I think I have briefly mentioned that we are buying a new house. I haven't said a lot about it, because...well...we've just been a little crazy around here. And, because things have just sort of happened quickly.

So, here's the longer version.

Once we had a contract on our other house, we decided to just start looking at our options, here. We weren't in the market, really...just sort of scoping out the territory. The options we thought we had were of 2 varieties: To live in a "good" place, we would end up in 1) an expensive smaller house, or, 2) a more reasonably-priced decent-sized house located about 20 miles out of the city. After having to drive in the rush hour traffic that is between work and that second option (to the tune of a half hour either way on a good day...or over an hour, due to construction/wrecks/other weird stuff that happens on an average of once a week). And I know there are people who live in larger cities that deal with this stuff all the time...but...it's just not for us.

So we ditched option #2.

Then we looked a little harder at our other option. But we really didn't like the thought of living in a house that had a significantly higher price tag -- yet was significantly smaller in size -- than our other house (not to mention, without the yard). Not that we expected to "move up" with a new house, but it would've been nice to at least have something comparable.

So we ditched option #1.

We even thought about a third option - to find a house that was a "fixer-upper." But I'll be honest in saying that we really wanted a house that was move-in ready. (yes, as the saying goes, we wanted to have our cake & eat it, too)

So we left it alone for a little bit...when a third, explorable option opened up in front of us. We had heard a lot of really good things about one of the older parts of town - within the city - but, for whatever reason, we had chosen to not look in that area. Then, a friend took me riding around the area (sort of like sub-neighborhoods in one big area...some of the streets are more "desirable" than others, and she pointed all of this information out to me). The part of the area that she explained is the most "desirable" is the part that was at the very tip-top of what we wanted to pay for a house. But the average size of the houses in that area are a good bit larger than our other house...and, they're zoned for the best school in the city (which is a huge plus, because living many other places likely meant sending Iliya to private school).

Anyway, we set our sights on that area, and decided to just sit and wait, just to see what came up over the next few months.

Well, the next week, I happened to be browsing the online selection of houses, and (at that point, I finally knew many of the street names) one of the homes that popped up was in the area we'd decided to look. I'd seen it before, but never really given it a second glance...because it looked like it needed a little too much work for my taste. But, when I noticed the price (very low for the area)...and since I finally knew the name of the road the house was situated on, we thought it might be worth a look.

So look we did!

The house had been on the market about 9 months. It was built in the 1960's, so it's older. There was carpet throughout - but we were informed that there were hardwoods under all the carpet (in fact, we later learned that the den/breakfast area had linoleum rather than hardwoods, but the rest of the house did, in fact, have the hw flooring, and that there had been carpet over the hw flooring for the majority of the house's life...so the floors are immaculate). The den/breakfast area was solid paneling. The walls in the rest of the house were drab white. The kitchen needed updating. There were heavy, musty, old curtains hanging over every window in the house.

But overall, it was a clean house. And, my creative juices started flowing. This is highly unusual for my "need to have a move-in-ready house" self.

We looked at 2 houses that evening - a "repeat" that we were moderately interested in and this house. Iliya ran from room to room, getting in the closets, closing doors, and pretending he was in an elevator.

The next morning, I asked Iliya if he liked either of the houses we looked at the night before, and he said, "Yes! The elevator house!"

(So...if he tries to tell you our house has an elevator...it does, but only in his little head!)

Anyway, we made an offer on the house - and asked that the seller consider a paint allowance. He agreed...and we got to choose the colors. Because of Nathan's military experience, we qualify for - and are using - a VA loan. The VA requires that all "allowances" be in place before the house closes - meaning that they will not finance money to be placed into our hands for the purpose of painting...instead, the house had to be entirely painted before closing. The seller agreed to that as well. We asked him about having the floors refinished prior to closing...and he said that would be fine (pulling up carpet revealed the linoleum I mentioned earlier - but I found some flooring on clearance and we decided to go ahead and put it down as well).

We've checked in on the progress of our pre-closing projects...and everything is looking fantastic. We are so glad that we've taken a chance to think outside of the box in this instance. We've ended up with (as the home inspector put it) a very well put-together house with good bones...that is really coming together nicely.

We've already met our neighbors - and have determined that they are of the nosey variety, which - we think - will be a good thing. They are excited to have a young couple moving in next dooor, and the first thing that they asked us, when they found out that we were the buyers of the house was, "well, do you have kids?" My sister said we could probably expect to have a pie brought to us upon moving in. :) It's that sort of neighborhood.

And, finally, Iliya will have a nice big room. It's the only room we left carpet in...because I think he'll enjoy not having to play on a hard floor. And...it's blue. You know, one of the source colors of purple. :) Ever since he saw the room - post-paint - he has told us that he does not want to live in our rental house anymore. He's ready to live in his blue room. Of course, he's a little confused as to why we've been calling it his room, if all of his toys are not there. But we've assured him that they will be there shortly.

So...we closed at 3:00 - and are very, very happy! We'll be moving in - slowly - over the next couple of weeks...and, once we get settled in, we'd love to have some company! I know that the kitchen still needs new cabinets and new appliances...but I can over look that, if you can. You probably won't even notice. Because I guarantee you...the first thing Iliya will say, when you walk in the door is,

"Wanna go see my new blue room? Let's go play!"