HOUSE HUNTING

It's 7:15 in the morning. I can't sleep. I guess after little sleep this week, 7 am is sleeping in?

So, I'm going to blog. Maybe if I just put this out there in the blog-iverse, I can get a clearer picture on what to do

We have 2 days to house hunt. Yesterday and today. We want need to move in this Saturday. Yeah, like in 3 days. Apparently, this area of South Carolina is quite the popular place. We had a huge list of houses to look at and almost every. single. one has been rented already. Before we even made it to SC. Several realtors never even called back. Except 2. 

One guy showed us about 5 houses yesterday. One was a townhome. I wasn't expecting to be wowed with such last minute shopping, but I thought we would find something you know. The first house was outdated and would need all the closest doors/fans/paint changed (it was a ugly salmon color throughout the house and the fans were from the 80s. Oh, and don't get me started on the fact that every closest door was mirrors - I felt like I entered a jazzercise class). But the small front office and backyard impressed us. The second house didn't stick out, at all. I don't know if that's good or bad. The townhome was nice, but small. And no storage or backyard. The fourth home would have been perfect. Beautiful hard wood floors, big windows where the sun streamed in, lots of closests, a nice eat-in-kitchen, 4 bedrooms, a garage. It even came with a play set that would be ours while we lived there in our backyard! Only the owners must have been color-blind. The carpets upstairs were blue. Yeah, blue. With lavendar and pastel yellow walls. It was hideous. But the rest of the house was great - as long as I could paint all the walls (upstairs and down).  It was top runner (even with the blue carpets) until he showed us the last house. We didn't know anything about this, so we didn't know what to expect.

We drive up to a gated community, drive through some quiet tree-lined streets and pull up in front of a quaint cottage. It's not tiny but it isn't huge. The upstairs has good space and the attic is partially finished so we can have that bit of storage. There is a small separate garage out back. The kitchen/dining room/living room are much smaller than we are used to, but it's because our master bedroom/bath/walk-in closest is downstairs. We love this place. It's cute and quaint and has character. It feels like I could pour charm and coziness into this place and it would be a good fit for the 3 of us. Even working with the smaller living areas. I mean, it's got a real fireplace and built-ins on either side of it. Freshly-painted. Nice big room upstairs for an office/playroom. Ready to move in on Saturday. Oh, and did I mention it comes with a gator? Yeah, there's a gator in the lagoon across the street.

I know what you are thinking...what's the problem? Other than the whole gator issue which seems to be the norm down here in "low country" - so they like to call their location. One, to be exact. One small yet big problem. The laundry room. It's techincally a small closest in the kitchen. It comes with a one piece laundry unit. Those really small, stackable washer/dryers? This one must be ancient. I wouldn't even pretend to wash our clothes in that thing. We own our own washer & dryer, but I don't know if they will fit in that small closest. We *think* that they will, but getting them in there is a whole 'nother story.

We have the application and are pretty sure this house could work - but we can't be sure about the washer/dryer until we move in. We've got measurments of the closest and the washer/dryer - and we think if we take the closest door off, it'll fit and we'll just make a quick fix by hanging a pretty curtain.

And then that brings us to today. We have one showing today. Only one. Then we have to make a decision. We are out of time and houses.

The one today looks nice. We drove past it yesterday and I found the rental ad online last night so we saw a few pictures of the inside. It seems nice. Larger than the one yesterday by about 300ish sq ft. It's a corner lot, nice neighborhood. No gator across the street (although he seems to just add charm to that cottage!). If it is nice and clean on the inside - it's easy to move in. No painting or changing things, we hope. We should be able to move in on Saturday. But it's already lacking the charm of the cottage.

I know there will be more space and I know we will probably like it. We haven't seen it yet so I think we'll have a better idea when we see it later. But, do we go the easy way where the house is slightly bigger or do we go the "cozy charmy house with the laundry issue that could possibly be fixed and the small living room/kitchen issue but oh those built-ins and the cottage-style windows upstairs that M loves".

I don't know. We don't know. Both are affordable. In fact, I think there's only a $25-$50 difference per month. This time, it's not about money. It's about space and what works for us. And charm, because we lurve the charm.

We have to remember - this isn't permanent. It's a 1-2ish year house. We want to buy. We want to settle. We'll probably start house hunting again very soon. So, what do we choose to work best for us for a short time period? And, I'll put it out there. M wants another kid. Soon I am going to be ready for that. I think both houses will allow us to grow our family. Maybe not a ton of extra space - but I think it can happen.

We need help!! But here's hoping that with a little luck and a whole lot of prayer, M and I will drive away from SC today having a home to come back to on Saturday. A home to start our new chapter and raise our daughter. A home to get back to us, as the small family of 3 I am in love with.

Fingers crossed.