The Search for a Home

Two weeks ago, it officially started. We walked into our credit union and applied for pre-approval on a home loan. The next day we heard back, we were 'approved'. This, of course, means next to nothing. There is still a myriad of paperwork and higher ups at the bank that we have to cross before we are given any real money; this only provides us with a certain degree of legitimacy. The rate we were given was better (almost 2 points better!) than i was calculating, which only means we can afford that much more of a house than i was expecting.

My stomach is in knots most of the time. I am having weird 'house shopping' dreams that leave me with a sense of dread, regret, and buyers remorse. I have gone over our budget time after time. I have been watching every penny that leaves our account. I have been fretting over paying bills promptly and fully.

We have been 'out' three times, with three different agents. We settled on the last agent, Cookie, from Keller-Williams Realty. She is located there in the Garden Oaks/Oak Forest area and sells most of her homes in that area.

All in total we have seen 8 homes. Two were vetoed from the curb; i didn't even have to go inside. Two we vetoed as soon as the door was opened....

****

This past friday I had a catharsis; carol and i both had to make the very real decision of where we really wanted to live. At the end of it, we chose the Oak Forest area. We had put sugarland into the mix out of frustration of not seeing what we wanted in a house right out of the gate. We wanted a bigger bedroom, larger bathrooms, bigger kitchens...in essence, space. The houses we had seen up front were WAY too small for us and it was very frustrating to hear "..that's the way the houses are in this area..."

Immediately i was imagining scooting around my bed the way I was doing on Marconi St.; I was imagining the smell of old sewer pipes in my back yard...all the shit i've experienced living in old montrose apartments. I was frozen by a fear that i would end up with something like that.

Carol talked me down, as she so often does. We are looking every weekend till we find 'the' place. I figure we'll be doing this for a few months, if not most of this year... we'll see. I'm trying not to think of it too much. I'm just going with the flow....



This is a photo of the backroom of an otherwise nice little house. What a fucked up addition! This was one of th houses that i had also put into my 'maybe' file, but after thinking about how much work would go into cleaning up that extra space in the back...i was more reluctant.