Which One?

House #1 is on a busier street but it is 25mph and monitored very closely by police to make sure people are going the speedlimit, 1/4 acre, 4 bedroom, mud room, separate room for a pantry and freezer, large kitchen, two fireplaces, 1 1/2 bath, large living room, deck off the back, large garage, about 1400-1500 sq feet, same school district (very important!) and comes with a swing (Jovanna likes that!).

This home has a lot of character and I really like that. I can envision my family living inside and it just feels right. It was built in 1968 and there hasn't been much updating done. So, as you walk up to the front door there is a vertical window running alongside the front door and...it is orange glass!!! Yeah!!! That's what I remember from my childhood - orange glass! But I think it would be fun projects that would keep me busy.

House #2 is in a nice neighborhood on the corner of the entrance to a culdesac, average size lot but the house is set back on the property, it is small (1000 sq feet) with 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, goodsize garage, small kitchen, smaller living room, 1 fireplace, bedrooms are descent-size, smells very bad like dogs (I suspect the carpet will need to be replaced soon!) but the downer is that it is in a different school district and I suspect we would have a fight on our hands to get Jovanna's educational needs met.

We would be tight in this place and I really feel strongly that we would need to build on an additional bathroom and a scraproom/office (of course!) in order for me to be happy in this place. It does look like there is plenty of room in the front of the property to do that.

We are still waiting to get anything in writing on either one of these. It seems that we are very close on a deal on House #1 and there is a verbal confirmation on House #2. The way the market is, I suppose things could change and neither one of these would be an option. Hope I have some more firm direction soon!

It appears that we have a little more time...

Good news!!! The home in Beaverton (second choice) is a short sale and there are two banks involved in that transaction. They are planning to accept my offer but the banks need more time to squabble over who is going to get how much of the money. This is great news! This allows me a little more time to work through the inspection of the home in Hillsboro (first choice) so that hopefully I don't have to give up either one to move forward. I can relax a little now and try to move forward with my first choice home and see if it makes it through the inspection. I think I will take pictures of each and post them here so you can see what I am looking at! Watch for these later!

To make the decisions even harder!!!!!

I got a call from my realtor this evening and it turns out she got a call late this afternoon from the realtor from the first home that told us that they were not accepting my offer. It appears the bank changed their mind in the same day and now they say they want to accept my offer but they need the loan to close in 45 days, not 60 days. They want to have penalties if it doesn't close in 45 days. I am doing a VA Loan and they usually need between 45 - 60 days to close. Ohhhh, the decisions just get more complicated.

In an attempt to make the decision-making easier, I did a sex offender search around the two homes but it appears there are no sex offenders living within a mile radius of either of the homes. Darn! That would have made the decision a little easier!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

I heard back on my home offers today. The home that I wanted, and of course there are always pluses and minuses to homes, I didn't get. The bank accepted the other offer. Bummer!!!!! However, the other home I had an offer on, which I made the offer more than a month ago, did call back and say that they were accepting my offer. Now, I have some decisions to make. Again, there are ALWAYS pluses and minuses, right? The biggest drawbacks are that the home is smaller and in order to make it more livable for me and my family and my life, I would need to build on another bathroom and an office/scraproom. The other drawback is that it means changing school districts. For many families, that is not a major thing but for us, it is.

The school district we would be moving into does not contract with the therapeutic school that Jovanna attends. I am expecting that it will be a battle to either keep her at her current placement or to find a different appropriate placement. That could mean that Jovanna is not attending a school placement for a number of months or that the placements that the school district are willing to look at may not be appropriate for her. She is so fragile that the implications of these things could be devastating.

Well, I have a day to make my decision. Do I want to take on the battle? It's not like I could just keep looking. The number of homes in my price range are not very many and the good ones get swooped up real quick by investors paying in cash. I actually believe the market is beginning to turn around and very soon houses will be out of my reach again. Oh goodness! I hate these kind of decisions!

Excited...DT for My Sketch World!

I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to post this yet. I was lucky to be asked to be on the layout DT for My Sketch World. I did my first layout for the April 1st reveal and you can see it here. I am excited to have a new way to express myself creatively and I really enjoy the monthly sketches that Lucy does at MSW. Make sure to check it out!

Also, new news! I have two offers on two different houses. One is a short sale and those take a long time to hear back on, it has been more than a month and we are still waiting for a formal response. The other is a foreclosure and we just heard back yesterday with a counter offer that was not too much significantly different than the original offer, only just a few minor differences. However, the bank does have multiple offers on the house. What is promising is that the bank didn't change my price offer in their counter, only just a few minor details. For example, closing in 45 days rather than 60 days. We submitted our counter offer and now we wait to hear. I am anxious! My stomach turns in a flurry when I think about it.

I just finished my new book...

I highly recommend the book I told you about, "Winning Against the Wackos in your Life". If you have a hard time spotting those unhealthy people who attach themselves to you (until its too late), then this is the book for you. I am going to be more alert for certain signs when I first meet people so that I can avoid the pain and suffering that follows.

I learned more about the things about myself that attracts unhealthy people. I have to watch for the signs, look at how they treat others and listen to the things they say that give off the warning signs. I also had to really let it sink in that I am never going to be the exception for how a Wacko treats other people - they will do it to me too.

Good practical tips on how to deal with those unhealthy people you may have to come into contact with in the workplace or within your own family.

Get the book if you feel like you fall prey to Wackos in your life!

I ordered a new book on Amazon...

Without going into details and revealing too much, I will tell you that I ordered a book today that I think I wish I had many years ago because it would have probably saved me a lot of pain and suffering. I ordered the book (I know...I haven't told you the name of the book yet - keep reading) because I was listening to the radio a few days ago and Z100 was taking calls from listeners who were "almost famous" because they were related to or otherwise knew someone who is famous or rich. A woman called in and said she had written a book and it wasn't a best seller yet but it was on Amazon, so I think that is what makes her almost famous. Before I tell you the name of the book, I want to tell you that I am actually quite sensitive to names and insensitive speech that is hurtful to anyone and because of the title I really thought hard about whether I wanted to buy the book. O.K. I will tell you the title. It's called "Winning Against the Wackos in Your Life: How to Spot Them and Stop Them in their Tracks". Of course, the word I don't like here is "wackos".

I have often felt like and actually have said a number of times that I feel like I am a magnet for people with mental health issues. I find myself lately in much thought about what it is about me that continues to attract people who are not healthy. So, curious...I looked the book up on Amazon and wasn't sure if it was the reading I was looking for and then I read an insert from Chapter 1.

The Nasty Habits of Hosting Wackos
I have two goals for this book: 1) to help you identify and deal with the Wackos in your life; and 2) to help you recognize those traits within yourself that could actually be drawing Wackos to you. We can't prevent Wackos from crossing our paths in life, but we can discourage them from attaching themselves to us when they do.

Then it lists a few things to ask yourself that really struck a chord with me.

Do strangers spill their life stories (often in embarrassingly graphic detail) within minutes of meeting me?

Have I spent my life helping people, being a good friend and more than periodically pulling the knife out of my back?

Although I hate that this book uses an incredibly insensitive language, I am hoping that it will offer some guidance for how I can stop this pattern that continues in my life. I am skeptical. Skeptical because I worry that if Wacko is used in the title, how credible will the content be? I will have to let you know if the book is worth reading.

More to come...