Friday, April 3, 2009

Roller Coaster

Paul and I are officially house hunting. And, thus far, it has been a roller coaster. We looked for the first time last weekend and Paul found a house that he loved. He loved it for what it could become, not what it was, because this house was in serious need of endless amounts of work. It qualified as a rehab house. "Rehab" as in not possessing a kitchen, questionable heating system and countless other things that would need lots of time, energy and money before the house became habitable.



This process qualifies as a roller coaster because during the 3 days it took us to look at this house, talk about it with people, have my dad inspect it and run the numbers, I went back and forth, up and down, numerous times. I went from saying things like:

Yay! I love this neighborhood! This house is so spacious! I love the built-ins and the woodwork! We could walk to the lakes!

to saying things like:

This house needs so much work. I don't want my life to be focused on fixing up our house. I am scared about what else might be wrong with this house. I don't think it is a good sign that I haven't been sleeping because I am worrying about buying this house.

and back again, a few times.

I think I exhausted Paul with my back and forth emotions.

In the end, I had to stick with my gut and my logic and let this house go. Unfortunately, I only came to that realization after we had told our realtor we were going to make an offer. Luckily she is patient with us and understood when I told her that I changed my mind.

We are going to look at some more houses this weekend, this time with a more move-in ready approach. One thing I have learned about myself is that I am not a rehab kind of girl.

2 comments:

  1. Having grown up in a house under constant construction (a rehab home), I can tell you : it's a certain type of person who can do it. And, if you aren't that person, it can be ugly. Buying a house that needs work, has charm and that you see potential in--- all good things, but make sure that you would be 100% okay with sleeping in that house on night 1.

    Glad to see that the housing market is good enough for you guys to be looking so soon after you got a full time job. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds like a smart decision!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...