It’s been an interesting few weeks, to say the least.

Back at the end of May, Squatch and I set out on a journey to buy our own home. So exciting, I know. We got pre-approved for a mortgage and were all gung-ho as we found a realtor to work with and start touring homes. What we noticed though, was that a lot of homes would be listed Monday or Tuesday, and they would have Contingent or Pending offers by Thursday or Friday, so we knew that when we found “It,” we would have to move fast.

Well, we looked at 10 houses over 2 days and they were all “meh” homes. Except for one. It was gorgeous, a two story, full basement Craftsman just a few blocks from the main lake in the town we were looking at. Yes, we were looking in town, as well as in the sticks. It definitely needed some work, but we can work with that. We took the night to discuss it and price out what the work would be that needed to be done. We met the realtor the following morning to look at another home before going to her office to fill out the offer, and she informed us that a full price offer had gone in the previous night, and the seller had accepted it. Squatch and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and said “OK. We’ll keep on looking.” No harm in anything; I mean, we never even actually got to making the offer. It was not meant to be.

Fast forward two weeks and we spend another morning looking at homes, none of which are appealing to us, except there was this one adorable home on a double lot (so much room for gardening and Little Man to run around!), and little old Miss Jean who owned it was just the sweetest! We had an appointment the following morning to look at three other homes, and as we got home, the realtor called, asking if we wanted to get in to another home that was just being listed. Sure, we said, that works. Well, we looked at the first few homes, and Good Lord, people. If you are renting a home, for the love of God, keep it up. And don’t be lazing on your bed when potential buyers come in to check it out. We could not believe it. We got the info on “tentant’s rights” here in Wisconsin and said “No thank you” to any homes that had tenants in them.

We drove on to the newly listed home, and as we looked at it, we both knew “This is it.” It was a teeny tiny 1.5 story home with a big front porch, giant garage, not a very large yard, but it is right across from a park, and it has a full basement with woodshop and pantry. We immediately decided we wanted to put an offer in on it, and that night, we drove Squatch’s parents and Little Man by it to get their opinions (we had an appointment scheduled for them to see it on Monday). Sunday afternoon we got the offer put together and our realtor submitted it to the seller, with an expiration of midnight the following day. We went into wait mode.

Oh man, was it frustrating to just sit and wait…wait…wait. Squatch texted our realtor Monday afternoon, she had not heard anything yet. OK, we decided to just keep looking, just in case. Not long after, our realtor sent us an email with some ages on appliances, roof, etc., and to let us know that the seller’s realtor was going to be showing our offer to the owner the following day, along with 3 others. Well, at that, we decided we were done and moving on. The roof, or, more accurately, half of the roof, had been replaced back in 2001, so that would have to be redone soon. The heater and a/c were replaced in 2001, so yet another expense. We already knew that the front porch needed to be replaced, and that the gutters needed some work, just from the visual inspection we had done. We started re-thinking our offer; we should have come in lower! Well, Tuesday comes and goes…no word from the seller. Wednesday we reached out to our realtor, and she informs us that the seller’s realtor is not replying to her. Fine, we have already moved on and are now looking at land and modular homes. The following Monday (MONDAY!), our realtor contacts us and says the seller countered our offer – house is ours for full price, as is. We easily said “No thanks, moving along.”

So, here we are a month later. Still looking for something. The big problem is that there have been no new homes in our price range that have been listed in the last 3 weeks! We are also re-evaluating where we are currently at, and are thinking we may move further south, closer to Illinois and the rest of Squatch’s family and my family. So, we’re still looking, but it’s a different kind of search to what we had done previously. We did visit a modular home company this past weekend, and were so impressed with not just the homes, but the service from the man who worked there. We are lucky, in that they have their main factory close to where we are looking to move, so we can still use them in the future!

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on in our lives lately. Hope you, my faithful readers, are all doing well!