It's a Buyer's Market

For the past three years, well, probably for longer than that, we've been told that "it's a buyer's market" and how fortunate we will be when we come to buy a home in Washington.  And we have been dreaming of this time for years - the time when we'll have more than 1,100 square feet of living space, a kitchen where more than two people can fit, our own bedroom (this is London's dream), and something a little nicer than concrete walls, "faux wood" linoleum floors and an industrial toilet.  I mean, we had many great memories in our "concrete bunker", but it is more than time to get back into real world living.

So with the thought that the right house at the right price would be in our immediate future, we tackled home buying.  Little did we know what a saga it would be and how long it would take.  Although we've been scouring the 'net since January looking at homes, the real home buying started in March when I flew back to the States with one mission - find our dream home.  It didn't happen quite like that.  We (me and my friends Kelly and Liz) saw tons of houses, all kinds of styles, and all price ranges, but none really spoke to me.  I ended the visit putting a contract on a house I kind of liked (well, really I liked the view), which was promptly withdrawn when the owners required full price.  Strike one.

We continued to look online at the houses around the area and in May Steve found one that he really liked.  He convinced me to put an offer on it without ever seeing it (we did have Heidi, our agent, take videos of the house).  The house is gorgeous and has even better views than the one that fell through - on clear days you can even see Mt. Ranier from the back yard.  We put in the offer at the beginning of May and we've been negotiated and tweaking the contract ever since.  The main problem was, after negotiating a price, the appraisal came back waaayyy low so we had to re-negotiate the price.  We found this out the day before we left Okinawa so while we were adjusting to an international move, we were also going through some heavy negotiations.  Needless to say, it was quite stressful!

Now we're into July and we should be (fingers crossed) closing on the house around the 10th but we don't get to move in until the 19th.  The good news is that both of our shipments have made it safely across the Pacific so we shouldn't have to live bare bones once we get into the house.

For the past month, the kids and I have been camping at Grammie and Grandpa's in Hilton Head (not a bad place to have to wait out the time) while Steve has been hanging out in Washington (part of the time at our friends the Paynes and part of the time at the Naval Base Kitsap) and then in Dallas at his mom's house.  He's now back in Washington preparing to start work on the 9th while we fly back on the 10th.  What a crazy way to spend a summer!

So enough lamenting about the house - it will soon all be over and we'll be tootling along with life in Washington.  In the mean time, I'll be posting about some of our adventures in Hilton Head.  And, just to be on the safe side, I'm not posting pictures of the house until the last signature is penned onto all the closing documents!