February 4, 2008

The Hunt Begins

There is no better time to look for a new home than when you’re recovering from ACL surgery. I mean really. Do I have fabulous timing or what?

It all started innocently enough two weekends ago. Mr. BBM was browsing through the real estate weekly and noticed an open house or two he wanted to go visit. We walked into the second house and were in awe. A few days later, when we got a pre-approval letter that would allow us to buy it, we were giddy with excitement.

It wasn’t perfect though. It was in a good school district, but not my top choice. It was beautiful but lacked just a few of the features I’d like to have in a new home. At the open house, we met this great realtor who really impressed us and the rest is history.

We’ve gone to see about nine homes now with our realtor who calls himself the Rocketman. One of them was on a fabulous street with an in-ground pool and we could totally afford it, and the very night we saw it another contract came in on it. That was disappointing but we figured it was just not meant to be.

Yesterday, we saw a foreclosure home that made no sense at all. In an upscale neighborhood, it had lower quality cabinets and counter-tops than we have in our townhouse. We went to see it with great expectations of being able to get a total steal and have equity built in on purchase day. That wasn’t meant to be either.

Today, I have hoards of MLS listings to peruse and many closets to organize. We haven’t put our house on the market yet but plan to soon. Searching for a home has taught me that people have some really horrible taste.

In one house we saw, every single door was painted a reddish-maroon color. The molding matched the doors and each room featured wallpaper with Americana red, green and mustard yellow colors. Most of the wallpaper featured cats. Yes, cats. One bedroom didn’t have a closet. We started to wonder if they had perhaps wallpapered over the closet.

Another house was blue and green from top to bottom. That means the carpets, the walls, and everything in between. I like blue, but I don’t know if I like it that much.

Today my realtor called and recommended we consider new construction with a particular builder who happened to build his own home. The home would be in his development. We’d be neighbors with the Rocketman! After looking at a bunch of homes with lousy color schemes, worn out carpet, homes that smell like smoke, etc. this seems to be a worthwhile course of action to consider. To build a home from the ground up, with our own color choices and no nasty wallpaper to remove sounds like a dream come true. We will have to wait and see.

For the time being, I have another closet that needs to be organized.

***It’s February now and that means March is just around the corner! March is Admired Martial Artists Month here at BBM and there are going to be some exciting visitors gracing the pages of BBM. For more information, go here. If you’re a martial arts blogger, I encourage you to join in with the theme for March and find some great guest-posters for your site as well!

***BBM is also hosting the February Martial Arts Carnival. To submit an article (this months theme is "Great Martial Arts Book" or you can submit any old thing if you’d like), go here. The Carnival will appear here on February 23rd so please don’t wait to get your article in!