Hunting

Four weeks into our house hunting experience, and I've come to one conclusion:

House hunting is a pain in the ass.

It seemed so much easier the first time around; I was only 22 years old. We were less than a year out of college, both living at home with our parents, and both making shit for money, so our options were pretty limited. We had a very specific price range, and knew the area that we wanted to be in... which narrowed down our search to literally one neighborhood. Once we were ready to get serious about the search, we made appointments to look at three different units on the same day. We came, we saw them all, we made up our minds, and we bought one of them. It was that simple. Seriously.

This time? Not so much.

We like the town we live in. Because of that, we'd like to stay in this town. On one hand, that might seem like it makes things easier because it gives us a focus for our search, but really all it does is severely limit our options. And while we're in much better shape financially than we were six years ago, Rockefellers we are not, so we do have a budget.

And here's the thing: We're kinda sorta picky this time around. You see, we've spent the last six years chipping away at home improvement projects at our current place, refining it to be the place we've always wanted it to be. Now that we're essentially done with it all, well, we've outgrown our home.

All of the work--the painting (oh my god, THE PAINTING), the massive kitchen renovation, the bathroom, the floor project, the sliding glass door, the carpet--it's all so fresh in our minds. We remember what a huge effort it all was, and we just aren't ready to do it again. We want something move-in ready this time.

We want a decent kitchen.
We want decent bathrooms.
We want a two-car attached garage. (No compromises.)
We want a nice yard.
We want a deck.
We want a quiet street.
We want vinyl siding.
We don't want to have to replace a roof or windows.
We'd love a fireplace.

We've looked at a few places and have been "meh" about them. It's been a week or two since anything new has come on the market that fits into our parameters, and that's just... frustrating.

Add to all of this that we also have to worry about selling our place this time around, and well, you've got stress. Our realtor is coming over this weekend to help us get our house on the market, and it makes me so nervous. Not to mention the fact that it means we have to do all this stuff in preparation to show the house--we need to declutter, we need to clean the nooks and crannies, we need to make the house less... ours. It's a weird process.

House hunting (and selling) is a pain in the ass.