When we first found out we were going to have a baby, A and I decided we really needed to buy a house. But we got so wrapped up and consumed in doing things for the baby we decided to hold off. Now that she's here, I'm feeling the pressure a lot more. We're currently living in a quad - a townhouse with neighbors on the sides and back. We have an end unit, but we still have a lot of neighbors. Our house is tiny, with 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a tiny dining room and kitchen. Two people cant be in the kitchen at the same time. It's about 1000 square feet. It has a little patio, and that's it. E's things are all over the place because we simply have no place to put them. We have boxes and boxes and a bed that used to be in E's room as a guest bed at my parents' house. The house is old and has always looked shabby. The finishes are awful and the maintenance guys suck. The toilet in the half bath isn't even attached to the floor. We had mold in the ceiling from a leak in the upstairs toilet, and they cut a big hole in the ceiling, semi-patched it, and left it unfinished. There's a foot print on the "molding" around the bathroom floor from where it separated and the guy wouldn't even get down to push it back in. He used his foot, then didn't wipe up his footprint.
Oh, and have I mentioned that we live in an extremely low-crime area, yet someone spray-painted "kill" on the side of our house? And our fence still says "slut" because it was never cleaned up. It's white on white, so it's hard to see, but it's there. The list of grievances goes on and on and on. We NEED to get out. Our house is never clean because there's so much "stuff" with no place to go that I just give up.
So we finally decided to start looking. I go look at houses and have A come back for a second look at the ones I like. I was completely in love with a house but it fell through because someone else put an offer in and it was a short sale and the bank said no more offers. I've looked at about ten houses and I found one I really like. It's not a dream house. We'd prefer a single family home, but with our future finances in question with A going back to school, we want to keep our payments as low as possible. Could we afford more? Probably.. but I don't want to get in over our heads. It's a small townhouse, but it's much bigger than our house now. It has a separate dining room, a big (for what we're used to) kitchen, and a living room on the first floor. The dining room has sliders to a deck and a cute little yard for E that backs to green space. Upstairs there are 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. One of the bedrooms is quite small, but it would fit a queen bed, and we just want it as a guest room. Then the basement has a family room, and a laundry room with TONS of storage space. We could actually store all of our own stuff, and have room for E's toys in the family room. We'd have to put the desk in the family room as well, but at least it won't have to be in our bedroom!
A is going to see it Wednesday and I hope he likes it as much as I do. We need to put in new carpet and new kitchen cabinets, but then we'd have a great kitchen so I'm excited. I'm already decorating in my head and putting in new furniture. I want E to spend her first Christmas in her own house! It's a starter home, and I'm OK with it not being the biggest, most expensive house. I just want a place for our family to call home and have room to stretch out just a little.
I hope A likes it. We could have our own house by the end of the summer! E could have a yard to run around in when she learns to walk! I'm so excited.
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