Well, yesterday was stressful, of sorts. Went to pore over the details of the current favorite house at 5:30. Didn't find anything that jumped out at us (although one of the newer windows upstairs was cracked, which we missed the first time...disappointing, but not a problem)).

We then went to see three other houses. All of them sucked in their own way, and thus were immediately stricken from the contention list.

So, we got back to thinking about the favorite house. And, we decided, it's time to commit here. So we filled out the paperwork to put in a bid last night. It's quite a bit below their asking price, which is par for the course, more or less. It's a beautiful house, with a whole lot of amenities and everything. I save that list for later...but for now, here's what the house NEEDS (apparent to us without an inspector on site).
1. Replace windows on first floor and in basement. Though kitchen and bath are already replaced. Shouldn't be too crazy, pricewise, but still, not cheap.
2. Buy new washer/dryer.
3. Replace or cover wood paneling throughout basement family room. They did it nice, and it actually looks good--except that they had so much shit hanging on the walls with nails that there are holes bored in the paneling EVERYWHERE. It looks horrible.
4. Replace or cover wood paneling in upstairs bedroom. This isn't as bad as the basement, but still.
5. Remove wallpaper and paint walls in a lot of areas in the house.
6. Remove wood siding on back of house...or have it looked at and repaint it if it's still in good shape.
7. Install central air. For now, check number of a/c units and possibly buy enough to cool whole house.
8. Possibly replace goofy-looking faucets in two of the three bathrooms.

All these things we're using to our advantage. :) Hopefully the listing agent will simply want to unload the house (it's vacant...an estate sale.) because it's in the city and he's out in Mount Prospect. But we'll see.

Side note...there was a GIGANTIC aquarium in the garage that was in sad shape. I am going to have them ask if we can have it, if they're planning on just throwing it away. It will need some serious, serious cleaning...but it would be freakin' sweet if it still was any good. It's got to be like 75-100 gallons...or more, maybe. :)

Ah well...cross your fingers for us. If we get this house, we're looking at end of April to move.

Oh man...whirlwind, whirlwind...

Well, the good news is, we have a real, though not signed, sealed and delivered, buyer, officially. We negotiated with a person in the building, and it looks like it will work out for all involved really well. But, she can't get the money right now. So we are still on the market, just in case a better, quicker offer comes up before we find a house that is PERFECT. Because that's what we're all about, apparently. Perfection.

This house hunt is really wearing on us, big-time. I just want to get it over with. I'll say this, I'm glad we're limited to the city, because if we had to consider suburban houses too, we'd probably be going nuts. There are just SO MANY houses out there in our price range (which is also a net cast pretty wide and long, honestly), that it really makes it tough. And what's tougher is, we're not limiting ourselves to only bungalows anymore (not that we were officially). Now, if we see a Georgian or English or another type of house that really stands out from others of its kind, or has some really redeeming quality (such as the neighborhood or schooling around there), then we're considering it.

Of course, we've also found a couple houses we really like. There is one currently that I absolutely love. But we'll see what happens with it. I'd like to get out of here and into a new house by May, but I don't know if that's going to happen for sure or not. We'll see...it's the beauty of it being a buyer's market, I guess.

But I'll tell you, this whole house hunt thing has been so, so stressful. Much worse than condo shopping...more so for Gina than for me, because I can adapt to whatever we buy. Not that she can't adapt, but she definitely wants to get THE BEST for what we can afford. I don't blame her, mind you...I want the best too. But I'm more willing to MAKE something the best if it is close.

But hey, we'll see...it's always fun.

Adding to the stress is the fact that I'm supposed to be in California right now on business, but I missed my flight yesterday, and my boss said to just stay home and cancel the trip. That's fine, but it's probably not good to miss the flight that your boss and the pres of the company is on. As good of a rep as I have, even with the pres, this doesn't reflect well on me, truthfully. I'm not worried, because it was a peripheral show that I probably didn't really need to go to, and I don't think I have a reason to worry. But, it still is a bad reflection on me.

Oh well, I say. :) Otherwise, work is hectic, of course, but at least we hired a new person, so now I am managing TWO people. Wow...how about that? :)

Of course, I haven't updated much in March, so I don't even know if anyone's reading anymore...too bad blogger doesn't have an "email me when this moron updates his blog" function. Hmmm...who wants to invent that and sell it to them for big buckaroos?