It begins

Well, we finally took the plunge. Skimmed a few chapters of Home Buying for Dummies. Called the recommended realtor. Checked out some listings in those free books at the grocery stores. Went online to see what was on the web. Asked each other about a hundred times "are we really ready for this??"

Then, today came. We met the realtor at Ham's for discussion and drinks (why didn't we get them stiffer??). We were distracted by the poor orange and white mewing kitten; and the crying kid; and the traffic. To Jason's great shock, Nancy wanted to dive right into checking out 3 of the houses the realtor presented (the other two didn't make the cut).

House #1

"Wow, you could just live in the basement" - mostly finished basement with a second kitchen and fireplace...though this is the square footage that it is not heated.

"With narrow steps like that, we need a laundry chute"

"Each room has its own door. Is that to corner the cats?"

"What a cute little oven in the wall!" - If we start the turkey now, it might be ready for Thanksgiving. Next year.

"I like the wood panel cabinets" - I just wish there were more of them.

After getting lost in the extensive mother-in-law suite/garage/back door entrance to the maze, we moved on to the next house.

House #2

Amazingly enough, this is a house that we had already taken note of while cruisin' through Longview for a Saturday drive. Almost a full acre of land, staircases for the cats, obnoxious wallpaper throughout, good hammock and bird feeder trees, good size rooms with open kitchen/den area. Really ready to move in and make improvements as you go. If they will ever be able to move out...

Pleased, yet cautious to not get too excited, we moved on.

House #3

Looks nice, right? Let's zoom out a little and see outside of the frame. What you don't see is the busy street behind you and the massive furniture plant to the left. As we pulled into the "can just barely fit in two compact cars" driveway, we saw the last thing this picture does not show: a swarm of nasty gnats - that won't leave you alone!

We entered into the sitting room that used to be the car port maybe with a window hiding behind the humongous picture on the wall that was only out done by the massive furniture. We continued into the kitchen and felt like we were part of "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" with the stove that took up most of the kitchen, and lamps larger than the tables they were sitting on. Oh, and to get to the partially finished basement, you have to go out on the patio off the dining room, down the steps, lean to the right as you cross the slanting concrete porch, go down yet another set of stairs while avoiding the drain, and open the screen to get to the door that will let you into the basement. By the time we got there, we realized the keys were still all the way at the other side of the house. Not worth it. Especially since it would mean an extra battle with the gnats. And wouldn't it figure, a light was left on and we had to stand amongst the gnats for an extra few minutes.

Yeah, that last one was a big, fat NO!!!

So, at the end of round 1, the rankings are

1. House #2
2. House #1
3. Houses we have not seen yet
100. House #3

We rewarded ourselves with pizza, clean clothes, and a gnat free environment. Until our next foray into house hunting, may you have a gnat free home.