I are adult now?

Buying a house is an interesting experience. My first forray into home ownership and its consequences was 4 years ago. I found out that my grandfather had left me a substantial amount of investments from when he passed away many many moons ago. so my apartment search ended and my house search began. being shown places and not liking them, real estate listing piling up like oh so many leaning towers, the small mountain of mortgage paperwork... fun times by all.

eventually I settled into the nest I have now. My girlfriend, now wife, moved in with me shortly after. It is a Great condo, four bedrooms, nice living space, and enough electrical outlets to power my modern life. but with the X-01 on the way (our nickname for the incoming baby) we realized that a vertically oriented house, surrounded by old fogies, and in our area is not a good place for an infant.

So I called the relator I went to last time. and he looks at our place and reccomends a lot of clean up work, including but not limited too putting away all of my Battletech Minis. *sigh...* and so we go about cleaning our place. So we go about, boxing up a shit ton of our "fun stuff" My aforementioned Minis, lots of toy collections, porn, Jenny's Altar, porcelin dolls spare computers, DVDs we do not plan on watching in the next 12 months, old files etc. We are also taking the time to ebay or donate stuff we do not want any more, which is good as it contributes less to the clutter we have.

repairs are not easy either. in the past six weeks I have spent close to $4,000 dollars on projects that needed to get done. from repainting to carpet cleaning to fixing trim and sealing cracks. it is not fun, but that nightmare is almost done.

Now we have to look at places. I admit I am spoiled. I grew up in precisely one house. I lived in it from when I was 3 years old to the day I moved out in 2005. so I am spoiled a bit. I expect a lot of open space, rooms with utility and purpose. so I see these houses and say "hey, that has a lot of space." and when we take the tour I am shocked by the photography tricks. Another issue is the general state of disrepair places are in when the owners are gone.

and as for the mortgage paperwork.... oh fuck me running! when I first bought my place in 2005, money was flowing like freaking ethonol (65% less viscous then water) now a days it seems more like molasses. Calling different banks up, some say yes ,some no. some will give you this outrageously high rate, others so low you have to ask "is this a 30 year rate? or did you just give me an ARM?"

and the yes's and no's change almost weekly, it sucks.

the home buying journey continues. our place is going to go on the market by months end. then the dance of negotiations begin.... more coming soon