Almost home buyers

We are nearing the end of our house hunting.  It was a fun, exciting, stressful, busy time that left us with few evenings and weekends to ourselves.  I am glad it is almost over, but at the same time I cannot stop looking at new listings that are posted.  I am keeping a list of possible houses even.

The first house we offered on ended up not being the one after we got the results of the inspection.  It made me leery of ending my search too soon this time.  Now, we have offered on a house and gotten through the inspection and are awaiting the bank.

I like the house we are (hopefully) buying.  It will suit our needs great, if not almost perfectly.  It is good looking, spacious, great neighborhood, a smaller yard than we had hoped for, but all in all great.  But I don't love it... aren't you supposed to feel like this is "The One" when you buy a house?  Maybe we will make it into "the One", or as close as I can come to it.

Part of the problem, is that I let myself fall in love with a different house.  It wasn't perfect, but it was beautiful.  Full of old polished wood beams and floors, with a beautiful modern large kitchen.  A larger yard, but smaller bedrooms.  Along with an asbestos tile roof on the house and garage that would need replaced in about 5 years, and a furnace that would need replaced even sooner.  Asbestos roofs cost anywhere from $20-$120 per square foot to remove, and then there is still the additional cost to install an asphalt shingle roof.  That is something we cannot afford in five years.

I was so excited about that house, until I learned about the roof.  I cried as I dealt with the reality that this house was not meant to be.  I'm still sad about it, it is stupid really.  My husband offered to buy it anyway, but I have to be the realistic one.  And if there is asbestos in the roof, likely it is elsewhere in the house.

That house is still on the market.  It was a flip and I have a feeling the flipper had no idea what he was getting himself into with that roof.  The price was just reduced by 10k and the seller is now offering a 10k roof allowance.  It makes it tempting, if we weren't already under contract of course.  

The house we are buying is nice.  It is not my style, but it is nice.  In the future, I can remodel the kitchen.  I can replace the floors.  I won't be able to make it have beautiful old wood, but c'est la vie.