And the 4th time...?

We went on our 4th house hunting trip today and we found a townhouse that we really like. The price is great and it's on a cute little dead end street, so we wouldn't have a bunch of traffic going by. The neighborhood looked like it had a lot of younger kids and they were all out riding bikes, so we felt like it was pretty family friendly. It's in Hillsboro off of Brookwood and very close to John's work. It would put us a little bit further from Aiden's school, but not enough that it's a huge deal. The neighborhood was really well taken care of and while it was an interesting mix of "newer" (late 90s) and older (70s ranches), it never looked trashy or unsafe. It was all very quiet too.

It's a little over 1400 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a very sizable back yard, and I love the kitchen. It's really just perfect for a starter home.

So we're taking a 2nd tour on Saturday to make sure there isn't anything that we missed during our tour today. Our agent is gathering the info on the listing tomorrow and we're going to make sure that there are no red flags with pricing or financing or anything.

I can't say that I'm not nervous. Since the last time we put an offer in on a place, John lost his job a week later, I'm having a hard time getting excited over this without worrying a ton about it. Thankfully though, John's work is going very well and they are looking to hire more people because of all the work they have, so I can pretty confidently say that he won't be laid off due to not enough work a week after we put in our offer.

We're so ready for a home and I really do hope everything goes smoothly with this. I'll keep updating as this progresses and let's hope for good news all along the way!

One Week to Go

I am so ready for Aiden to go back to school and I think he is too. I suppose I should be lucky that we didn't hit what I like to call the "summer wall" until two weeks before school is scheduled to start. We could have hit it halfway through the summer, but I think signing him up for three summer day camps at school over July and August helped us tremendously.
I just can't keep him occupied enough throughout the day. This is how I imagine John was like as a kid. I'm going to need to come up with some creative activities to get us through the last summer week.

I went to Aiden's school orientation last night and I definitely felt a lot more comfortable this year. I actually knew people and I felt more open to volunteering my time for things. Last year, as we were getting comfortable with the school, I just did the basics: parent helping in the class twice a month (you get a discount off the tuition), having a support job (every parent is required to do one or you have to "buy out" of it), and attending the annual auction. This year, I'm still parent helping since our discount is bigger due to increased tuition cost (Aiden is moving from twice a week to three times a week and adding an extra 15 minutes per school day), I'm planning on having my same support job (working with the school newsletter team editing, proofreading, and writing an occasional article), and I also indicated interest in working with the auction planning team for this year's auction or with the school development team in helping with general planning for fundraising. I'm excited to branch out a little!

So Aiden starts back next Friday and he has already been wearing his backpack around the apartment for a few days. He was supposed to start back next Wednesday, but they ended up with a big enough class that they wanted to split their start days up, so the teacher could spend a little more time getting to know each child. And because our last name begins with a letter after 'L', we got bumped to Friday. I'm sure waiting two days won't push us over the edge. :^)

The boys have been fighting non-stop and when they're not fighting, they're running around in circles screaming. I've tried all our usual little activities and they want nothing to do with them. Aiden decides to make his own activities sometimes....as I type, he has poured water on their kid table from IKEA and has made his own water table (there's a bit of a raised edge on their table so the water stays on instead of dripping directly to the floor). I'm thinking that maybe we'll make flubber today. I've got to do something with these crazy little boys!

The Third House Hunting Trip

So was the third time the charm? Not really. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but we did make some progress, so it wasn't all a bust. This might be a little boring for most people, but I need to get my thoughts about last night out somewhere.

First, we were a little late getting the kids over to the babysitters and we needed to put some gas in the car. Then we got stuck on 185th just before Johnson and couldn't figure out why traffic wasn't really moving. We were originally supposed to meet our agent at 6, but had called him to tell him we'd be there at 6:15 after we stopped for gas....we didn't make it until 6:30 due to traffic. We thought it was starting to be a little late for work traffic to be so bad, but didn't have an indication that it was due to anything else.
We finally made it to the first house where we were meeting and it was a nice size (great kitchen!). It was a little beat up due to the fact that they had dogs and cats that had definitely worn the place a bit. What was strange was that the owners stuck around while we looked....a little weird to look through someone's home while they're standing there watching you. Especially since it was being sold because they were losing it to the bank....awkward. They were very nice people, but we didn't feel like we could really say anything about the place until after we left.

We made our way to the next house and that took a full half an hour because Johnson was backed up worse than I've ever seen it. Turns out that a car hit a power pole on TV Highway and there were power lines laying across the highway, so it had been completely closed down and traffic was being diverted in all different directions. All the directions that we needed to be going in, of course. The place wasn't bad and right across from an elementary school (and about three blocks away from Hannah and Merrick's!), but we would have had to replace all the flooring (the fake hardwood floor was bubbling up all along the entry and it was just a terrible job in general - even our agent commented on what an awful job it was) and tear out a horrible pond that was taking up half the backyard, so John felt like it wasn't worth pursuing it.

We made it to the next place without a problem by taking back streets. This one was really cute and the location was great. The only problem is the listing price (it's a little confusing - they put a price range instead of a set asking price), so we're waiting to get some feedback about that from the listing agent.

Sadly, because of the traffic, we only had time for those three house out of our original seven. But we did make progress during our discussions in the car between homes. I think we're finally on the same level when it comes to what we're looking for right now. While I will admit that I'm not really that open to ranch style homes, I agreed to look at some. Maybe we will find one that I'm ok with, but John wants me to make sure that the concerns I have would actually be a problem and that I'm not just basing my worries off of the one that we briefly looked at before. And John finally agreed that he was basing a lot of his rejections off of the lot size. He wants land and while I would love a huge piece of property, we are not in the correct price range for that to be an attainable goal right now. We came to the agreement that buying a home that we feel good about in terms of it working with our family and it being a good investment with the goal of buying a larger home and lot years down the road after we've built up some equity is really where we are right now.

I think last night was a turning point in our house hunt and we will be much more effective in our search from now on. The house for us is out there and we will find it when the time is right.

And This is How My Day Started

I went into my children's room this morning to find the above disaster. I think we can attribute this to the fact that we took the side off of Nathan's crib. He is now able to roam free once he wakes up and can help Aiden in any sort of mess making that strikes their fancy. But what you can't see in this picture is the poop smeared in various places. Yes, the poop moment that happens to every parent decided to rear it's ugly head this morning. I'm pretty sure we've dealt with poop smearing moments before, but I've blocked them all out of my memory.

At first, Aiden started blaming it on Nathan and was pointing out all the places where the poo had ended up. Thanks, Aiden....that really doesn't help mommy emotionally at all. Then I asked him whose poo it was. "Well, it's my poop, mommy." Great. Then Aiden got upset because I screwed up his typical morning routine by making them both get immediately into the bath. They are used to being night bathers and it bothers Aiden if that changes.

For now, their bedroom door is locked and I will tackle it as soon as I have finished eating and feel adequately prepared. At least Aiden and Nathan are clean for now. It looks like bleach will be my best friend today.