The House Hunt

So we've been on the house hunt since February.

We've had zero luck. It's awful. It sucks!!!!!!!! What makes it harder is watching friends in places put an offer on the house and get it. I don't know all the details of thier home purchase, of course, but I feel like their purchase process has been easier than ours has been.

Here's our history. Keep in mind, these are only the houses we've put an offer on. We've looked at probably 18-20 houses. (We looked at 12 houses within the first week Dave was home from deployment.)

Mid-February: Hanford Dream-House - $265k
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, bonus room in basement, pool
I found my dream house. And it's in HANFORD. Who knew?! Priced at the very top of our budget, this house had it all. Located walking distance to Downtown (Superior Dairy, Thursday Night Markets), built in 1911, purchased from second owner in 2000, the house was rebuilt from the studs up in the keeping with the original design of the time period. There were even some old original doors with original glass doorknobs. GLASS DOORKNOBS! It was on a half-acre with a fenced off garden, pool, covered patio. A single car detached garage - which may have been part of the original NAS Lemoore barracks). The only house I will love in Hanford. Since Dave was still deployed, I inserted a contingency that the approval of the house was based on Dave seeing it within 15 days.

......Le sigh.......

Not accepted. Contingency and VA loan were stated as reasons.

Late February: Conklin Approved - $235k
4 bedrooms (one without a closet), 2 full baths, open floor plan, pool
This foreclosure had the Conklin's approval since it was one block away. Needed some TLC, but in general good repair. A good easily rentable investment.

Outbid, possibly a cash offer.


Early March: The Random One - $225
4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, pool
A Short Sale. This one was not in the neighborhoods we'd been looking in, but it met all the other prequalifications. A nice house that needed some work on the back yard (who puts gravel throughout one-fourth of the backyard?). We put in an offer (total low-ball offer), went to Hawaii, three days in the vacay, we get a counter offer with notification that the seller's have received another offer that was higher than the counter offer they offered. UGH. We decided to significantly - when I say significantly, I mean SIG-NIF-I-CANT-LY - increase our offer.

Outbid. Currently the back-up offer.


Early April: Superb Rentablity with Conklin Approval - $220
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, pool, hot-tub, open floor plan
So this one is an interesting one. Another Short Sale. By a CDR/squadron CO. They were only $40k underwater, so we were confused as to why it was a short sale to begin with. It also was priced low for the neighborhood/amenities to create a mulitple offers situation. Well, congrats, jerks. You did. The house was listed on Friday, seen by four potential sellers. By Monday there were three offers. The buyer countered all offers asking for "H&B," highest and best offers. I'm not gonna lie. We offered a significant amount of the asking price and included all closing costs. We thought we had a strong offer. And it was. But who can compete with an all cash offer. UGH. FOR SERIOUSLY!?

Outbid by all cash offer.


So that's our story. I know that "normal" length of time it takes to find a house is six months. And we aren't there yet. But I am sooooo flippin' tired of getting outbid. On every house we've been one of at least three offers! Seriously!! I have to remind myself that Hanford, because of its proximity to NAS Lemoore, is not representational of the rest of the market. I feel like nowhere else are people fighting to get a house. This market feels more like 2007 than post-crash 2012.

That's the rational side of me.

The emotional side of me is more like this: Is our realtor actually doing her job? Is she representing us well? We are a NO-RISK LOAN. Really - the loan agent double ran our credit because she hadn't seen anything that high in a while. And we were the first offers on each of these houses. How is that fair? That people who are Johnny-come-lately get the house that we saw first? It's not fair. Also, I think that most realors as skeezeballs.

Additional worries include the spring-summer bump. Housing prices go up. Poopface.

What's for Dinner

Paleo Eggplant Parm

1) I am not on the paleo - or caveman - diet, where you eat very few grains, very few meats, no dairy, lots of nuts, and veggies. 

2) This is based off Rachel Ray's recipe from her Big Orange Cookbook. Instead of breadcrumbs, I threw some nuts (walnut and pecan) into a processor and used those as the breading. I also used goat cheese-pesto filling between layers. Goat cheese is acceptable in the paleo diet. This version is sprinkled with real mozzarella. 

I'm making this again this week.  :)

Oh, Hello there.

Remember me? That person who used to blog pretty regularly about somethings? Yes, me!

So, there's been lots of hiatuses in my updates. But without a job (yep!) I'm hoping to get back in to the groove. So here's the fast update:

DECEMBER/JANUARY

Christmas was spent in Knoxville, visiting Mary and Kyle in their new house - i can't believe they're homeowners! We drank too much moonshine, at lots of yummy food, and played music, laughed, and sang a lot. 

Then I spent some time in Arlington. Mommy and I went to see the Degas exhibit here. 

Arriving home, i received the christmas present Dave had ordered for me - a print of Mr. Darcy's profession of love. AWESOME!

And I picked up Slider from the kennel. He'd had an accident - jumped and caught his neck on the fence and pulled a huuuuuge chunk out. YUCK. So here he is, looking extra pitiful with his band-aide. 

January was also my last month of work. The school finally hired someone to replace me, right before I left, so I didn't leave my teachers in a lurch, which was my biggest fear. My teachers were very sad to see me go. I think that if I'd felt this appreciated while I was working there I probably wouldn't have left. But I did. And I do not regret it.

FEBRUARY

Since I wasn't working, I was able to help out a lot with homecoming preparations. Amy and I made these AWESOME signs. Amy and her granddad did the cutting, I did some of the painting, had a painting party to get more done, and then glittered the edges.

Then we had to stake them. We installed them over by the Ops Side gate. Which took for-eve-rrrr.

Two days after homecoming was the Change of Command, so we also decorated the anchor in front of the O'Club. 

And I ordered this sign. To be reused every time. "Welcome home Dave, the cat missed you." HAHA!

In case you don't know, our cat is a terror. No really. We had to get him declawed because he kept attacking people. He only loves Dave. So you can imagine how difficult 7.5 months were without the love of his life, and having to settle for me.

Here's Dave! Bottom, far left. 

And there I go! First one out of the gate to rush Dave's plane. Which is almost the last one in the line. 

Reunited and It Feels So Good!

MARCH

So now Dave is home. He had three weeks off before he checked into his new squadron. We hung out, looked at fifteen houses, went skiing for my birthday, tried to Space-A to Hawaii, failed, twice, saw Beauty and the Beast on stage in San Jose, attended the Cinequest film festival where we saw a series of comedic shorts, and eventually made it to hawaii. 

Finally on our way to the tropical island paradise. 

On the beach where the first season of LOST was filmed. 

March 30 was Maya's birthday. We went and got mani-pedis, starbucks, and apparently learned to night-walk. I tried to buy Maya a lip gloss, you know something fun to apply and apply and apply... well, this actually was a lip stain. So now she really is 6 going on 16. But, in her defense, she applied that herself, didn't even color outside the line!