House hunting.

Yesterday we went out and looked at some houses. It was funny knowing how we keep our house -- we try to keep it true to the pictures in this post -- and looking at how other people show their homes.

The first one we went to we knew was a real fixer upper. I mostly wanted to go because the listing didn't display the square footage or lot size and it did have 4 bedrooms. Yea, it was a little too much fixer upper for me.

The second house was by far our favorite of the day. While it was a bit above our price range we are hoping we could talk them down a little in this market. It had 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Nice!! And, even better, three bedrooms on the top floor (very important to me). It had a beautiful yard.

The third was a short sale. You could tell that the owners had started fixing it up and then gotten into trouble. But the best part was that the owner answered the door when our realtor knocked. And he didn't leave. He was a Russian dude (maybe mafia-esque) and stayed in the living room watching TV. That or followed us around with his arms crossed over his chest. Weird.

The fourth was the one we had our eyes on from looking on the computer. It was 4bedrooms and 2 baths, but cheaper than some of that size. Now I know why. When we walked in the first thing I noticed was the smell. Eeeeew! Something reminiscent of dogs and cigarettes. When we went downstairs I didn't even have the courage to go all the way into the bathroom because it was so disgusting. The bedroom down there (obviously a teenager's) was so cluttered Glenn wasn't sure if there was someone in there or not when he pushed open the door. And when our realtor said they must have some big dogs I agreed, noting that they must be big judging by the size of the poop piles in the back yard. And poor Glenn...he stepped into some poop while walking out to the car. Number 4 was our biggest disappointment of the day.

Number Five was cute, but small. Very small. The truth of the matter is a lot of the houses we have our eyes on aren't much bigger than our condo. You don't realize how small it looks to squeeze another bedroom and family room into that space. Makes me really appreciate our open floor plan and big kitchen and living room, but not enough to want to stay here. Number five also only had one bathroom which pretty much sealed the deal on what I already thought -- I definitely want more than one bathroom! At least 1 1/2.

It was sort of discouraging that with "so many houses on the market" that we found only one that we would even consider a possibility right now. I'm thinking we may have to look a little north again. We had been seeing listings that were more affordable in our area, but they still may not work.

We want to go look at more houses on Saturday, as long as we don't hear anything negative from the buyers by then. We'll see. I'm still holding my breath that this offer goes through.