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Friday, February 8, 2013

House Hunters International Edition

My mom was just mentioning this show a while back.  Where people with generally ginormous budgets look for palaces in Italian fairy tale landscapes.  Or even the Amerian edition where some young couple with no kids is ready to put 300 thousand bucks on a "little" cottage starter home.  

Such is not our budget.  And if you're a follower of the Lazy Girl's life you'll know that what it's really been about for, well, years, is location, location, location!  A few years back and even just a few months back, my hubby and I just couldn't come to an agreement on where to live.  I was more of a city mouse, and he a decidedly entrenched country mouse.  If I had a dime for every argument or suppressed argument on that subject, I'd have enough money to buy two Italian palaces.

Flash forward to January 2013 when hubby and I compromised. A place south of our current city that would cut out traffic for him and only add about ten minutes for me.  Still close to my work and work opportunities in the future.  I was stunned he was now considering this area.  Literally five minutes from two of my friends and fifteen minutes from another.  I was holding my breath waiting for him to change his mind.

And we started a furious few weeks of home-touring looking for one that struck our fancy and that we could both agree on.  It's actually pretty tiring to spend evenings and Saturdays visiting homes, trekking from one part of the city to another.  Most of our visits also took place during the two-week period when we had snow on the ground and bitter temperatures.  A few uninhabited houses we visited were absolutely freezing inside.

It was kind of fun seeing how other people live and decorate.  We learned a few things along the way.  Take a look at the hall of fame/shame...

Classy closets make a difference.




That 70s show bathroom... wow, that hurts my eyes.




Groovy wallpaper is NOT where it's at.





Some people out their DO have taste.  But their houses are generally pricier.





But none of these houses made it on our short-list (aside from the closet place, briefly).  We came to realize the perfect house didn't exist.  But that the pretty good one we'd visited kept coming back in our minds.  And so last Monday we made an offer on one we BOTH (gasp) agreed on.  I won't show you it yet because we haven't signed for it and must get the official green light from the bank. 

I will tell you it's white brick with a blue door, something we had both actually put on our cute house wishlist.  Keep your fingers crossed, guys, and maybe a picture will be coming soon...


5 comments:

Michelle said...

ooh that's very exciting! Good luck!

Crystal said...

Yay for house hunting! I can't wait to hear about the house you get (and see pics!)

I love that international House Hunters show. I watched a ton of episodes when I was in Canada over Christmas. I'm always shocked at how picky some people are though --they are shown beautiful villas and apartments and often like, 'um, not it's not big/spacious/well-decorated/well-situated enough'. I'd kill to have any of the houses they visit on that show!

Lindle said...

I know you are glad to have a break from all the voyeuristic looking that comes when you house search. Though it is so time consuming and takes a lot of thinking, it is interesting to see what people like to put in their homes. That wild design on the tiles in that bathroom would give me a migraine!!!
I'm like Crystal, regarding the International House Hunting shows--they are addictive, and I just can't believe what people turn down. Gosh, to have that kind of money!
Crossing my fingers and toes for you guys for getting the right place.

Anonymous said...

i'm getting excited at 'south'. email me to say where it is! soooo excited for you! i've been a very bad blogger recently and i've been on hol this past week in the UK so i've not been checking blogs. Update me please (text, email, fb!!!)

emmy xx

Deidre said...

Good luck! I hate house hunting too - even though for me it's only been renting!

Can't wait to see it WHEN you get it!