Things Are Looking Up

A lot has happened in a few days. I decided to go for this house we fell in love with, and in the last few days I:

• got our preferred agent back on board
• got pre-approval for a loan to get the house
• had a home inspection on my house anticipatory of selling it
• have a cash sale for my house! (it's not in writing yet, but I'm confident it's a go - it's a verbal agreement with somene I know personally who isn't going to screw me over)

Things are really moving quickly and (dare I say it?) amazingly easily toward us being able to get this house we want.

We were going to go look at it today, and make our offer then. But unfortunately the family selling the house suffered a tragedy this week, and canceled all showings until after the first of the year. That's fine, I have no problem giving them this time - I feel bad for them.

But from all my agent has told me about their situation - even before the tragedy, and moreso after it - they're going to be anxious for any offer, and may well consider our first (low) offer, or if not, at least it sounds promising that we'll be able to negotiate something workable, quickly. Even my agent - a completely professional and usually cautious person who is more prone to telling us things like 'we can't predict what's going to happen, we'll just have to wait and see' - has made encouraging noises about our chances of getting this house.

So I don't want to be counting up unhatched chicks, but it is encouraging. I admit I'm already browsing online for ideas for furniture, rugs, etc. We're going to need a ton of stuff - that house is quite a bit bigger than mine, and has more rooms, I told the Dread Reverend that we'll probably have to deal with a few big empty spaces until we find just want we want and need for the place. There's a living room and a family room, but I only have furniture for one or the other. There will be a spare guest bedroom, but fortunately I have a spare bedroom set, with mattress and box springs, that I kept when I sold my dad's home (hoping that living in storage for a year and a half hasn't damaged it).

I'm getting my own personal/hobby room (smile) for which I'll need to design built-in storage systems to really nicely organize all my stuff, but that'll take time to figure out what I need, what'll look nice, what I can afford. All I know is that for the first time ever, I want to have a nice integrated system for my hobby stuff - not just stuff stacked higgledy-piggledy in ratty plastic containers on ratty plastic shelves. I want something nice and beautiful!

There was a period of time this week when I thought everything was falling apart and we weren't going to be able to get the house - to get any house, because I thought there was a serious problem with my house that was going to make it unsellable. (turned out I was wrong!) But when I thought that, I got so sad. I remember thinking, for once in my life, I'd like a truly nice place to live - is that so much to ask? Every place I've ever lived has been varying degrees of crappy ... apartments that ranged from so-so to barely liveable; the house we bought when I was married which was a major 'fixer-upper.' This house, which was a more than major fixer-upper when I bought it, and while we (my dad and I) did put a ton of work into it, it's never been really nice. It has crappy old carpet, slab foundation problems, mold problems, and it is just so tiny and cramped that even if I got something nice for the house, it was hard to notice. The kitchen is the nicest feature of my house (and I do love my kitchen), but I got that with a $5,000 home equity loan and designed it myself.

But to have a whole house, where my washer and dryer aren't in my damned kitchen ... with nice hardwood floors, not old carpet with wrinkles and shredded backing ... with room for things, instead of tripping over something every time I try to move around ... with the ability to have spare sheets and pillowcases, and know where they are (huge linen closet upstairs in the house) ... with closets everywhere, plus a whole basement - room for our stuff! ... it's truly awe-inspiring to me. And doesn't really seem too much to ask.

I think I deserve a nice home. I'm not talking about a mansion, I'm not talking about excess here. Yes, it has four bedrooms, but they range from average size to downright small (the smallest will become the guest bedroom, since it won't be used as often). The living room is 24 x 12, nice size, but not enormous. There is currently no back porch or patio, something very important to us, so we'll have to add that. It doesn't even have central air (but I don't really care about that, so that's okay). The driveway's gravel, not concrete (again, I don't care). But the point of all that is not to downplay it - it's a beautiful place. The point is to say, I'm not trying to justify buying myself some kind of $250,000 home that is way more than we need. It's just what we need, and comfortable, and well maintained, and has a couple of bonus perks that just make it really nice (the fireplaces, the 3 acres).

And I think it's my time to finally have a nice home, one that I don't have to be embarrassed when people need to come into it - having a party, or even needing a repairman in for something. I'm really psyched!

But I am trying to keep at least a toe or two on the ground ... I realize none of this is signed, sealed and delivered yet ... and anything can happen. So I try, really hard, to keep that in mind. But it is difficult. It all just feels so completely and totally right ... .

P.S. I was reading this over and noticed something strange I said - that we'd need "tons of stuff." God knows I have no intention of junking this new place up the way the old house is. I'm not planning to go out and buy things to fill every corner of the empty new house. :o) But the fact is, we'll need certain things ... furniture for the living room ... rugs all over the place, to help protect the beautiful hardwood floors ... chairs for the dining room table (I have a table now, but only one chair, since there was no room for more; at the new house I'll have room for, and need, 3 more - because we'll actually be using it to eat on, instead of having to eat in the living room holding our plates in our lap!) ... stuff like that. Just felt the need to clarify.