Monday, November 24, 2008

Casa de Schmidt #2.....possibly.




So here it is. Not the best picture in the world, but more to follow. We are waiting to find out if the bank will accept our offer. We are trying to be cautiously optimistic while still making our plans for what needs to be done if we do become homeowners. This house has a fully finished basement which needs A LOT of updating but which can be pretty damned awesome if we do it right! Let's see what happens...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Moving on...

We lost the bid on Casa de Schmidt #1. We are totally bummed but moving on to other options. It's a buyers market after all and viewing potential homes is fun. Thanks for the encouragement, Desi. Hopefully, by the time I come see you I'll have better news!!

I can't wait....let's go to Kitaro! And maybe we can stop off at ChaChaCha's and drink Sangrias and blow smoke rings while loitering on the sidewalk! Don't think I won't post those pics on here. Muahaha!!

Miss you!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The future Casa de Schmidt....maybe.


Front lawn and long drive-way.
Fenced in backyard.
Dining room.

This past Sept. I wrote about my struggle with the commute from Richmond to DC. In Oct. when Bryan started his new job in Alexandria, our search for a rental in Northern VA intensified. We spent a lot of time touring apartments and browsing websites like craigslist.org and rentals.com. (Both of them are great resources.) We started talking about our situation and the economy and the housing market and before we really understood what was happening we had a real-estate agent showing us houses! Not surprisingly, we discovered we have very different views about what we wanted in a house. It seemed like every house we looked at met one condition but never both.

Bryan wants a man-cave, I want a nursery attached to the master bedroom.
Bryan wants a fenced in backyard, I want hardwood floors.
Bryan wants RV parking (we don't even own one!), I want history and charm.

Never mind the fact that I want to be in DC and Bryan wants to be in the country. We are VERY fortunate to have an agent who has shown infinite patience with us. Anyway.....we viewed a bunch of houses and then we found it!!! We just knew when we saw it that this one would make us both happy. It's about 40 miles south of DC (trust me...this was the best compromise we could reach), it's on a beautiful 3/4 acre of woodsy nature and yet it's just off the freeway.

We can't afford to get our hopes up because this is a very long and complicated process. There are important things that need to happen.

1. The house has to pass inspection.
2. The bank has to accept our offer.
3. I have to manage to make it to closing without going fucking nuts.

I'm so happy I can share this process with family and friends that read this blog. IF we do become the owners of this house we will be delighted and if not we will continue searching til we find the next ONE.

Here's to hoping!!
xoxo
C