The house hunt begins!

After the fiasco and foul stench of the sewage leak on Thursday of last week, Pete took me driving on Sunday all around the Pittsburgh area to look at houses for sale. There were two that we both really liked, and are now planning to go see this coming weekend. But we've managed to gather a list of about 18 different homes that we want to see so far, while we wait to hear from the realtor regarding the home we viewed last week. That home was perfect for all of us, but they wanted $400K which is out of our price range right now. If they come down in price to $350k, we'll entertain the idea of buying it.

Anyway, so that's what will occupy our time for the next 6-8 months. Some people spend years searching for the right home, but our current "rent-to-own" situation ends in March of 2011, so we need to find a place by then hopefully. The criteria for what we need is a challenge though.

We need at least one big bedroom and bathroom on the main floor for Pete's mom. Or, an in-law suite attached somehow to the main level. If we find a home with 2 bedrooms on the main floor, my mom would be very happy also, as stairs are not her favorite thing. We also want to find a screened-in porch for Florence's two cats, and one that can easily be made into a three season porch with glass windows. We also want a laundry ROOM that is preferably on the main floor, a nice LARGE kitchen with newer appliances, and a big YARD for my dog to play in.

Pete wants at least a two-car garage, or larger, and Nathan wants a nice room in the basement along with a bathroom. We all want a finished basement also. So, with those wish list items in place, we're off to the wild blue yonder, in hopes of finding that perfect house. Oh, and the yard has to be flat too. No hills, no stairs, just flat green grass. No TREES too close to the house either dammit!! Those tree roots grow into sewage pipes ya know.

But, the home we are currently in was great to get a nice start in, to get used to living together and to find out what we like and don't like about houses. Pete's had many other houses in the past too, but this one is my first. So, now that we are moving on from this rental situation, the home we find will be MY FIRST REAL HOUSE EVER. Needless to say, I am rather excited!!

Now, of course, the economy is not the greatest, but I think that it's slowly improving. House lending rates are very low, in the 4% range, so it's a buyers' market out there. That means, we can take some time to find the house, but if and when we DO find that "one," we'll have to pounce on it FAST before somebody else gets it out from under us. That is going to be the hard part.

We're prepared to have a large lump sum down payment if need be, and Florence says she's going to kick in $100K also, so between that and what we have saved, we can work with the realtors and mortgage lenders fairly easily to negotiate a decent monthly payment. BUT, we still have one more year of Pete's bankruptcy to deal with, and with that, there are no banks on the planet who will lend us a dime. He'll soon be done paying alimony to his first wife too, so that will free up some extra monthly money.

He's talking about moving us to CA sometime in 7-8 years maybe, depending on how his job goes, and if he can transfer to the Apple HQ out there in San Francisco. He says there is a very real possibility that it can happen for us, and in 10 years he can retire. So, it might be fun to relocate out there and spend his retirement exploring northern CA for awhile. We'll see.

So whatever house we find HERE should last us about 5-10 years at least.

Wish us luck...this might be like finding a needle in a haystack!!

Love, Beckyt