Slack and Stressed

I know. . I have been SUPER slack with our blog lately! I have been working a bit more and we have been house hunting hard core. I think we have seen about 20 houses. We had it narrowed down to two homes. One was the new build that I posted about last time. The other was an older home that needed a bit of updating but was priced REALLY well. We met with the builder of the new home and he said that we could come in and pick whatever we wanted. We liked that. Picking our cabinet stain color, granite, flooring, etc. We were really excited about it but we decided that it was just a little to expensive for us and we didn't want to be house poor! After talking about it, we decided we wanted to make an offer on the older home. I called our realtor and asked if we could go back the next day to get measurements of the flooring so we could get an idea of how much it would cost us to replace it. When she called to set that up, she was told that the house had sold that morning! We were very upset for two days after that. On Saturday, we were ready to start the house hunting again. We met our realtor that morning and saw about 5 homes in an older established neighborhood. We love the neighborhood because it has lots of trees and hills (which is very rare in Texas!!) We found a home that we really fell in love with. It was a beautiful brick ranch and had lots of space. The thing that we loved the most was that the house had loads of character.

We really fell in love with this house. The living room sold it for me. I.LOVED.THAT.ROOM. I could see us spending all of our time in that room now and in years to come. I could see kids playing in that room. I mean. . . if we have kids :-)

We went back the next day to see it again. Our realtor noticed while we were there that the sellers disclosure noted that there had been repairs made to the foundation. They had the repairs made the day before they listed it which was a huge red flag for us. Here in Texas, it is not uncommon for homes to have foundation issues. With new homes, it is required that the slab be an engineered slab designed by an engineer. All homes in Texas are on slabs. So, with a new home, you get a better foundation. We went back and forth last night debating on whether or not we wanted to move forward with the house knowing that there had been/were foundation issues. After asking our family and some friends, we made the decision that we just couldn't buy the house knowing that because we would constantly be worried that something would happen with the foundation. And here we are again . . . Lost another house that we loved. So, we found a new listing that just came on the market yesterday that is in our favorite neighborhood in Waco. It is a newer neighborhood, lots of houses and lots of younger families. We said we wanted to live there since our first visit here. We went to see the house this afternoon and really liked it. It was built in 2007, 4 bedroom 3 bath, all updated of course and really pretty. It is a little more expensive than we wanted so we are just debating if we want to spend that. Here are some pictures of the house.

What do you think? We would probably paint the den/kitchen to something a little lighter to brighten up the room. One thing I really love is that the entire house has the custom plantation wood shutters. They are beautiful.

This house hunting experience has been very stressful and emotional. It is such a big decision and we want to make sure we are making the best decision for us now and the future. We really don't want to have to move again any time soon! We know that it will all work out and we will find a great home, it's just a process.

Everything else is going well. Grant is still enjoying Baylor and enjoying his class. The weather here has cooled off a good bit and has been really nice. We have also had a lot of rain which is a blessing! And I can't leave out Bella. She is doing great. Just as sweet as ever!