It started on Thursday night, on the way home from Thanksgiving in Eugene, Deb and I started to discuss getting a new house. This discussion had happened many times before and ended with "We're fine right now, we'll do it later." This time however, the reality of rising interest rates, the fact that we have been in our house for 10 years, and the simple need for change made this conversation continue.
Friday Morning: Deb hit the internet and we started looking for houses and land that fit our desires. We want at least 5 acres, trees, privacy, and a little larger house. We hit the road, and by 1:00pm had visited 7 sites. Some were just houses sitting out in 5 acres of perfectly flat, treeless land. Others were very nice houses, but were older and we wanted new construction. One was a good posibility, trees, private, 5 acres, but was way up in Ridgfield, and there was a really rough road to get there. There were two houses that we just could not find however, and we really wanted to see those too.
Friday Afternoon: We feel that continuing the hunt without making sure we can do anything about it is not wise, and we call Countrywide and get pre-approved for a home loan. We also contact a realtor and ask for a list from her, of homes that fit our profile. Her list matches our list almost perfectly and also includes the two mystery location homes we had failed to find earlier in the day.
Friday Evening: We set out again to find the two last homes. Using the GPS we manage to finally find these two homes that are side by side in Brush Prairie. In the fading light we find the house we want! Both homes are being built by the same builder, both about the same size, and both on long 5 acre lots with frontage with Salmon Creek. One great! The other, "Not so sure." We get home and talk the rest of the night... is this really what we want to do, are we really ready, does this house warrant all of the change we are about to bring onto ourselves? Sleep does not come easy this night.
Saturday Morning: Meet with Loren and head out to the three final contenders. We hit the two side by side and in the good light really start to fall in love with 'The One.' We walk the property line all the way down to Salmon Creek and really give both locations a good look over. We then head back up the the Ridgefield property and seeing it again does not inspire us. We deside that the Brush Prairie house is the one we really want.
Saturday Afternoon: Worry starts to set in we begin to invest ourselves in this decision. Will someone else buy the house before we can get this all figured out? How long do we have to put this all together before the whole thing falls apart? We decide to meet with the realitor Sunday to make an offer on the house.
Sunday Morning: We meet with the realitor and make an offer on the house. We are prepared to put our house up for sale, but decide to wait to see if our offer is accepted before doing so. Our purchase of the new house would be contingent on the sale of our current house, and if the builder did not want to wait for us, there was no reason to put ours up for sale. Much paper work later we were set, just have to wait for word back from the builder.
Sunday Noon: We pick up Bob and Nora and head out the the house to show them, and we knew if we'd gone crazy they would tell us. When we arrive, there are, for the first time other people looking at the houses. This does not feel good to me as I am concerned that they will buy the house before the builder even gets to see our offer. It turns out that one of the visiters actually is the builder and he is showing the houses. We spend quite awhile talking to the builder and he says we are the first and only offer and he seems to be a very nice guy. We talk about the house and the property and we leave the site feeling pretty good about our chances.
Sunday Night: We head back over to the house with Ray and Juli and show them the house for the first time. They seem to like it and I take some photos while the dream of this working out takes hold of me. Deb and I are both tired and feel sleep will come tonight due to sheer exhaustion. So much for the restful 4 day weekend!
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