House hunting: The criteria

Hello, gorgeous!

We're back in Texas after a whirlwind house-hunting trip and I have so much to tell you, so everyone do a 'stay asleep, baby' dance/prayer so I can get through it all tonight!

But first, the beginning:  What we want in our new house.

Drew and I approached this new house like getting the privilege to push the reset button on our lives.

Because what's a post without illustrations, right?

When we bought our house in Dallas, it was a very gut-driven move.  I walked into the striped breakfast nook and was like, this is my house.  We called our agent that minute, he came over and we put in an offer the next day.  It has been a great house and we have loved living here.

However, we'll be the first to tell you that living here is a financial stretch.  We could afford it and our lifestyle, but not much else and with the baby getting older and starting school, things were looking tight.  So when we started talking about the new house, we knew that we needed to find something cheaper.  Luckily, Reading has a much lower cost of living so that wouldn't be much of an issue.  The only challenge would be finding my dream house up there because I had a bit of a list:

• I wanted hardwoods everywhere.  No exceptions.  We got into many a tiff over that one because nearly all the houses we looked at online had carpet somewhere if not everywhere and I kept telling Drew not to look at the big houses because he'd be ripping out aaaallll that carpet and putting in hardwoods.  
• Main floor laundry.  I do laundry nearly every day and I wasn't trying to go up and down a billion flights of stairs for the rest of my life.  Plus, we don't have basements in Texas and basement laundry scares me.  Killers and goblins live in basements.  Fact. 
• All one level, if possible.  Again, a billion flights of stairs is not my idea of a good time.
• The same size as our house or larger.  
• In the good school districts.
• Close to Drew's work.  I don't want him leaving at five in the morning or getting home at seven at night because of his commute.
• Close to Target.  Yes, that is a real point on my list.  Target is my life.
• Close to everything else.  I'm not trying to drive half an hour to the grocery store.
• Cheaper than our house now.
• Has to have charm and personality.  No cookie cutter houses for me.
• Attached side garage.  I don't like seeing garages when I drive up.
• At least three bedrooms, preferably four.

Drew's list:

• Cheaper than our house now.
• This Isn't Our Forever Home Desiree, So Stop Being Crazy.

I was not optimistic about finding all the things I wanted but I did my best to keep an open mind.  However, what I refused to budge on was the actual house hunting part.  I did NOT want to look at any houses until it was actually time to *look* at houses.  I do not window shop, it's pointless.  If I'm not buying, I'm not looking.

On the other hand, window shopping is Drew's favorite pastime.  He has been looking at houses since last September.  I would hate coming into the sitting room and seeing Trulia up on the computer.  I would hate it even more when he'd be like Babe, come look at this!  It always led to What the hell FOR?  We haven't sold our house, we don't know when we're getting up there, and who knows what will be available when that *does* happen?  It's a waste of time!!!  Then he'd get upset, then I'd give in and look through dozens of pictures of poorly staged/photographed houses which I'd pick apart.  'Are you serious?  They didn't even make the BED!  Do they not WANT their house to sell?  What the hell kind of paint color is that?  OMG, RED carpet?'  Then Drew would get annoyed, tell me I could just go already because I was supposed to be looking at the house, not the design.  Whatevs.

So, that went on for freakin-ever, until the glorious day when we could actually look at houses for real!  Because we were finally freakin moving!  Our agent in Reading started sending through lots of houses and we started narrowing down our picks, until we had a pretty solid list when we went up there this past weekend.

Next house-hunting post, coming right up!