My current obsession is Realtor.com, and while I'm aware it's unhealthy to subject myself to a barrage of beautiful houses that I currently have no hope of owning, that doesn't stop me from doing it anyway.
The hubs and I are diligently saving up, but with the way things are going right now it will take us about three years to save up a down payment big enough for a $50k house, and 4-5 years for anything in the $60-70k range. That's a long wait, and logically I know that any house currently on the market will likely be off the market by the time we want to buy...but I keep looking anyway.
And I've fallen in love.
More than once.
At least four times, to be perfectly honest.
And my poor, wonderful, long-suffering husband has dutifully looked at each and every listing I've found myself enamored with. He's oohed and ahhed as I click through the picture slideshow. He's patted my head when I whine about just how far away home-buying is and how if we just won the lottery or found a magic genie or learned how to poop gold dubloons everything would be so much better. He's a good man and deserves some sort of award....
But anyway, back to the house love. These are the absolute top three houses I've fallen in love with. Only one of which was absolutely and irretrievably out of my price range.
As we started out our search we decided we would be buying a house in Richmond or Centerville, but preferably Centerville. Richmond is where we currently live and where our families live. Centerville is where we grew up. Also we would love for our kids to go to Centerville schools. Richmond, however, is less expensive and has lots of very beautiful homes and nice neighborhoods to choose from.
The first love was this: 226 SW 1st St. A 3 bed, 1.5 bath at $69,900 that's been remodeled and has gorgeous arched doorways, white trim, and built-ins. I think my obsession with this one lasted a good 90 days, and to be honest I'm still not entirely over it.
Of course I later found out the house has been uninhabited for a couple of years, so it's probably falling apart in some unseen way...but it was a pure and beautiful love while it lasted.
The second love was 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths in the fancy-pants neighborhood in Richmond, at 420 S 21st St. It was a bit more expensive at $98,500, but still sorta-kinda in the realm of possibility. I absolutely loved the front yard, with its verdant embankment filled with ferns and hostas. It is a gorgeous house and has a fantastic white kitchen. I'm very into white kitchens. You can see why I fell hard, right?
Bruce even had to drive me out to the neighborhood one day just so I could look at the house in person. I adored the house and the yard....Bruce hated the narrow driveway and lack of garage. In fact he had to spend five minutes trying to back out without running into the mailbox.
And here comes my ridiculous can't-afford-it-in-a-million-years house. I love it. I remember walking past this house almost every day when I went to my friend Stacy's place on Walnut Street. I would look at those beautiful ivy-covered walls, the immaculately kept yard, the adorable woodwork...and I would dream about someday living in a house just like that. Then I saw the listing online, and oh my god I can't believe how beautiful the inside is. It's better than I imagined (with the exception of the all natural-wood kitchen, which I am decidedly not a fan of). 414 W South St in Centerville. 4 bedroom. 2.5 bathroom. Beautiful. I could look at these pictures all damn day.
So I was truly, madly, and deeply in love. More than I ever had been before. I wanted this damn house. I wanted my kids to grow up in the neighborhood that I walked through every day after school. I wanted them to trick or treat right here, because this is less than a block away from the house with the really amazing decorations and full-size candy bars. I wanted ivy covered walls and immaculate gardens and crown moulding....
And then Bruce told me he wanted to move back to Muncie.
