*Sigh* I want this house

Sean and I promised ourselves that we weren’t going to go getting attached to any potential new houses until we’d sold the one we have now. We know with the way the market is now, it might take some time to sell, and it is possible that we won’t even be able to sell at a price that would make sense for us.

However, our realtor suggested, and we agreed to see houses in our price range so that we would be prepared to act quickly if/when our house does sell. Last Saturday we saw this house. Despite all our best intentions, I think we are both pretty set on it if we are fortunate enough to sell our current home. We keep talking about all the things we want to do to it and where all the furniture would go and all the stuff we could do there. Silly, stupid, putting the cart before the horse kinda stuff.

We love that this is sort of a quirky home and does not fit into any real standard floorplan. It isn’t the sort of house you see 15 of every day. Although I really like the polish and convenient features of the newer homes – they are all the same or nearly the same it seems. Also this house is a more affordable option for us than some of those newer homes, though there is quite a bit we’d like to update, which will add to cost over time. Although nothing is falling apart or needs to be updated immediately, there are a lot of things we’d like to upgrade to really make it nice and our own. Of course we can do those things as we can afford to do them rather than paying for everything up front like you do in a new house.

Among the things we are already thinking of doing:
-Update both fireplaces to gas – sorry I’m not a splitting wood kinda girl.
-Finish the rest of the main level (there is no real basement – the “main” level of the home is sort of functioning as a basement and has a family room, a bedroom, a half bath, a laundry room, and an unfinished section with a full window. This room is quite large and houses the furnace, water heater, etc. The drywall is already up (except around the mechanicals), but you could probably add flooring and drop ceiling without a huge investment and then use that space as a third living/family room.
-Put Aluminum or vinyl siding on the whole house – we aren’t much into the Tudor look
- bump out the Master bedroom into the backyard a bit so that we can have a larger Master bath and a big walk-in closet. There is ample closet space throughout the whole house except the Master bedroom. There is one decent sized regular closet there now, but the big closets are the one thing I’d really miss not having a newer home.

So yeah, we’re attached.
I feel almost guilty wanting so badly for our home to sell knowing that many Americans are in much worse situations than we are. We are lucky in that we have a good chunk of equity in our current home and moving to us is really just a luxury right now. We aren’t being foreclosed on, we haven’t bought another home already, so really we are in a good place. If our current house doesn’t sell, we’ll be disappointed, but that is all, no big financial loss. Also although we are cramped, our current house is in a nice area with good schools and everything we really need. I keep reminding myself of that – but it doesn’t stop me drooling over the house we now want.