23 Houses in One Week!!

We have looked at 23 houses in the past week - and have two to look at tomorrow. The boys have been with us for ALL 23! I must say, while they have not been perfect, for four boys to go to 23 houses and even somewhat behave is quite remarkable! It can be rather boring for adults, so I can only imagine what it is like for the boys.

Out of the 23, there was really less than a handful that we were truely interested in. As of yesterday, it was narrowed down to two. Today, while we found two more that we want to see - we have chosen the house we want. This house has been at the top of my list since we first saw it, but it had a contingent offer on it. The offer was taken off the table yesterday, the house is "available" again.

Between this house and the number two choice, basically we wanted the inside and view of house #2 and the outside and yard of the #1 house. House #1 is on a half-acre lot. It has a huge backyard. I LOVED the house. My only complaint was that there was no "formal" dining room - which really is NO big deal - we don't even have formal dining room furniture, and the master bedroom is kind of small. It has a nice master bath - with a whirlpool tub. The guest bath - I LOVE!! It is so cute. They have it painted red and it has a black and white claw-foot tub. IT IS SO CUTE!! It is a 1 1/2 story house. There are two BIG bedrooms upstairs.

House #2 is on a golf course. We loved the inside of this house, very unique, open, lots of windows overlooking a lake. Great view! It had very little yard, of course privacy fences are not allowed and we really did not like the outside of the house. We probably would have chosen this house probably, if Paul could have kayaked in the lake. He is not allowed to do ANYTHING in the lake. Basically, we could walk the trail on the course, but could do nothing else. The clubhouse offers nothing. There is no pool, no playground, nothing for the kids. Also, there will be years of construction in the area. The community is just now being developed, and after looking at the plans for the area, they have a LONG way to go.

After learning all of this, we feel like house #1 is it. We will look at these other two tomorrow (they are in matured, older neighborhoods, but VERY nice). Our realtor has done a great job finding out how things are selling in these different neighborhoods and how much they have appreciated. We really like the feel of the more mature neighborhood - our concern is the age of the houses and what will need to be replaced in the next five years, and the resale. We will be here for either five years, or 20! Once the kids get into high school, we don't want to be moving (really jr high, but Caleb is close to there already). Resale is one of our number one concerns at this point.

So, hopefully tomorrow we will have a contingent offer put on a house and even more hopefully - our house will get an offer SOON!! If we go back to the #1 house - I will try to take some pictures of it.