Next Steps

When Ryan read yesterday's post, and he saw that it ended with "to be continued," he said to me "Well that's mean. You're going to make them wait all weekend for more?"

I said, "Well, not really since I can write more on Friday." And that is how I burst his bubble that it was not already Friday. That is always disappointing, isn't it? When you think you're closer to the weekend than  you are?

So here I am, back to tell you a bit more of our house adventures. As you read yesterday, we fell in love with a house, which sold out from underneath us, but the good news in all of it was that we realized we were both ready to move right now {or as close to "right now" as God would allow} and we had settled on a location - anywhere closer to Ryan's work.

Even though we found nothing immediately online that zinged us, particularly, Ryan did some in-person driving around town in neighborhoods he liked to look at some houses. He came home early in the last week of January and said there was a house that intrigued him enough that he thought it was worth an in-person look. I asked for the address so I could mentally conjure up the square footage, floor plan, and other details I was sure I'd memorized from the online listing. Because as I said yesterday, if it's online, I'd read it, and I'd probably memorized it.

When I refreshed my memory on this particular house, I was quite surprised he wanted to see it. There were a handful of things about it that had made me strike it from the list for him, because I knew he wouldn't love it. And while I hadn't hated it online, it hadn't really zinged me. But if he was willing to go see it, we would go. And since the agent and I would be traveling all the way over to look, it seemed only right and good to pick out another house to see to make the trip worth it. So I picked one out that was at the top of my own list, and we made plans to see them both on January 28th.

I was actually fairly certain the one Ryan wanted to see would be sold already, because the owners had just had an open house a few days before. The house had been on the market for a long time and it seemed about right {for us} that we would finally discover it and it would sell - to someone else. Right?

So when Cathy {my real estate buddy} called me, I figured she would say the house Ryan wanted to see was sold. Surprisingly, she did not say that, and in fact, she said it was MY pick we couldn't go see. Not because it had sold, but because the owner said she couldn't get it cleaned to her specifications in the time left {which was over a day}. I told Cathy to just go ahead and strike it from the list. If the owners were going to be that picky about a showing, I had no desire to enter into legal, binding contracts with them. And that was the end of that house for us.

January 28th was a lovely day, and right before Cathy and I left for Kokomo, I found a house online that was almost identical to the one we were about to see, but it was in a little different neighborhood and had some features I thought Ryan would really like that the one we were about to see did not have. It had just come up for sale that day, so it was too late for us to schedule a showing on such short notice, but when I got in Cathy's car, I told her I knew we needed to see it as soon as we could. And off we went.

When I went house hunting in Fort Wayne, years ago, I took pictures of every house, every room, every everything. I documented every single move.

This house, I decided, was a just-for-fun look. I knew Ryan would see in person what I saw online, and he would not want it. So I would not fall in love with it. I would not bother to take pictures. I would stroll through, enjoy, and make the most of a mid-day date with my husband.

We pulled up in front of the house, walked up to the door, and when I stepped on the porch, my armor cracked.

Because, you guys, that porch. I wanted to sit right down and have a cup of coffee and enjoy the view. Never mind that it was January 28th and cold outside. The house had me at the porch.

I never did take a picture that day. But I wandered through every room of that house multiple times, closed my eyes, and those walls felt like home.

I looked for things to hate. Couldn't find 'em. I found a few things to put my touch on, but nothing to hate. Even the things that my paper list said I should hate...I didn't hate.

You know how some houses smell funny? Not like they smell bad, but they just smell like, well, whoever lives there. Houses have the distinct aroma of the people who live there. This house smelled like home. The owners had a dog: we saw her, and that's the only reason we knew she lived there, because we sure didn't smell her!

You know how some houses just feel awkward? This one felt like our home that someone had been taking care of for us.

I looked for dings in the paint on the wall and found none. Ryan peeked at all the technical stuff looking for shoddy workmanship and found none.

The only thing we spent time debating was where to put our massive dining room table. The kitchen in this house had a small table in it, and we weren't sure we could fit ours in that room. I paced around the big living room, insistent that I could make it work as a living/dining space.

And you guys? The house had a pirogi.

We left that day without a single picture on our camera, but wildly confused in spirit. This was not supposed to be a house we loved. This was supposed to just be a fun visit. Our warm-up to house hunting.


I told Ryan we would know better how we felt about it after we saw the other house. And I was sure he'd like the other house better. The problem was, I wasn't sure I'd like the other house better. Not anymore.

To be continued....