Cause I'm That Good of a Blogger

So here I am at my next post, aaaaaaaand we found a house. Should I have taken you through every step, talked about the highs and the lows, the awesome houses and the dives? Yes, of course, but who wants to write when they're completely discouraged and stressed out. Who wants to READ about someone being completely discouraged and stressed out? Trust me, I spared you.

Basically we quickly realized that the houses that we could afford were big, huge, gaping money pits. We tried to talk ourselves into liking a few of them, but they all needed soooo much work. In one, the chimney was crumbling - literally coming off in chunks in our hands. In another, every surface knee height and below was covered in crayon scribbles. One had a kitchen the size of our current bathroom. All sweet, old houses on the outside with tons of character, but we just do not have the time or the funds to put into them.

 Awesome kitchen...

Those are stairs... to the basement.

I don't know, maybe we should keep the handles. And the duct tape to keep the seat from wiggling...

Can you say Grey Gardens?

Then, on a blustery spring day, we found our townhouse! I'll talk about it later. But it's beautiful, just beautiful. And clean, and pretty, and NEW! (Well, 2001. Still, that's about 70 years newer than all the others we looked at.) And it doesn't need a new roof, or black mold removal, or new carpets to replace the ones stained with cat urine. All it needs is a couple buckets of paint. (And a new dining room light fixture, cause that one is ugly.)

Ta-dah!!! (more to come when I can take my own pics)

So our offer was accepted. Now we've gotta have the moolah ready in a little over a month, and we'll be paying a mortgage for pretty much forever..... But I won't think about that now. I'll think about it tomorrow!

http://www.hark.com/clips/jywxyvyfbl-ill-think-about-that-tomorrow

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~ Listening to the church's Easter program music (cause I'm the choreographer! ha.). Wearing boring jeans and a sweater (because I'm annoyed that it's this cold on March 23rd). Leftover stroganoff for dinner. I'll need to find a different recipe though. Not a fan of this one. Tastes like sour cream with beef in it.

the house that love built

Today marks the official start to the Hallead Family Home Search. I finally got up the guts to call the realtor (How do you start that conversation? "Hi, I'm Kara. I wanna buy a house..."). She'll get back to us with some links to start out with, and we should be out looking at houses in person soon! I'm super motivated by the prospect of babies, and Zach by the prospect of off-street parking and a dishwasher - he currently has sole ownership of all dish washing duties.

If you're ever looking for a good laugh just look up houses available in 17331 for less than 150grand. Lots of cute ones from the outside, but most of the insides have not been touched since 1972. We've pretty much resigned ourselves to taking down paneling and ripping out mildewy shag carpeting. But we're handy folks, and up for a challenge. The hard thing for me will be keeping myself from being seduced by the gorgeous old farmhouses around here. I would love NOTHING more than to redo an old farmhouse, but you gotsta have the cash for that.

Needless to say, we're so excited to be homeowners. Today's weather was so gorgeous; just makes me wanna be out in my own yard pulling weeds or something. 2011's gonna be the year of the house for us!

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~ Listening to Nickel Creek's "Anthony". Wearing skinnies, my navy college sweatshirt, and sporting my first ponytail in over a year! (Come on hair, grow!) Ooh, and I made an Asian Beef Broccoli Salad for dinner tonight. You caught me on a good day. ~