House Hunting At It's Finest

Can I get a Woo-hoo?! After nearly two years of living with my extremely generous in-laws, it is finally time to commence Operation Move-out! Woo to the Hoo!!

In the time since James got his offer a few weeks ago, I've run the gamut of emotions in regards to finding new digs.  From elation to panic, I've experienced it all, and in rapid, gatling gun succession.  James, bless his heart, has quit trying to keep up with me.  Heck, I've pretty much given up on trying to keep up with me.  Wouldn't you know it, being unemployed didn't push me over the edge, but house hunting...now THAT'S coming dangerously close to turning me into a certifiable crazy lady :)  To give you a little taste of my delicate emotional state, let me paint you a picture:

It's Saturday morning, and my kids are watching the Disney Channel.  Bedtime Stories is on.  I am not an Adam Sandler fan...at.all. It's not a movie I would normally let my kids watch, but in my frazzled state, I let it slide just this once. Don't judge :)  Anyways, it gets to the end of the movie, and everything works out.  Adam Sandler is the hero, he gets the girl, happily ever after, yada, yada, yada...  And to my surprise/horror, I'm crying.  Crying!  At a ridiculous Adam Sandler movie?  Are you kidding me?  C.R.A.Z.Y.

Back to house hunting.  I thought I'd share a few gems with you.  First off, we've sold a house before.  Justin was six days old when we put our house on the market.  I get how hard it is to keep a house clean with kids running around (I had three at the time).  Most of the time when people would come look at our house, I would pack the kids in the car, go to the church parking lot and nurse Justin while Matthew and Ethan complained/cried their little lungs out about how bored they were.  Mother of the year, right here.  Again, I get how hard it is. But...maybe, just maybe, you should make sure that you give your house a good once-over when you know someone is coming to look.  Maybe.  Or, perhaps get rid of the dead fish floating belly up in your fishbowl on the mantle.  Maybe.

We've seen french doors in a second story master bedroom that open up to what I'm sure is supposed to be a balcony, only it's not.  It's just an unfinished ledge that has no guard rails.  One false move, and you would plummet to your death on the cement below.  But hey, the french doors leading to it were nice.

Carpet in the bathroom. Around the toilet.  Enough said.

A detached garage that has a tunnel (tunnel!) that leads to the basement of the house.  Weird, but also cool!

A room that we refer to as the tiki room.  Picture red paint...and red carpet.  And, wait for it...a built in waterbed.  Ooooh yeah.

And, the black and white room.  Some walls are black with white baseboards, and some walls are white with black (!) baseboards.  Classy.

House hunting is definitely a roller coaster ride.  I'm so happy to be to this point, I just hope I can keep it together through the whole process :)