Adventures in house hunting: the finale!

Hello?  Is this thing on?

I haven't been here for, well, a long time. But I hope to make more frequent visits now!  Since returning from our trip to Maui in early May, life has been a little crazy.  The main source of stress lately has been houses. We bought a house, we sold a house (we have a contract on it anyway), and now I have no desire to buy or sell a house again for a long, long, LONG time.  I knew before that I dislike moving, but now I know that I have an even greater disdain for home selling. 

Now that we comfortable that our old house will close, we can focus more on the new one:

Home.

We started house hunting in January, and closed on our home in mid-June.  I think we must have looked at 25-30 houses total.  That is not to say all the were unacceptable (though I did share some of the doozies).  In fact, this happened to be the third house that we made an offer on.  We fell in love with the first house in February, and made an offer  knowing that someone else was also making an offer.  We did not get it, and were crushed. 

We found the second house in April, and could immediately see lots of long-term potential.  Someone else must have thought the same thing: we got in a bidding war, and came up on the losing end, again.  If there was one thing we could feel good about, it was that we have good taste!  I said to Aaron after losing the second house that I'm a pretty competitive person, but I don't compete well with money.  If only we could have decided who got the house by holding a good old-fashioned foot race.  Or a spelling bee.  I'm confident we would have come out on top in either of those contests.

We looked at the house we ended up buying in April, and liked it, but thought it was over-priced.  We happened to look at it the same day that we looked at the second house we made an offer on, so we didn't give it much thought, but a few weeks went by, the price was cut, and we decided to check it out again.  We immediately made an offer, knowing we wouldn't get it if we didn't move fast.  After submitting our offer, we found out that another couple was seriously considering putting in an offer, too.  By this point, we were convinced that we would lose again, but low and behold, the other people did not move fast enough, and we actually got the house.

I had no idea that house hunting could be such an emotional process.  The experience was unexpected, considering the state of the housing market throughout the U.S.  How did we manage to find one of the few seller's markets left in the country?

Despite all the frustration throughout our search, I can't help but feel like God had a plan for us, and it includes this house. I can't wait to take you on a tour!