House Hunting Progress

The past week has been very hectic, stressful, and a little but fun. Nolan and I went down to Atlanta last Friday. We had to get on a much earlier flight in hopes of missing the snow. We were very lucky to switch our flights for free and avoid any delays.(Thank heavens since I was traveling alone with our toddler!) Nolan was so awesome on the airplane. As we were flying through the clouds he would look out the window and call the clouds snow. Mike met us at the airport and took us to the aquarium. Mike had to go back to work, so Nolan and I hung out at the aquarium while we waited for Mike. The GA aquarium is so awesome, if you visit us, we will probably be going to see the fish.

We had a crazy few days looking at every house that fit our requirements. If we weren't looking at houses, we were driving around to find the neighborhoods that we liked. We knew pretty quickly that we wanted to have a neighborhood, sidewalks, a community pool, and schools that were good for Nolan. It is shocking how many neighborhoods didn't have sidewalks.

There was a house that we liked and started to negotiate with; however, it was a short sale. We started by giving the seller's agent an offer and they came back. Since it was a short sale we wanted to have an inspection first since any needed repairs would be at our cost. The seller agreed and we got an inspection. Unfortunately, there were some potential problems with the roof. Things started to get sticky because the seller didn't want to move and the seller's agent was the builder of the house(two major emotional attachments to the house) who possibly had never sold a house before. Our poor agent was teaching the other agent and doing WAY too much work.

Friday morning Mike and I started talking and decided we both had reservations about it being a short sale and all the uncertainty that comes with it. Nolan fell asleep in the car and we decided to drive around the neighborhood that was our favorite (the same neighborhood as the short sale and the neighborhood that our agent lives in). We started talking about a house that was under construction in a cul-de-sac. The same model home had recently been sold by our agent in another neighborhood. After a call to our agent, she let us take a walk through the house that had already sold. The house was everything we were looking for the whole week, but didn't find. Our agent got us in touch with the sales agent for the house in the neighborhood we wanted that was under construction. We got to walk around a model home as well as through the house that was under construction. With one hour until we had to be at the airport, we decided we wanted to put together an offer. Since it was under construction we got to see and talk about the "finishing touches" that we could change on the house if it was ours. Then we had to rush off to the airport. We were so pressed for time, Nolan ate his first fast food cheeseburger! :(

We are home and still negotiating with the builder for the house we really really want to be ours. The house is a 5 bedroom, 4 bath, house with plenty of space for visitors. There will be an unfinished basement, front porch, deck, fence, and grass for Ridley!(Well, the kind of grass that grows in Georgia anyway) The builder predicts it will be ready for move in by the end of February, but wants the contract to have the move in date of March 15th. We know how things could go with a new construction house, but Mike will already be down there and it will just depend on if/when our Palatine house sells. I am pretty confident that Nolan and I could be taken in to either grandparents house in the interim.

We will keep you posted on the developments and see if Mike can get any photos when he goes back down to Georgia this week.

Nolan playing in the hotel tub with his "hat".

S