House hunting!

1

This was supposed to be 7 Quick Takes, but since we put off (re-)announcing the move, I had to wait. But now we can finally talk about it! And believe you me, I'm shouting it from the mountaintops! We're moving to Missouri! Our own promised land!

2

I am a woman obsessed. I don't read blogs. I don't read books. I don't return phone calls or emails. I barely play with the baby. I spend all my time scouring the houses for sale!

Seriously, I have devoted hours and hours to searching out our dream home. Just when I think I've exhausted the area we're looking in, I decide to tweak some of the search parameters and start looking all over again!

3

Unfortunately I've realized that our dream home doesn't exist... at least not in our price range and more importantly not in our commute range. It's been surprisingly difficult for me to accept the fact that we won't be able to have a nice home in the country. It's taken a lot of praying and a few tears to accept it! How pathetic is that, huh? I have everything I could ask for - we're moving close to my family and we're going to be able to buy a nice home - and I'm pitching a fit because we won't have a couple of acres to go along with it. Ridiculous.

4

Let's talk about some much-acclaimed home features. First of all, am I alone in not thinking hardwood floors are the end-all be-all? I mean, I like them, but not in every room of the house. I want carpet under my feet when I get out of bed and I'm lounging around the family room. But maybe that's just me. In all honesty, one of the reasons I like carpet is because I feel like you can get away with cleaning it less often. It seems like I sweep all the time, but I rarely vacuum!

Next, what is the deal with hot tubs? Several of the houses we've seen have them and we can't figure it out. To the best of our knowledge, they only get used when teenage kids want to have a scandalous co-ed party. Do you know anyone who has a hot tub and actually uses it?

There are a few other things I'm not too impressed by (plant ledges, pools, granite, stainless steel), but I'm starting to realize it all boils down to me not wanting to put forth any extra effort in cleaning. This is true laziness shining through I suppose!

5

I think being able to map a location online is the coolest thing ever. I love being able to look up the houses that I see listed and get a peek at the backyard and the neighborhood. Sometimes you can even get the street view and see how good of shape the road is in! We've actually been able to really narrow down our list of homes just by checking Google maps (lots of street views) and Bing maps (aerial views from different angles and seasons). Awesome. I can't imagine house-hunting before the internet, especially from 1000 miles away!

6

If we don't find a house we'd like to buy, I think we're going to try to rent in a pocket neighborhood! H/T to Molly for introducing me to the concept. I love the sense of community that it's supposed to foster. I don't know that I could live in one long-term (that's the hankering in me for land and lots of it) but I think it would be a really neat thing to experience for a year or two.

7

So not only are we looking to buy a house... but we're hoping to find and buy a house in less than a week. Why yes, we might be crazy. It will be a whirlwind several days! Do you have any advice for us? On anything from house buying to mortgages to keeping a 6 month old happy as you drag her to a dozen or more houses within a 36 hour window? We'll take all the help we can get!