New House!?!...maybe

Over the last several years, I have become dissatisfied with the house that we live in. It's not a bad house, it doesn't have any major problems, and is large enough to raise at least 2 kids in, probably 3 if we wanted to. But the lifestyle that I increasingly want for my family is harder to have in this house. I envy my friends with a neighborhood pool, a walkable neighborhood that isn't scary to let kids ride their bikes in, a flat driveway and/or a cul-de-sac that allows kids to play basketball, ride tricycles, etc. Jim and I have even talked periodically about what would be in our perfect house. We had a very comprehensive list, but it was all hypothetical. Every 6 months or so I have trolled the house listings, just looking, not really serious and knowing that Jim wasn't interested in moving so I'd have an uphill climb to convince him even if I somehow managed to find the perfect house.

And then I did.

To be truly honest, it isn't perfect. There are some issues to deal with, some we may not even know about yet. But this house is as close to exactly what we want in a house, cul-de-sac, lot, and neighborhood as we may ever come. I sat on the house for weeks before even really talking to Jim about it. Even when I talked to him about it, it was only in a partially serious tone. Then I kept watching it. Weeks and weeks later it was still on the market. Then, during our Denver trip, the price dropped to a more reasonable number (still kind of high but within the realm of posibility). My folks encouraged me to go see it because I would always wonder "what if". I went to see it with a realtor on my own, making sure that I looked for problems and flaws. Perfect on paper does not necessarily transfer to perfect in reality. I didn't want rose colored glasses to get me into trouble. Even looking for flaws, it was so close to everything we had talked about we wanted it was amazing. The real kicker was when Jim fell in love too and started trying to figure out how to sell our house.

After much debate (and I do mean MUCH), hemming and hawing, talking to lenders, discussing our options, we decided to offer for this house. We are offering without a contingency that we sell this house first which puts us in scary territory because we will then own two houses if we somehow can't sell this one. We are taking a leap of faith and we will move heaven and Earth to sell this house as quickly as possible. I'm scared, terrified really. And super excited.

We made the offer official this morning. We've been notified by the realtor that this particular owner may take up to 48 hours to let us know their answer. Please keep us in your thoughts for the next couple of days as chaos ensues in our current house as we prep it for sale not knowing if we are going to get the golden egg at the end.

And now we wait...