Progress Report (Of a Different Type)

On Saturday, Tom and I walked through two houses with Cher, though technically, it's Cher and I who tour all these houses together, sharing fun decorating ideas, while Tom lags behind, taking pictures of rusted, broken stuff for documentation to show the sellers (I guess) that their house ain't so great and our offer will reflect that.

Or something.

So anyway, Cher and I had much creative fun in these two houses, completely decorating them inside our heads before we left. But when I--excitedly--got back inside the car with Tom each time, he said, "I hated it."

Good thing we have a strong marriage. And a God who shares His strength.

Then Sunday we decided, "Yes! M______ is the town for us. Let's go there today and do some 'drive-by's' of these houses we've seen online. M_____ is crammed with cheap houses. This should be a cinch."

So we drove there. Finally spied the perfect house we've been looking for all along--and at a do-able price, too. We parked across the street from it while I imagined room sizes and colors and Tom said things like, "Look at those new gutters! And the roof is amazing." (See why I have a bit more fun with Cher on these adventures?)

Well, pretty darn quick we called Cher about that house and left a message.

She called back. Already sold. And after just three days.

"Oh, for Pete's sake! How could our chosen town do that to us?," we asked each other. And tried to keep it together while we drove around and saw bad houses in bad neighborhoods or terrific houses in neighborhoods too expensive for us.

So because we've got just a week-and-a-half left to search, Tom and I haven't been sleeping well and if you'd been at our house this morning at 4:30 you'd have seen him at his computer and me at mine feverishly emailing possible houses to each other.

And then we came across this one, a double, just minutes from Naomi's jobs so we could rent the upstairs apartment to her:

Love at first sight! And it was cheap, so even if it was all wrecked inside, we'd have money leftover to pour into it. We could drive by there today to see if the neighborhood looked at least a tiny bit safe. We made plans. I emailed Cher with the MLS# to see if it was still for sale then I went back to bed. Got up later, then Tom went returned to bed.

Cher called. There's already an offer in on that house.

Gah! After I hung up, that's when, for the first time in all this insanity, I cried.

But then I got good and mad--and determined! "We are gonna get a double in _______ if it's the last thing we do," I said with Scarlett O'Hara fervor. "We're gonna win this game and come in first for a change!"

So I returned to the computer and found three more nice doubles in that area and emailed them to Tom to inspect.

So that's where we are. All fired-up and determined! No more whining, no more wimpy, sarcastic, defeatist attitudes allowed around our house, just faith and believing we're being led by all the no's only to find the one yes we need.

We are going to win this game!

(Right???)

(heh)

*************************

And yes, I know-- previously I didn't want a large house. Well, I changed my mind. I've changed my mind probably three hundred times so far as to what I really want, so please bear with me, ok?

********************

Finding a house to buy within a time-limit is either for the very young and strong or the very stupid.

(And you may quote me.)