Closing in on a new Home
We went out and toured a bunch of houses on Saturday, the first that we drove by was down in a heavily packed redwood grove off the road in Ben Lomond, California. It was cold, moist and had neighbors right on top of the property. That and it was a "contractor's special" which meant it had no floors or other simple touches.
The second was a first floor condo in Scotts Valley. Not a bad place and would have been doable but it was not right and was a bit far away.
House number three was very cute, a tiny little thing of a place boasting two bedrooms if one 7x8 closet can be called a bedroom? It had a nice little yard but not enough of anything and having a child there would be stressful for all of us. The best part of this house is that it is in the neighborhood, not really close to the beach but closer than where we are now and my commute would be a few minutes shorter.
House number four was in Aptos and seemed huge in comparison to the last little place. It had a great wide open layout with a nice and shiny new kitchen, one big deck, a smaller deck off the second story landing, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a big two car garage. It was our favorite even though it was among the redwoods and seemed cold. The view down into the gully was cool though.
House number five was the most expensive of the day, was closer than the other house to the beach. But damn was it beat up, it could have easily eaten up a hundred thousand in repairs. But it had a nice big lot, was a decently large house but it was patched together and really, well sucked.

A reassessment of the rationality of paying the sorts of silly numbers we're having to consider for buying a home in this damned town has removed the Aptos house for consideration. It would just strain our expenses too much and with a wee monkey on the way it makes alot more sense to turn the high number down to something reasonable.

Anyway, all that said, I'm going to run by a place tomorrow at lunch to see if it looks right since the numbers are eminently doable. Now its just a question of checking it out, getting the loan sorted out and then breaking out of here. Wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy?

Maybe it will be.