldn't compete. So, we revisited the idea of the home we had been earlier that day.  It's a house we've had our eye on since we moved to Wisconsin long before Vain even had a job.  It's adorable, it's big, it has a wonderful yard, it's in town...all of the things we wanted.  I passed it by because I had been so determined that 1960 was the place for us.  Turns out this house was waiting for us.  It's been on the market just about as long as we've been looking at it.  The cash offer on the other house came just in time to turn our heads.  It's flooded with light, 4 bedrooms, finished basement...don't get excited, it's still old and needs a little TLC, but it's the perfect house for us.

We put in an offer today and tomorrow we'll find out if they accept.

I'm dreaming of Christmas decorations on the snowy front of this house and red geraniums in the summer!