The Most Stressful Thing....

is buying a house. Or not really buying it, but deciding the RIGHT one. Deciding who to marry was easy. I knew right away. Deciding to have kids was easy. Always knew I'd want some. But deciding the right house? It's the most difficult and stressful decision for me!! We have been pretty "sure" of the blue house for a few weeks now. We even went so far as to put down our "earnest money" and make and offer, and get a home inspection (not cheap.) The house is actually in good condition but there are some things that will need to be fixed before we move in, and it sounds like the seller is not willing to compromise with us. So at this point we might not take the blue house. It all depends. We have until tomorrow to decide.
Yesterday we went over to a friend's house for dessert, and on our way over there we passed another house we looked at 2 months ago when we first started house hunting. I've always liked that house, but we took it off our list because it didn't have a garage. We kept looking but never found a house with a garage that we liked. Then we found the blue house and we liked it a lot and it was in our price range, but still...did not have a garage. Then Mike started thinking about building a garage near the back of the lot. Many houses here do not have a garage attached to them because it is just the style I guess. Anyway, Mike got pumped about the idea of building his very own garage with his own two hands. That would make him a real man, right? So as we drove by the other house (btw, it's brown) I thought, "I really like that house still. And it's not off the market yet. Why did we stop looking at it? Oh yeah, no garage." HELLOOOOO! The blue house doesn't have a garage either, and I like the brown house more! But we'll just have to see what Mike has to say about my renewed interest in it. I'll post some pictures so you can compare it to the blue house. Tell me what you guys think!!!!

I got these pictures off the real estate website, so some of them aren't all that great. But they give you an idea.

The outside. Craftsman style home with brown steel siding. This house has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a finished basement and an attic. It is quite a bit older than the blue house (built in 1920 vs. 1976) but it has all new appliances, furnace, and water heater.

Here is the living room (they have rugs to walk on to keep the carpet nice, just in case you were wondering what those dark things on the floor were.) New carpet throughout. I like the color of the walls. I think some crown molding along the top would look really nice.

Here is the kitchen. New oak cabinets and granite looking countertops.

Downstairs bathroom.

Upstairs bathroom.