Hunting and Chilling

House hunting is going well thus far. Last Thursday, we went out to take a look at three local houses we liked the look of. Two were right next door to each other. The first one was nice, but it only had one full bathroom, and I don't want to try and manage that with guests. The second one...well. It was a forclosure. And I guess the previous owners weren't too happy about it. Cause they left a 40 foot hole in the guest bedroom ceiling. The whole thing was just gone. I mean, I had a feeling the place would be a bit of a dump after we saw the garage door a little tilty and the front porch was in pretty bad condition, but there was a basement! A basement we couldn't go into because there was no power...so we went upstairs instead and found, well, hole. We scooted out of that one rather quickly. The third one looked nice from the pictures, but when we got to the porch, the railing was just 2x4s, unpainted. Inside was no better. The place looked like it was owned by a DIYer who didn't know how to DIY. The kitchen floor was made of the same material the countertops were covered in, and it was ALL sticky and coming up. The place was just a dump.

Disappointed in our poor luck, the agent, S, and I got to talking about why people won't take care of a house they're trying to sell. The third place wasn't even a foreclosure. S brought up a place she had just put on the market that the owners had gone through and fixed up everything, even put in new windows. It was smaller than what we were looking for, though. I asked how big it was. 1500sq ft. The house we liked best so far was 1550. I asked if we could take a look. It was five minutes away. We took a look. I fell in love.

1512sq ft ranch house on half an acre built in 1969, inside completely redone to look brand new. It was owned by an old woman who passed away, her son was doing the selling. The garage was redone into a family room with an exposed brick wall. There's a small screened in porch leading out into a big yard. The neighbors have a giant garden with tomatoes, okra, peppers... It's a safe neighborhood, too, one of the safest I've seen in our area. We talked to Hubby's parents and asked them to come take a look at the two we like. Yesterday, they came by and we drove to the two. Found a few minor points in the house that'll need fixing or may be of concern, but the owners have done well to take care of most of them somehow. We met the neighbor and learned about the area. Sweet old retiree and his wife, apparently most of the neighborhood is older folks, and a very close-knit group. He said there's been an empty space in the neighborhood since Betty (the previous owner) died. We'd be the young ones if we moved in, but that means it's quiet and we'd be surrounded by people with experience. The other house we liked I've kinda scooted aside. As nice as it looked at first glance, the second look turned up a lot of issues that'd need fixing (can you say 24 year old roof and heating, new carpeting, water damage to the walls by the showers...?), and the one I like is more of a blank slate with most of the issues taken care of so we could build up sooner versus repair. We'll take a look at a few others this week, but I think we're going to have a hard time finding one quite like this.

We went to Charleston this weekend to spend time with Hubby's bro, sis-in-law, and Julia. She's giggling a lot more, rolls over easily now, and has started making farting noises with her mouth. She's quite proud of herself about this and giggles when she does it. She's also very talkative, making lots of babbling. Her daddy's really working hard to get her to sign or say "Dada" first. I spent some time working against him for "Mama". I'd do "Auntie", but there's no way she'd get that as her first word. It's a simple sign, but as far as being used with intent, Mama seems simpler.

And for the lists, I finished reading Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. Depressing book, but very good. I haven't read true sci-fi like that in a long time, and it ended up going a completely different direction than I expected. Nothing was as black and white as it appeared to be. I felt a little lost at several parts where science got a bit more heavy, but I made it through. Definitely need to read something more uplifting next, though. Hubby and I also played New Super Mario Bros Wii all the way through for the first time (for me) and finished up yesterday. We found a cannon shortcut in world 6 and entirely skipped world 7. Banged our heads against the final boss for a handful of lives, but we showed up with enough that it wasn't that big a deal (although Hubby mainly dragged my butt in a bubble through the whole stage... I am not a good jumper...) Fun game, especially with multiplayer! If you want to see it played but not actually play it, a group of guys calling themselves the Freelance Astronauts did a 4 player Let's Play of it. Give them a google, it's HILARIOUS. Hubby and my game wasn't nearly as amusing, but we had fun.

I think I'm going to pick up the red pen for my novel on September 19th. What better day to start rereading and editing a pirate novel than National Talk Like A Pirate Day?