Our (RIGHT NOW) Dream Home

House hunting has not been fun.  I don't enjoy it.  I possibly could very much though...if our price range was up $20-40,000 more.. :)  Yes, that would be fun!

Cade and I have driven past a lot of houses and through plenty of neighborhoods in Boise, Meridian, Kuna and Nampa.  MOST have been quite sad neighborhoods, some have been "do-able", and a few have been just alright.  We were getting quite excited about the alright neighborhoods.  Neighborhood has been a huge deal for me.  I don't know what I'll be doing in the future, if I'll be able to stay home with my kids, or if I'll have to work.  At this point I want to stay home and will stick with that plan for as long as is possible.  It would be nice to feel safe in my neighborhood, be able to take walks with the kids and not feel nervous or creeped out.  In our price range though, it would seem that we aren't able to afford warm, fuzzy, safe neighborhoods.  And really, some houses have been alright..but I haven't loved really any of them.  Do we buy a house just because its "the right time to buy"?

Renting doesn't solve the problem though.  It's possible renting could cost more than a mortgage, especially when you have a pet..

DEAR NEWLYWEDS-
Don't buy a pet until you have bought a house.  Landlords no likey, resulting in your options becoming very limited.  But not only that, if you are in an apartment with a dog, you have to take it out to go potty and that's just not fun.  Even more not fun when you realize you have a baby on the way who could possibly be sleeping when the dog needs to go potty.  Super. 
If you decide to buy anyways, and then find a great place that finally accepts pets..enjoy a wonderful non-refundable pet deposit and/or possible monthly charge on your rent. 

I would have probably held off on the cute puppy had I realized all of this....(oh well, we still like our dog).

Renting is kind of a bummer deal when you think about putting money into nothing instead of your own house.  There are other cons to renting but at the same time, when you rent you aren't buying a crappy neighborhood and stuck there for 5-10 or more years.  If it isn't a great place, you can move in a year or less.  I like that fact.  But either way, I just haven't felt confident.

There are decent houses right now near our price range but they are short sales and I don't feel confident about going through that process just yet.  Maybe in the future.  I've kind of given up on the idea of buying.  Houses are going fast, investors are buying like crazy, and whats left is not what I want to be stuck in for 10 years.

Since I had no confidence in either direction we still went and looked Friday at a $59,000  two bed & one bath townhome for sale, mostly just out of curiosity, and hated it...but it lead to a conversation with our realitor where we decided to give a certain location another shot.  Cade and I headed that way and drove through a couple of neighborhoods and thought maybe we'd like to look at a few of the houses that we saw.  The just alright kind of houses and neighborhoods.  After calling our realitor the next day one house was already pending and the other two I think ended up being short-sales. 

A little while later our realitor gave us a few other houses we might want to look at out that way and one I immediately LOVED, and didn't care to even consider the others.  So we drove to the house and felt so comfortable in the neighborhood.  Loved the neighborhood really.  She showed us the house later that day and I loved it even more.  By a long shot the best of any of the houses we've looked at or driven by, and oddly, well in our price range.

Oh but the DOWNSIDE.....we have to bid on it and if we bid over the listed price, it has to come out of pocket.  (Yes it's a HUD home, but a nice one).  Sooo....realizing there are people out there who have more money than we do & shady investors who aren't suppose to bid on this house, but could still and get away with it...we still put our tiny sad little bid in yesterday.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited still.  It is exciting!  And so sad because I haven't figured out how I'm going to deal when we hear we were outbid on Monday.  I might already be attached, it's possible that in my head its already ours, and I may have already mentally moved my furniture and pictures in...I'm in so much trouble.  Oh the long week I have ahead just thinking about this.

Updates

Since blogging last....
-I'll be six months preggo this Friday.  It's getting CLOSE!
-Doctor confirmed we're having a little girl.  We're so excited!
-Name possibly picked.
-Getting HUGE and kind of freaked about it.  (Notice there is not a recent, 25 weeks belly shot here).  I need to invest more in maternity clothes, but the more I think about it the less I want to spend money on cute big clothes.  I'd rather spend on cute skinny after pregnancy clothes.  Can I hide out and avoid any cameras for the next 3 months?  I'll be honest though, pregnancy shouldn't take the full blame for my weight gain.  Bad food choices, traveling & bad food choices and lacking self control are mostly to blame.  I'll have my own work cut out for me in a few months, hellooo medifast.  
-Cade has been working in Logan a lot.  More hours for him- really great for us but also really lonely for me.  So I've made a few trips with him to Utah.
-We're just about a month and a half away now from getting our own place.  Living with Cade's family hasn't been easy (in the sense of not being completely on your own as a couple and soon-to-be parents) but really words can't express how grateful I am that they have let us live with them.  They've helped us SO much.  We've saved up some money but we'll probably hold off on buying a house right immediately.  Looking at short sales but hoping to find a good renting opportunity if a short sale takes up to 6 months.

AND some pictures of lately..

   

17 weeks here but I looked bigger in my 15 weeks picture.

Went to the park and played some basketball.  I have to say, I wasn't shooting too bad. :) Ok, the hoops are shorter, but whatever.  Memory lane..Cade and I went and played basketball at this park on our first date.  Awww. :)

Try One at Utah Air Show.  Rained out.

Try Two at Air Show. Much better.

19 Weeks

4D picture at 20 week appointment. (Peeking out from behind the placenta).  After our appointment we brought this picture and others to Cade's parents and didn't say right away what the gender was.  Cade's niece looked at the 4D pictures first and with disappointment said, "It's a boy." :)Haha, nooope.

Cade wanted to go for a ride.  I'm clumsy already, pregnant, clumsy & bike..didn't seem like a good match, sooo we pulled out my sister-in-laws bike!  Three wheels AND a basket in the back (to hold the dog of course).  I'm sure we gave a few neighbors a good laugh. :)

Blanket/bunny? CUTE.  Bought.

PINK outfit. CUTE. Put away....sadly.

Just a little shopping with my Mom in Utah 4th of July weekend..  Found these two items and loved both, buuut I exercised SOME self control and put away one of the items.  Bunny blanket won.  I figure she'll like that one more and for longer.