Adventures in Home buying or: How I learned to take off my rose colored sunglasses and smell the dog pee

The view of the house from our back porch. It's not the cutest, but it has potential...right?

Wow. That's almost all I can say. Except "wow" doesn't make for a very entertaining blog post, now does it?

Let me set the stage for what has been going on at our house for the past few days. As you know, we planted a garden recently at the house, on Good Friday to be exact. Well, I also bought some flowers to plant in the back yard. On Monday, my dad was out in the back yard digging up a bush that had died so we could plant my iris bulbs there. Well, he saw some folks looking at the house behind us. I think he got to talking to the folks and mentioned the tree in that back yard that is poised in a position to land on our house (and quite frankly, the wind today has almost got us to that point).

So dad comes to Tim and I, and we're all talking about this house. With us living here, we're at an advantage because we know what lived there before: GREAT DANES, and I'm not talking Hamlet here folks. Seriously, the dogs busted out almost every screen on the back porch of this house...but...we got to thinking...

We thought, the house was pretty much (or maybe it just was) abandoned. It has a very low asking price. Just remember, the "as is" tacked on to it. But, we were trying to be smart. We thought, maybe, just maybe, we could buy this home...live in it, fix it up, and sell it.

I talked to Tim and at first I think his reaction was a little bit like this: "REALLY? We have to move from this house into the backyard...cut the cord Kelly!" But, then he thought about it and it was appealing. We could rip out the carpet, put in hardwood floors...yadda yadda. And the actual benefit of it being in the backyard is that we could seriously do this on a flexible time table.

So now we're at Tuesday. On Tuesday, my mom went over to look in the windows. She said it didn't look that bad and I guess she ran into a lady showing it. She gave mom the card and by lunch time I had called and made an appointment. I was so excited. I was like "wow, this could really happen? out of no where? we finally move out???" I tried to keep my cool. I prayed and prayed. I tried to think of all the positives and all the negatives, but I knew we really needed to get in that house to see for ourselves.

Side note: Keep in mind this alllll went down on Tuesday (the calling of the realtor, etc) while I was at work. And not just *at* work la de da, I was in full swing, getting ready for a *big* event mode. Needless to say I was exhausted by the end of the night (and I still feel a bit run down).

So back to Tuesday night. I was having lots of conversations with Tim, my dad and mom, my brother, my best friend Mel, everyone. But, really I was trying to talk to God too. If my life were a dramatic film, picture me throwing my arms up in the air, Scarlett O'Hara style, and crying out "Lord, just give me a sign!" But, really I was trying to listen. I know that there is a Master Plan and everything will happen when it is supposed to, but that doesn't mean I don't get anxious sometimes. Anyways, I tried hard to control myself.

Wake up Wednesday. I feel like I had a better handle on things today for sure. I think a little of the excitement wore off, and I was ready to simply look. Eh, who am I kidding, I was still excited to LOOK AT A HOUSE.

So here we are: finally at Wednesday afternoon. I left work at 2:31 p.m. (to be absolutely precise), and headed home. While I was on JR Alley parkway, at 2:50 p.m. (precision folks!) I got a call from the realtor. She said she was running late and I said "whew! thank goodness me too!" So I called my parents to let them know. My dad had come home because he didn't know Tim was getting off work also to come see the house. Dad was already waiting at the house.

I pulled up next. And there was a car in the driveway. It wasn't my dad's...I knew it wasn't the realtor so I got out of my car all cautious. It was another person showing the house. Cue the two car fulls of folks that pulled up next. Someone in a military-ish uniform (I can't be positive because I was mostly looking at the other people). Yes, the two young folks...one girl and well...I don't know. I don't judge. But they looked like a cross between the following:

Random person from the web...and...

Jesse Camp from MTV (you won't get this is you didn't watch MTV in the late 90s...)

Anyways, I don't judge. But, I do observe...ok, and I envy because they were like a size 0 and I just can't get abs no matter how much weight I continue to lose! We waited patiently outside for our person to show. She did and we went in.

OH MY STARS!

I knew to expect a bad smell...but really...you could smell it before you opened the door...I do NOT know how my mom missed it when she looked in the windows. I swear it was so bad we all felt like we needed a bath when we came out. Yuck.

It was pretty crazy seeing that carpet. It looked very similar to what we had in our house YEARS ago (which obviously makes sense because the house was likely built around the same time and by the same folks). But it was a mess.

The layout is actually pretty cute. The kitchen has great potential. But, it was just too much. I'm worried that replacing the carpet will only half way tackle the smell. That house is unfortunately ruined beyond what I could even begin to afford in repairs. 

Now don't get me wrong, if you are into investment buying for sport- we have the grand prize for you in our backyard. You'll be able to buy that badboy very cheap and resell for a large chunk of change. Just be sure to  rub something in or around your nose before you go in to see it.

While it was indeed a crazy and comical moment in my life, I feel like I learned a really good lesson. I'm taking away from this that it really isn't too much longer before we rename this blog (though for some reason I think living in the same town will always make me Married with Parents). 

Last night I started looking at my credit, and really thinking about our savings in the bigger picture sense. Making the adventure into home buying is in our future. Tim and I have definitely started to have more conversations about home buying in the past 48 or so hours than we have in months. I think we needed this to "shake up" our little comfort zone that we've built up about living at home. I'm really thankful to everyone who has been giving us prayers, advice and support. You all are the best! And who knows, maybe someday in the future we'll have you all over for a housewarming.

But for now, I need to go wash my entire body from head to toe with the strongest soaps and scrubs I can find in attempt that my poor cats will love me again...