Don't get me wrong, it was a great year. AJ and I really started figuring things out about, us, and the life we want to have together. We both had good jobs and were trying to make good, new, grown-up decisions. We formed meaningful friendships with neighbors and coworkers. That was new for us because we had never lived one place long enough to feel it was worth while to spend quality time opening up to neighbors. (Yes the world would be a better place if we all reached out instead of kept to ourselves...but like I said, we were learning to be grown-ups, okay?) We spent the year learning to enjoy what we had, but there was always something we felt was just around the corner. We waited for Spring to arrive...in June. We spent the first 6 months of the year waiting for my job offer to happen. I waited for my new social security card with my new name on it. I waited for my last freelance paycheck. We waited for AJ to get a pay raise. We waited for cars to sell and car parts to arrive. And then we started looking for a house.
Actually we've been looking at houses since we moved to Logan 3 years ago. We made an offer on a house probably 4 months after we moved here, and I'm really glad we didn't get it because I feel like NOW we know what we want. And it definitely wasn't that split-entry dingy blue house with the pop out windows.
Last fall we found a house that seemed perfect. Great location, lots of square footage, big garage, half an acre, and for a great price. Because it was a short sale. So we (and countless other people) made an offer on it. We had to at least try. And we had to be competitive to have a chance. So then we waited. And waited. (um, SHORT sale?) And waited. And then we found out a friend who we knew we made an offer on it as well, way higher, and when it got accepted he backed out because, um, he forgot he couldn't afford it. So the house went to auction and we weren't exactly in the mood to try and find that much money in cash to bid on it. We let the house go. And it was okay.
I was really starting to get discouraged. I had this crazy idea that there would only be like 10 houses in the entire valley that we would like, and one by one they were disappearing. I would get really pouty (opposite of grown-up behavior) with each house we turned down and AJ would tell me there would be another house. And he had been right so far: there always was another house, but I'd always fall in love with it. AJ told me not to do that either.
The good news is, we thought we had all the MLS listings in our range memorized, and in the last few months we've been pleasantly surprised to see a few new ones popping up. More options! So we started working down this new list. And part way down the list we found a realtor we actually considered sticking with. (Let's be honest, if we had all the MLS listings memorized, why did we need a realtor to e-mail the listings to us?)
And then we found a "for sale by owner". And we like it. And good things are happening. 2011 is going to be a great year...more updates to come!
Yay...
