House Hunting

Did you miss this post about the raffle? You can enter to win my painting Two Cows for Oklahoma AND help the Red Cross at the same time!

Tomorrow our house closes in escrow, barring any unforeseen hiccups. It’s a bittersweet milestone. Sad, because I grew up in this house. Sure, that was many, many moons ago but when we moved back here two years ago, all of those memories were refreshed and brought to the forefront.

Selling this house is sweet because I feel like I haven’t had my ‘own’ home for 3 years, since Marlon & I lost our home together. He moved in with his mother, I moved in with Mom and we made the best of it, planning for the day when we’d live together under one roof again. Plans change.

We have three weeks after tomorrow’s close and then we have to be outta here. One problem with that . . . we don’t have a house to move into. ruh-roh.

We’ve been looking. Really, we have. We’re going to rent, at least for a while. With a 30 day escrow and finances being what they are, renting is the best choice. The only choice, actually.

Now I’ve always rented, starting when I was 17. In thirty eight years I’ve had 12 different homes. Thirteen, counting this next one. Not bad, really. Two apartments, 2 duplexes, 2 condominiums and 6 houses. I could keep going here. In those 12 homes I had countless roommates, eight cats, two dogs, three kids, two husbands, and one mother. The mother is still hanging in there with me.

That’s a good thing. A great thing, really. But it’s a different thing. With both husbands, house hunting was “Whatever you want, Hun. You choose.” Um, notsomuch with a mother. She has her priorities and I have mine and we’re not always on the same page. Particularly since she hasn’t rented a house in, like, 60 years.

Like everything in life, house hunting is a process. You think you know what you want, what’s important to you, but as you go through the process you find out what’s really important to you. When we first started looking everything I wanted was way outta our price range. That’s depressing. But you get over it and start looking for the potential in houses that you can actually afford, still armed with the list of priorities.

Here are my top three priorities -

1. Light & Bright

I really need as much natural light as possible, both for painting as well as just my overall mood.

2. Space

I’ve had everything crammed into my bedroom for three years now so I really want a house that has enough space for all of my work stuff.

3. Privacy

Marlon’s and my house was on an acre and this house Mom and I are in is on 13 acres. For over 11 years I’ve been surrounded by trees and pastures, not houses and neighbors. I’d kinda like to keep it that way.

When I first started house hunting the list was a lot, lot longer. But after looking at umpteen houses I realized that I really need these three things. Anything else, I’ll deal with it.

Mom’s top three priorities -

1. Light & Bright

Yep, she’s the same as me. Not for painting, of course, but she definitely wants/needs light for her overall mood too.

2. Room for Sadie

Sadie is Mom’s l’il Boston Terrier. “Spoiled” doesn’t begin to describe her, mkay? Anyway, we need a yard with a fence for Sadie. There are other parameters to this priority but I’ll leave it at this for now.

3. Location

Mom’s 85, but she still teaches step aerobics 3 times a week in town. Placerville is a small town with a lot of outlying areas, many along the snow line. Even though she doesn’t drive anymore, Mom doesn’t want to be 20 or 30 minutes away from ‘work’. Whatevs on this. I’m picking my battles.

Of course our list is much, much longer. We want storage. We want heat and central A/C, we want a yard that’s easy to maintain, etc., etc., etc. But as we continue our search and see that one house has this, but not that, I’ve realized that we are set on these top three priorities.

I think we’ve found something pretty close to these priorities. Fingers are crossed, along with ten twenty toes. I’ve taken loads of photos but I don’t want to “jinx” anything so I’ll wait until I know for certain before I share them with you. We should know in a week or so. Pray for us, ok? Because if this “dream” house doesn’t pan out we’ll only have two weeks to find something else. Aack!

In the meantime, we’re packing. Ugh. To keep me motivated I’m having fun peeking in other bloggers’ homes at Summer Tour of Homes. And packing.

And dreaming. A new house! Just the idea is exciting to me. That is, once we get packed, moved, and unpacked. But just the thought of this new house has my creative juices flowing. Every other conversation now is, “where will that go?” and “where will you put that?” Like I’m the master decorator or something.

One thing I’m the most excited about is the house we’re trying to rent needs a lot of work. Not structural work, more decorating stuff. It’s older. (I’m being kind here.) I’m hoping to turn it from ‘quirky’ to ‘quaint’, and ‘old’ into ‘vintage’ or ‘rustic’. Pinterest is becoming a whole new passion now. I’m looking at different styles, colors, pattern combinations.

After not having my ‘own’ home for three years I am beyond anxious to sink my teeth into some home DIY projects again. Believe me, this house is a dream-come-true for a DIY blogger.

I’d say I’m about due for some dreams now after the ‘nightmares’ I’ve had recently.

When’s the last time you moved? Were you excited? Did you change decorating styles, or stay with what you knew worked?