Some new photos of the house.

Computer/den area.

Living room to dining room.

Living room to other areas.

Living/entry.

Kitchen/dining.

Kitchen.

Den, where we spend most of our time.

We've just done the bathroom, so updated pictures to follow. And I still need to take pictures of the upstairs.

House stuff.

So, I don't want to get too excited yet, but promising things are happening with the house.

About three weeks ago, my realtor called me out of the blue (we hadn't had anyone look at the apartment for at least a month). He wanted to let me know he wasn't giving up and eventually we would get our apartment sold. In that same phone conversation, he mentioned a house he just listed for someone that he thought we might like. He said it was extremely well cared for, reasonably priced, the right size for us and had a large lot.

I told him that I didn't want to look at any more houses until we had someone interested in our apartment, because we have technically lost two houses. The first in Warwood, where we had the contract, the close date, the inspection, appraisal, etc. I had even bought some new curtains. Then our buyer backed out. The second was not so involved. We made the offer, she accepted, and then changed her mind because she wasn't comfortable with the contingencies.

So, by complete coincidence, my realtor called again a few days later saying someone wanted to look at our apartment on Sunday. We said fine, if someone was looking at ours, we would look at a few as well. (We have looked at maybe 25 houses by now...)

Long story short, the first house we looked at that day, the house he had told me about, is, in a word, perfect. As soon as we got out of the car, Clint loved it, which is rather aggressive for Clint, as he is the mild mannered and reserved one of the two of us. It's a newer house, (built in 1969, which is about 50-60 years newer than houses I typically like) it's in North Park, where we have lived before (renting when we first got married), three bedrooms, two bathrooms, rec room/play room, remodled kitchen, two car garage, covered back porch, adjacent lot included in the purchase, beautiful refinished hardwood floors, lots of closet space, it's on a flat cul de sac with only two other houses, it has a large driveway, perfect for a basketball hoop in a few years... I think Clint was ready to sign that day. Of course, we were reserved, waiting to find out about our apartment.

Apparently, the couple looking at our apartment really liked what they saw, had spoken with the co-op president, and wanted to come back with their contractor to price a new kitchen. We were thrilled. It had been so long since anyone was interested, and this happens right out of the blue. So, they planned to come look at it again on Black Friday. The requested parking information, and the bylaws of the co-op association. They told my realtor they would get back to him soon. My realtor is convinced they are extremely serious. Which made me feel comfortable with the following.

Last Sunday, anticipating this couple making an offer on our house, and us wanting to make an offer on the North Park house, we drafted a contract to be submitted once we had an offer on the apartment. We wanted to be prepared, and catching us through the week can be tricky. Tuesday my realtor told me that someone had looked at the same house on Sunday and then were planning to go back Tuesday afternoon. We agreed we didn't want to take any risks, and were willing to lose the front end money over losing the house to someone else, this close to getting an offer on our apartment. I told my realtor to submit our offer, and then held my breath. The next day, he told me our offer was accepted. No counter offer or anything. He agreed to our terms, no questions asked. We have a close date at the end of January. I'm meeting with the bank people on Tuesday, have received preapproval and been provided a good faith estimate. Everything looks great.

Of course, we are still going crazy over whether or not these people are going to make an offer on our apartment. I think at this point, we will accept any offer within reason, as long as it covers our expenses of getting the new house (realtor fees, down payment, etc.). Like I said, my realtor is very confident, and he knows the seller pretty well. He said that if we needed to extend the close date, he feels confident that the seller would be comfortable with that. He feels the couple interested in our apartment is just taking their time (you mean people don't rush through buying a house?) and reviewing the bylaws and all that. My realtor said someone else contacted him about the apartment, someone moving to the area mid December (which is already very close).

We are still nervous as hell, but this all feels right. The house is literally perfect for us. The finance end of it looks good. I'm not going to worry yet.

Here's a couple of pictures from the realtor's website. Everyone cross your fingers and keep us in your prayers. We deserve a break!

Great success!

Clint got the job in Washington!! It's for http://www.ferro.com/ and he is super thrilled. He had the interview not this past Friday, but the Friday before. They told him they were doing interviews through Wednesday. They called him on Thursday and offered him the job!!! For the same schedule (m-f 8-5) and MORE money than he was making at Touchstone. Things are finally coming together! We are so excited!

And I get to get a new car soon, yeah!!!

Only one person looked at the house this week, but that's OK. We are going to take our time looking for a house (in a better price range!). And, if it takes a while for someone to buy our house, that will give us more time and options. There isn't a whole lot on the market right now.

But of course, as the trend with us has been lately, with the highs, there are also the lows. Last weekend I had a pretty sore throat. It kind of went away through the week, but I felt tired and sluggish all week. Wednesday, Owen had a 102 fever when he woke up. Clint gave him some Motrin to bring it down. It got higher. I called the doctor around 12:30, they got us in at 2:00pm (love the pediatricians). He has Hand, Foot and Mouth. If you don't know what that is, it's basically a children's virus that causes blisters to form in the throat, on the hands and feet, in addition to a steep fever and irritability. The virus has been running rampant recently in the Ohio Valley. The ped said a few weeks ago, probably 25 kids a day came in with it. The fever has passed. He still has some irritability, but his appetite has increased, so he must be feeling better.

SO... Sunday night at work, I'm trying to put it out of my mind that my sore throat has come back. Amy, my fellow supervisor tells me that Strep Throat is going around. I put it out of my head. Around 11:45pm, I start to ache. The whole night, I had been freezing. It's always cold in there anyway, but I mean freezing with a shirt and sweater on, with a small space heater pointing directly at me and FREEZING. I feel like I'm starting to check out. It was hard to focus, the aching was getting worse and I was starting to worry. I ended up going home around 1am, because I just wanted to lay down and sleep.

All night long, I tossed and turned, alternating between being so cold that I was shaking and sweating so much that my clothes were wet. My arms hurt. My legs hurt. My hips hurt. My shoulders hurt. My head was thumping. I felt like I was dying. Several times in the night I contemplated going to the emergency room, but settled for going to Med Express when they opened at 9am. The doctor initially thought I had Strep, but it ended up being negative. He says that I likely have a variation of the Hand Foot and Mouth virus. He gave me a really strong antibiotic and said I shouldn't be contagious in about 24 hours. I can't wait until I feel better, this is freaking miserable. I don't think I've ever felt worse.

And of course, my little monkey picks today to want to start kissing me unprovoked, when I can't kiss him. He was relentless though, and would not settle for my cheeks, so I had to tuck my lips into my mouth and let him give me a big smacker.

It's been such a shitty day. Thank God this happened before Clint went back to work, otherwise I would have needed some help today. Clint is so amazing in situations like this, taking care of Owen all by himself. He is such an amazing daddy.

Currently, it's 11:20pm, and I've been up for four hours. That's the longest stretch I have been awake and out of bed today. The chills/sweats is still annoyingly a major issue. I have taken two showers today and I think I will need to change my shirt before bed. Boo to being a sweaty disaster.

I have to start feeling better soon! I'm having Aunt Karen over for dinner on Wednesday!!! I'm making a delicious pork loin, couscous and steamed broccoli. Yum.

Ups and downs.

So, when one thing is going well in my life, something else will most certainly start to crap out.

As everyone knows, some dude made an offer on our apartment about a month ago. A week after that we put an offer on a house that we pretty much love. I get the mortgage set up... I set up the inspection. Pay for the appraisal. Drop a pretty penny on the earnest money for the house.

We found out today that the guy buying the apartment can't get his financing in order and cannot buy the apartment. Fortunately we set up a contingency clause in case something like this happened. I'm not going to be stuck with two mortgages or anything like that, but this still 100% sucks.

This means, the apartment goes back on the market. I have to get it ready to show again. We pray with all our hearts that we get another offer in time to close on the house by September 24 (or that we get a new buyer and the sellers on the house will give us an extension on the close...) OR, we totally lose the house.

I'm devestated by this. We got attached to that house, the neighborhood, the school district, the local park, the local pool, the walking trail, the pinkish pit bull in the yard next door, (I like to call her Pinky). The "dream" is gone.

I'm praying. I'm praying that if this is NOT our house, that the person who does eventually buy our apartment will do so at a time when OUR REAL HOUSE is on the market, at an affordable price, in a great location. It's just hard to accept that there is nothing I can do about it.

It felt like it was all too good to be true, because it was. Everything went so smoothly on my end. The offer and counter offer happened within hours of each other and we ended up settling way under what I thought we would be paying. The mortgage got set up without a hitch. The inspection was pretty decent. I'm counting on my faith and patience to take us through this. It could always be worse.


The good news... Clint finally got a job offer at a mental health facility in St. Clairsville, OH. He has accepted for now. Last friday he had two interviews, one at this job and another at a company in Washington, PA (about 30 minutes away) that would be almost his EXACT job from Touchstone, same salaray, same hours, everything. Perfect. He said the interview went very well, and they even said that if he wasn't selected for the job he was interviewed for, there was another position he could be considered for. Cross your fingers.

Maybe the reason this isn't working out is because Clint might get the job in Wash, PA and Warwood would be a little too far to drive every day. Maybe Elm Grove or Bethlehem would be a better fit for us. My friend Terry said to me today, "Just wait to see what God has in store for you."

So, the future is again uncertain. I'm just thankful the immediate future contains an employed husband. And extremely happy that Rpatz and Kstew were finally photographed kissing, in real life, in public, for real. THAT made my day.

And, I'm also very intrigued by Google Analytics. I can check to see who is actually looking at my blog. Meguro, Japan, Pelotas, Brazil, Bogota, Colombia, Brno, Czech Republic... I don't know who you are, but thanks for visiting! My blog has been visited by 16 countries and 21 states. I don't know who in Blairsville or Carnegie, PA is looking at the blog with such regularity. But I know those 20-some visits a month in Morgantown are from Virginia! And Mt. Vernon, IA is Krista K. So thanks friends, and loyal strangers! Identify yourselves and say hello!

The house I had a dream about.

So, I think I already mentioned that we listed our apartment with a realtor. We figured it was time to get serious, start trying to make things happen.

We were a little unsure of what we were going to do if the house sold. Do we buy a new house? Do we try to save money and rent? We even tossed around the idea of moving out of the area. But, since I have such a good job, we figured staying in Wheeling and being close to our families was the best bet for us.

We figured it would be wise to start looking at houses as well. When the time came that our house sold, we would have to decide quickly what the plan would be. If we did end up buying a house, I wanted to know what all was on the market, so we would be prepared and be familiar with all the houses in our price range.

Last week, we had looked at one house in Bethlehem that was decent, but overpriced and needed a little work. I told our realtor, Bob, (who I love), that I wanted to see a few more houses later in the week. I gave him a list and he said we could look at two that Friday, one in Warwood and one in St. Clairsville. Meanwhile, we have had probably 3 or 4 groups come through our house, which even though that's a small number, I was surprised we had even that many. Someone came to look at it last Wednesday.

Thursday night, I had a dream that we bought the first house we planned to look at the next day. I had looked at SO many houses on all of the real estate websites in the past few weeks. This particular house didn't really interest me, except that it was in our price range and had the right number of bedrooms in a decent neighborhood. So, I was surprised it made an appearance in my subconscious.

Friday morning, a lot of stuff happened. We went to look at the house I had a dream about. It was built in 1920, it's pretty big, and it has been recently been flipped. Everything in the house is new. New kitchen, new bathroom, new paint, new carpet, new windows, new furnace, new air conditioner, new water heater. There are a couple of drawbacks. There is not a single appliance in the house. While the majority of the house has either a caramel color carpeting or ceramic tile, the living room has bright blue carpet... The most important thing was that Clint and I both really liked it. We have looked at 8 houses total now, and that was the first time where we were completely on the same page.

Moving along, we go to look at a second house in St. Clairsville that was built in 1995. On paper, it should have been the better house, but we kept thinking about the first house in Warwood. We started talking hypothetically about the profit we will make from the sale of our house to be the down payment on a new house. (Not new of course, but new for us...) Our realtor, after having spent at least an hour with us, comes out of nowhere and says, "Well, that's something we will need to think about, because you have an offer." WHAT? The house had only been on the market for 23 days. We were thinking it would take at least six months to sell. I was talking about what it would be like to spend another winter in this apartment, and the freaking house gets an offer after Twenty. Three. Days.

He low-balled us, of course, but we countered back, and the next morning he accepted our counter. We are moving out of this house on September 24. (If all goes as planned, and please pray that it does.)

So... now what?

We tell Bob we want to look at more houses. We looked at three more on Monday and hated every single one of them. They were overpriced, they were old and outdated, they were remodeled poorly... they were... weird....

Meanwhile, in conversation, we start referring to the house in Warwood as "The House." We went to look at it again. And again with my mom and our handy man.

This morning, on the third visit, we take our handy man and tell him everything we want to change. Get everyone's opinion.

We made an offer.

Now, we are waiting. We fully expect them to counter. How much will they counter? Will they accept our terms? Will they cover our closing costs? Let's hope. The whole process makes me giddy and nauseous all at the same time. I'm not sleeping... like at all...

Please keep us in your prayers and cross your fingers for us. I'm hoping to hear back from the seller this evening.

We really want this:

The House

For Sale: 1800-sq. ft. Victorian Co-Op Apartment. 2 bedrooms. 1 bath. River View. You know you want it.

Most rooms recently painted. Crown moulding throughout. Baby toys scattered throughout not included. Unless you want to clean them up twice a day.

Living room.

Bedroom. Currently used as nursery... obviously.


View.

Kitchen. Appliances included. To the right, butler's pantry and dining room. Through the door in the center is a laundry room that was originally the "servant's quarters."

Inner Stairwell. 3rd floor.

Front entry and hallway to dining room. Notice the hardwood floors throughout.
Husband doing dishes in the kitchen not included. Sorry, he comes with me.

Dining room. Cat not included.

Where the magic happens. Room proven to increase fertility. Fantastic river view and built-ins.

Said built-ins.

If anyone knows anyone looking to buy something like this, give me a holler!