14 Houses, No Home

Yesterday we saw 14 houses. After running out of homes that met our criteria, we lowered our standards and looked at homes that we could at least afford. Here is what we found:

1. too small. very nice, but not enough room for the boys, nevermind all their stuff.

2. Harvest Gold - need I say more? (that's the color of the house, not the appliances!)

3. couldn't get in, the combo on the lock box was wrong
4. too small
5. off the market
6. busy street, we had a really hard time backing out of the driveway
7. too small, plus the breaker box was messed up, probably wouldn't pass inspection
8. off the market
9. too small

10. too expensive. I hadn't gotten the tax info on it before we went out there, but we stood in the driveway looking at the sheet and it was way too high. otherwise a very nice house

11. too small
12. busy street
13. too small

14. waaaaay too much work needed. Apparently the guy who lived there had a temper and took it out on the house.

So in the end, it looks like #2 is our only option. It is a bi-level/split foyer/raised ranch (depends on where you are from what you call it, apparently). It has 4 brm and 2 baths, a nice family room, the back yard is totally fenced in (though it is really small), comes with appliances, has a garage, and is in a quiet neighborhood. Plus it is close to shopping and the library, and not too far from where Chris will work. It is also in our price range. It doesn't need any work done, other than paint, and that is only because I don't like the colors in there, not because it is bad; so I think that we could save up some money while we are there and hope to move on in a few years to something with a bigger yard. I sure hope so anyway; my sister bought a house with the intention of moving on and she is still there. So if we go for this house, I will have to overcome my aversion to Harvest Gold, LOL.

Still No House

Well, yet another house was no good. This one was an old log home that was being fixed up a little bit at a time. A lot of work had been done, but there was still a lot more to go. It was mostly carpentry type work, which Chris is not good at, plus the floor plan was again really odd, so that one won't do either. I raced down there and back to try to beat the snow, and I made it. It started to snow on my way back, but it didn't get bad until a few hours after I got home. I'm glad I made sure to hurry and didn't stay at MIL's to chat. I did drop in just to say hi to Troyer and Samuel, who are spending the week there.

This weekend we will be looking at 6 or 7 more houses, all of which are not at all what we wanted. We have run out of time, and now are looking to buy something that we can just move into to get us down in that area, and then maybe in 2 or 3 years move again into a house we really want. I am still crying over that white house we put 2 bids in on. I can't believe the seller is such a jerk that he won't sell it to us. *pout pout* Less than 5 weeks to go before we will be living out of our van!

So I Went to See the House

and it was just as great as it looked. Nice and big and in good shape. The bad news about that is that it was actually worth the asking price. Actually maybe a little more. There was no way we could get into that house without creative financing of some sort, and for sure not more that the list price, so we said good bye to that one too. Sigh. When we got home we found out there were 2 offers on the table for it already, so I'm glad we had already decided not to try for it.

In my email I had a link to another listing, this one another house near Chris' parents. I have set up an appointment to see it tomorrow. I made it before lunch because we are supposed to get a huge storm tomorrow afternoon. Doesn't that figure? I am hoping to be home again by 3, and miss the snow. If it is already snowing when I wake up in the morning, I am staying home. I will be driving down in the car with just the baby, leaving Chris home with the boys. He wasn't excited about the idea of driving back down there 2 days after spending the day down there already. At least I'll have better luck in the car if the weather beats me home.

If this house doesn't work out, we have discussed changing our plans a bit. We will try to buy a house in a development that we can live in for 3 or 4 years, then sell again when the "perfect" house comes up. That way we can shop from the area, and not do this crazy running around business. We only have about 5 weeks left before we have to vacate this house, so we are getting close to panic time. We can't see how we will be able to afford to rent anything down there, it would cost more than any mortgage we could get, and monthly payment is what's holding us back in the first place. If we could afford $1300/mo on rent, we'd spend it on a house! LOL


So I'll update again tomorrow night.

Well, God Must Have Something Really Good In Store For Us

Our realtor just called again. The second house we were going to offer on is Sale Pending. So now we have absolutely nothing to buy. We haven't seen anything else that we would fit in. Waaahhh. There is that nice house I saw, which I guess I am going to go see tomorrow; but I tell you, we will all be on a diet if we get that one, because our budget is going to be severely cut just to pay the taxes.

Out of the Running

Well, my reator called me this afternoon. He said the seller did not accept our offer. Not only that, but this guy, who last week countered another buyer's offer with something lower, this week said he wants his full asking price or no deal. Harumph! It sounds to me like maybe we are better off not getting this house, I don't think we want to have to deal with this guy. What a pig. I hope he takes a huge loss on this house. And I also hope we find something better! Yikes, time is running out.

More Waiting

We found out this week that the house didn't get sold last week. I guess the other buyers also thought it was too high priced. We talked to our agent and wrote up a new offer quite a bit higher than our last one but still below what the seller countered with. I have no idea if he will go for it or be stubborn and greedy and wait until someone pays him what he wants. If he doesn't take this offer, we don't have any more money so we will be writing up an offer for another house we saw, if it is still available. I found another house I would love to go see, but I found out the taxes are crazy. $300/mo makes it out of our range, we'd have to offer much less than the asking price to afford it, and that would most likely be a waste of everyone's time. I wish we had a little more money, but I am seeing that a little more money just makes me look at a new group of houses that are all a little out of our range, lol. If I had enough for this latest house, I'd be looking at houses another $25K too high. Ah well, I am very glad to be able to afford *something.* I know it will all work out.

Tomorrow we will be going down again, because Chris has to work from that office, so I will be able to drive around a bit and hopefully meet with our realtor and get some papers signed.

He Sits! He Crawls!

Ok, he's not going to win any contests for endurance or distance, lol, but Levi, who just turned 6 months old on Sunday, can now sit for about 30 seconds before falling over, and can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth until he falls forward! He is regularly escaping his bed, so I had to set up the play pen in his room for him to sleep in.

He had his 6 month appointment on Friday. He weighs 17 lb 4 oz, and is 26.25". That puts him right at 50% for growth, and in fact is in the middle of his brothers' stats too. The dr was impressed at how good he was, very social and calm. He is right on track for all developmental milestones. I guess it'll be time to start solids with him soon, but right now he doesn't seem to be missing them.

Here is Levi crawling:

Here he is sitting up, very proud of himself, LOL:

And here he is with his brother Samuel cheering him on:

Kill Him or Kiss Him?

Well, after such a huge disappointment about not getting that house we both really wanted, and talking it over ad nauseum, I learn from Chris that maybe, just maybe, we might have a little bit more money we could afford to offer for this house. Ugh! I already told our agent that there really wasn't any more money per month or in savings for a higher down payment, but it seems that I lied to him! So I will be talking to him on Monday, and letting him know that we actually can go a little higher, if the house hasn't already sold to the other interested buyers. So maybe we're back in the game. But maybe not. Bleh, I'm glad we have more money than I thought, but I hate looking like I'm playing games with my own realtor. So should I kick Chris *while* I'm kissing him? LOL

Back to the Start

Well, my agent just called to tell me how our offer went. He says the listing agent told him that he just got a similar offer to ours, and the seller countered with a pretty high number; he said his buyer wasn't going to take that counter offer either, but that his buyer didn't request inspections. I have no idea how you can buy a house these days without any inspections unless you are paying cash, but I know for sure my mortgage company won't approve a loan without them.

So I guess we're back to the beginning. Waaaahhh. In my mind I was already moving in.

Waiting Waiting

We signed the offer today, and our realtor submitted it to the listing agent. Now we wait to hear what the seller has to say. Hopefully we will know by tomorrow.

Our agent found out some history on the house and the seller; it seems that the seller owns another home that he had put up for sale in another state, but it didn't sell. He is still living there, and has decided that whichever house sells first, he will live in the other. He bought this house back in July and did a few improvements, but not much. I have no idea why his other home didn't sell. It may be because he is asking too much money and won't take a lower offer. If so, then the same may be true about this house, which means we are out of luck, because we just don't have the money to counter with a higher offer. I guess that means he is out of luck too, LOL.

And so we wait.....

Making An Offer

We went to see another house yesterday. It was priced out of our range, but we really didn't have much else to look at, so we figured we'd give it a try. Here's the report:

The location is great; back road, very little traffic, exactly half way between Chris' parents and his office. The yard is very pretty; nice front yard, huge back yard, lots of nice mature trees, but still a big open space to play. 2 car garage plus another shed maybe for bikes and toys.

The house itself is a 4 brm (4 true bedrooms, not closets! LOL) 1.5 bath farmhouse. There is a back screened in porch and what they called a 3 seasons porch, which just means it is a porch with windows. Neither is big enough for furniture, maybe just some lawn chairs, but perfect for pulling off snow suits or muddy shoes. The kitchen needs updating desperately, but it will do for now; I am not one known to love being in the kitchen, LOL. Nice sized living room plus 2 more small rooms that could be a den and a school room.

Some of the drawbacks about the house: the furnace is an old coal furnace converted to oil, so it is very inefficient and needs to be replaced. The siding is shingle, and the windows are wood, so it would need vinyl siding and replacement windows eventually. I mentioned the kitchen already, plus it is painted a dark brick red color, and is on the north side of the house, so it is very dark. The basement had 2 sump pumps in it, so there is clearly water in there. It looks like the previous owners did a good job of channeling it but still, no water would be better. Most of the wiring is old; service to the house and the panel are all brand new, but Chris would have a lot of outlets and switches to replace. The laundry is in the basement, and the steps down are awkward; I would really like to have the washer and dryer hook ups moved upstairs next to the half bath, but Chris said that would not be a priority. There was some water damage under one window in the master bedroom, but I couldn't tell if it was recent or not. I thought it looked like it, but Chris says he doesn't think so. We'd have to find out about that. It could be as simple as a clogged gutter, or something more serious. Last, it was not clear how the two bedrooms on the east side of the house were heated. We couldn't find any vents but it was very warm in them. Of course, yesterday the temperature was in the 50s, so it was actually hot in the house. It has a metal roof, so it was very warm in the sun. I am concerned about heat in the summer too. At least there are lots of shade trees on the property, so maybe we will just spend a lot of time outdoors, lol.

A view of the front yard:

Front of house:

The back of the house and the garage

A view from the driveway looking down the street:

After walking through the house and talking with our realtor, he told us that since there was a lot of work left to be done on the house, and it has been on the market a while and is vacant, that we could offer quite a bit below the asking price. He said there was no harm in trying, which was nice. I'm used to realtors saying "I won't waste my time with an offer too low" and such. I think we got lucky getting this guy.

He's going to email me more info about the property today, and we are going to write up an offer this week!

Yet Another House to See

On Sunday Chris and I are going to drive down and see another house. This one looks great on paper, except for one thing: the price. It is really out of our price range. We have exhausted everything in our range and it's all either too small or just icky. This one has promise, but I don't know how we'd find the money for it. The plan right now is if we like it, we are just going to offer the absolute most we can scrape together and hope they take it. I am afraid, though, that it will still be an insulting offer. There is always hope that the sellers are motivated, or that money will fall from the sky and land in my wallet! LOL

Another House With Issues

But of course, what can you expect when you are working with a low price range, at least for the size house we need? So here is the report on yesterday's house:

The property was perfect. 2 acres, some open, some meadow-like, a stream in one corner, a small barn with room to put both the car and the van inside (no doors, but at least I wouldn't have to clean snow off in winter) and also the riding mower. Pretty views, not too close to the road, and I can't even tell you how excited Grandpa was at the thought of his boys being so close by. There is an in ground pool which has been kept up, so we could use it (not sure what insurance and upkeep would run on that per year, though); and they are leaving behind a nice wooden swingset.

The downstairs of the house was also pretty nice and roomy. A living room, a smaller room for a family room or office/den, a dining room big enough to fit my table in with all the leaves in, plus a kitchen that was a decent size. There were two sets of stairs, the main set in the front of the house, and another small "servants' stairs" by the kitchen. I have always liked the idea of 2 sets of stairs in a house. Perhaps in reality that would be annoying. I can see the boys racing around the house in a big circle, LOL.

Unfortunately, the upstairs has major problems with organization of rooms. The two front bedrooms are nice and roomy, no problem there, but what should be the third bedroom has to be a walk through to get to the bathroom at the back of the house. There is really no way to put up a wall to enclose it without cutting the room right in half. As I said, the bathroom is at the back of the house, and it was pretty gross. It only had a shower, no tub, which is a problem for at least 3 of my boys. It was pretty mildewy, too; no ventilation. It would have to be redone. Next to the bathroom was a tiny room that really is only big enough for a sewing room or a huge walk in closet. Troyer would probably be willing to have a tiny space like that just for the chance to have his own room, lol. So essentially, there are really only two true bedrooms.

Another big problem was the roof. I walked around the outside of the house and could see at least two huge holes in the soffit under the roof. It is a metal roof, and needs to be replaced. I'm not sure how much is leaking in but holes are not good, lol. Also the windows are a mixture of new replacements, old replacements, and original (and keep in mind this house is over 100 years old!). I think 2 rooms have new vinyl replacements. I didn't count, but there are a lot of windows, and most need to be replaced. Finally, the cellar under the house, accessible only from the outside by a set of very steep steps, is unfinished stone, and it does get water in a hard rain. I have no idea if it requires repair or how to divert the water so it does not leak again.

I asked about heating costs, and they are very high. I think windows would go a long way toward remedying that, but we couldn't afford to do much with the windows after taking care of the roof and foundation, and the bathroom. It would be a few years before we could get all the windows done.

That said, it would be a great investment, if we were willing to fix it up right. But is it a money pit? What kind of problems would we find while trying to fix the obvious ones? Can the house be repaired or would it be a case of needing to take it down to studs and starting over? Would I *want* to live in a house under constant construction? (in other words, do I look crazy??? lol)

I am really really hoping that the perfect house for us just hasn't come on the market yet, and that when it does we will be in there first with an offer. I keep in mind that our house was only on the market 5 days. So maybe the perfect house for us will be a similar story; on the market and sold (to us!) in less than a week. It just isn't out there for us to see yet. Let's hope, lol.

Back Home!

Ok, here is my report from the houses we saw today. We looked at 3 and drove past another one. That one I am going to go down and see on Tuesday without Chris. If I like it, I will have him drive down to see it too. I wrote out this report for my sister, and it was a lot of typing, so I am just going to cut and paste it here.

1st house: Broad St. It is a huge old victorian home, there is as much space as they claim, and more. The neighborhood is actually quite crowded. It is a small side street, but not a dead end, and every lot is built on. At the back of the property there is an alley that runs down to a ball field, so I am guessing that on game days that gets a lot of traffic, though it wouldn't be fast. The yard was full of snow, so it was hard to see just what it was really like, but it seemed plenty big enough for the boys. The deck is just as pretty as it looks in the pictures, and has gates that lock at each of the steps - very nice! The front porch is great too, with a porch swing. The kitchen was great, with new stove and refrigerator, a double sink and seating at the island. Lots of cupboard and pantry space. There is a laundry room on the first floor with a laundry sink, and a butler's pantry between the kitchen and laundry room. There is a mud entrance to that area, with vinyl flooring. The second floor has 3 bedrooms and a bath, plus another small room that they had just installed a ton of closet organizer type shelving. The third floor has a den area at the top of the stairs, and 2 more rooms, plus a half bath. It also has one more room that isn't finished to be used as storage.

So here is what is wrong with the house: #1 and biggest problem, the windows are old wooden single pane windows. No storm windows or screens. We are not even sure the windows open. There are a/c units in some of the windows, so I suspect at least some of them do not. #2 is the bathrooms. On the second floor, the bathroom was just carved out of a bedroom, and the tub runs part way under one of the windows. There is no shower, just a ring overhead with a curtain. The sill on the window is in bad shape from water damage. Nothing structural, just ugly. I would definitely plan to redo that bath. The other full bath is on the first floor. It is off of the laundry room, and is tiny. Maybe 2.5 feet wide, with the sink right in the door, so you have to squeeze around the sink to get to the toilet. A pg woman would not be able to get to the toilet. That bath has a shower, not great but ok. Other negatives to consider: The paper is obnoxious but not hideous, we would live with it just fine after suffering in this house, lol. Parking is a short driveway in front of a garage. It is supposed to be a 2 car garage, but those would be 2 very skinny cars. Because of the snow we could not be sure just how wide the driveway really is, but for sure the van would never fit in the garage. We would have to work out how to get both cars into the drive. The laundry area is about even with the upstairs bath in terms of quality. Kind of icky. I'm not sure how easy it would be to fix it up. Heating is gas forced air, and it has city water and sewer. I am very afraid of what the heating bill for a house that size would be. The basement is dirt. No concrete or anything, straight dirt. Yuck. Last, the roof is slate, and seems that it might have a leak at one corner, it could be expensive to fix up.


We are seriously considering this house anyway, soley from the standpoint of space. There was a lot of work done to it, but the windows are a major issue, as are the bathrooms. Ok, that's the report on house #1.

Ok, #2, Canal St. This house was soooo nice, but much tinier than they claimed on the info sheet. We measured out the rooms and I can only barely get to 1200 sq ft. Not only that, but there is not a single closet in the whole house. No joke. The ceilings in the front half of the second floor are only 6' 3" high. Chris had to duck to get through the doors. There are two staircases, but both are narrow and enclosed, and turn the corner at the bottom, so it would be difficult to get furniture up them. There are french doors in the master bedroom (for a future deck, I guess) and we'd have to get all the furniture in through those. Also, there is a water problem in the basement; they have a sump pump, but Chris didn't like the looks of the whole thing. There is a concrete floor, but the washer and dryer would be down there and it is icky. I think if we were to go with this house, we'd have to bid low and plan to add on immediately.


That said, there are so many pluses to this house. The kitchen is brand new and beautiful. No appliances, so we'd have to buy those. The yard is absolutely perfect, and the view is great on all sides. Both bathrooms upstairs are new and very nice. Most of the windows are new vinyl; only 4 small windows in back are aluminum, and the back door doesn't have a storm door. It was plenty warm in there when we visited today, even though it was set to 60.


I really really really liked the character of this house, even more than the Broad Street house. That house had an air of genteel poverty to it. This house was very pretty inside, since they did all that work to it. I just wish it wasn't so small!!!! It would be perfect if it were bigger and had closets.

#3 was the Blackberry Rd house, the split level, and yuck, we wrote it off right away. The driveway is as steep as it looks in the picture, that is not an optical illusion. It is also very short, so not really good for the van. The inside is dark, and the entire property is the side of a mountain, all sloped and wooded. No real yard to play in and no where to ride bikes.

I didn't take any pictures today; it had snowed overnight so it was hard to get around in the snow. The first 2 houses are unoccupied, so no one had shoveled. I wish I had remembered to wear my boots.

Our First Trip to Scout Out Houses!

Tomorrow morning we are all driving south to go house hunting! Chris and I are going to drop the older boys off with Grandma and Grandpa, then driving out to York to meet with a realtor and start looking! We have 3 houses to see tomorrow. I had hoped for more, but only 3 made the cut between Chris and me. I did find one more today, but it was too late to schedule a showing for tomorrow. I may go down myself during the week to get a look at it.

We are leaving at 7:30 in the morning (that means we are planning to leave at 7:30 and will be doing well if we leave by 8 lol), driving 2.5 hours south, dropping off the boys and driving another hour east. We will be meandering our way back west, from house to house, and end up back close to the in-laws'.

The last house I just found today is almost around the corner from them; I'm deliberating whether I want to live that close or not. It is literally 5 minutes from their house. Would that be good or not? I'm not sure; as a newly wed I was doubly blessed to live 4 hours away from both sets of parents, but I am pretty established as a wife and mother now. Would I be able to hold my own against them? I have to keep in mind how Christmas went. I would be deep in "enemy territory" LOL. Would it be worth the conveniences? I'll really have to consider that.

On the way home we'll be lighter by 2 boys; MIL is keeping Noah and Caleb for a week. Next week we will go down and pick them up, and drop off 2 more. She is still working at the elementary school, but FIL retired this year, so he will be home to watch them during the day. He is very excited to have them coming; it seems he is pretty bored with retirement already, lol.

I hope to take some pictures on this trip, and if any of them come out well, I'll post them here. I'll definitely be writing a report on how the trip went!

A New Bed

Today I moved Levi into a new bed. Well, not technically a bed, but a mattress on the floor. It's where we used to have the crib, but the crib is in storage so I had to make do. Levi has been too big for the bassinette for probably 2 months now, but I didn't have anywhere else to put him. Today I decided that he is just too big to be safe anymore. He is rolling and spinning all over the floor, and I didn't want him tipping the bassinette over trying it in there. He has also been getting up on his knees sometimes; just not when he is on his hands too, lol. On top of that, he is about to get his top 2 teeth. On top of the cold, that has made him pretty cranky. He is a pro at spinning in the exersaucer, though, and he is very proud of it!

Here is a picture of Levi sleeping in his new "bed":

Snow and Snot

Well, the big storm came; it doesn't really seem like a lot of snow, but that is because it is so cold that the snow is very fine and powdery. Light to shovel, but it also just blows right back across the area you just did. I am getting really really tired of this cold weather. How long has it been since we've seen a day above 25? Ugh. I hate cold.


Something else showed up at our house this morning. Everyone except Chris and Levi is sick. Runny noses, headaches, upset tummies (probably from the post nasal drip), coughing. We had already planned to be staying home from church today because of the snow, but at this point even if it were 40 we'd be home. The boys all laid around under blankets and drank hot chocolate and ate soup. Some were too tired to eat and we had to really push the liquids to keep them from getting dehydrated.

Troyer was about the same as he has been all week, not any better, not any worse, but Noah and Caleb are miserable. And poor Micah woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. Levi is cranky but doesn't seem sick; he may just be picking up on the mood of the others. I feel horrible. I felt the cold coming on most of the week, but I had been hoping it wouldn't catch me. But when I woke up in the middle of the night for Levi and tried to go back to sleep, I couldn't get warm. Last night after chat I took a hot bath, but I guess it didn't help. I tried to take a hot bath again today, but ran out of hot water. Chris had each of the boys rotating in the tub, and Troyer used more than his share. I tried to take a nap after the bath, but was freezing again. I just hate that, when I am snuggled up in the flannel sheets with a warm blanket and a comforter on top, and can't get warm. Now I am hot and sweaty. I prefer it this way, lol, but I know I am just due for another round of cold later. I had orange juice and hot chocolate this morning, but the post nasal drip has my stomach upset now, and I haven't been able to eat anything all day. Ugh, I hate being sick!

At least Chris is not sick, he has been doing a great job of taking care of everyone today. He has not given me a hard time at all about not being able to do much to help. I sure hope he doesn't get this.

Inspection is Over, Almost

Today at 9:30 our house was inspected, as part of the sale. There were quite a few people scheduled to come for this inspection, namely the buyer and his real estate agent, the house inspector, the exterminator to inspect for termites (Pennsylvania law), a Radon Inspector (who will have to come back on Monday to collect her testing device) and the septic pumper, who needs to pump out the tank before the house inspector can inspect it. I am pretty sure there was one other person here, but I can't think of who he was, lol.

The day started out very cold. At 7 am it was 0 degrees, and I had to go out and help Chris jump his car to get it started. I had my doubts about how the septic guy would fair in this kind of weather. Chris spent 3 days digging at the frozen dirt in the back yard to dig the lid up for him, but would the lid come off? Let me save you some time wondering and just tell you, no. My realtor had her husband come over last night and throw some hay on the hole to keep the lid from freezing. In my experience, hay is good for keeping off a frost, but not a deep freeze. I was right. I watched out the window when the septic guy got here, and he walked over and very disdainfully threw the hay off, LOL. Then he got out a pick axe and tried to get the lid up, but no luck. I give him credit, he didn't try very hard, for which I was thankful. He may have broken the concrete lid if he had tried too hard. He came to the door to ask if there was a way to get hot water out to the tank, but other than carrying buckets of water there wasn't, so I suggested he ask if he could come back next week when it warms up to almost freezing. He did wait and talk to the buyer and agent, but never came back to talk to me, so I don't know if that is what he is going to do.

I had originally planned to be out of the house while these people all came through, but since it was so cold and so darn early in the morning, I decided to stay home. I cleaned up pretty well, and then herded all the boys into the computer room and promised to try to keep them out of the way. I am pleased to say that the boys were great. Micah ended up coming down to watch "Hot Hot" which is his name for the Hot Wheels movie we have. He made me stay down and watch with him, so I sat on the couch with Levi and nursed. I could smell when the inspector tried out my stove top; he turned all the burners on, and I *never* use the large burner at the back, so I could smell the dust burning, lol. It took all I had not to jump up and make sure they weren't burning the burner covers, which is something that Chris does with some regularity, lol.

They walked through and tried most of the outlets, and flipped the light switches, and tried out the windows. They went through the attic and the basement. All in all, they were pretty thorough. Probably much more than the inspector we had when we bought this house, lol. They had a tendency to stand around and talk, a lot. About things not related to my house. Like the quality of water in a neighborhood nowhere near mine. Bleh, I was waiting for them to get out! The inspection ended up being 2 hours, I was told it would be about 45 minutes. One thing that really got to me was the furnace. They came upstairs to turn up the thermostat so the furnace would come on. Um, hello? It's 9 degrees outside! (up from 0 at 7 am, lol) Don't you think that if the furnace wasn't working it would be a *little* cold in my house? Not only that, but it had come on at least 5 times while they were there. Ah well.

Finally they all went outside to walk around the outside. After a while I wondered what they were doing, and it turned out they had left! They didn't even poke their heads in to say they were leaving. It would have been nice to let me know, since I was waiting until they were done to put Levi down for a nap. No one has called me since, either, so I don't know when I'll be hearing about the inspection, or if I will at all. I guess no news is good news, and there is nothing that needs to be done.

My realtor is going on vacation tomorrow. She is going on a cruise and will be gone more than a week. I hope I don't have any questions before she gets back! I also hope someone is going to contact me about the septic guy coming back.

Troyer has had a cold this week, mostly a runny nose with a little cough. He had lost most of his voice, but it is coming back. No one else was sick, I was hoping he'd keep it to himself. Well, I have been feeling like maybe I'm getting it, and now I'm pretty sure I am. This fall I have been lucky, though, and when I get a cold it's mild and doesn't spread to anyone else. I hope I can keep this one to myself too. Then this afternoon, Noah started coughing, and tonight he went to bed early. I hope he will be ok.

We are supposed to get a snow storm tomorrow, up to 10 inches. Church is cancelled, which is nice, but we probably would have stayed home anyway. The van stinks in the snow (see post below! lol). That also means our house hunting for this weekend is cancelled. Bummer. I may have to go down mid-week without Chris and start doing drive-bys, just to narrow down the list. We'll have to see how the weather goes. My MIL was going to keep 2 of the boys for a whole week, drop them off this week, pick them up next week, but now the weather cancelled that plan too. They are disappointed, and MIL and FIL are even more so. But maybe it's just as well, if they are all starting to get colds.

Ok, now that the news is out, more to report:

I know you were all waiting to hear about that, so now the rest of the news lol:

Levi is rolling! All over the house! On Friday morning he finally rolled from back to front on purpose. Once he did that, it just clicked and he loved it! Now he rolls everywhere. He is very excited to be mobile!

The weather here has taken a turn for the worse. Yesterday while we were out driving around during the house showings, it snowed some, and the temperature really dropped. It was slippery when we went out, but we had to be out until almost 5 pm. By then it was snowing again and very bad. I was driving on a back road and the van totally missed a turn. Luckily I had the option of going straight, and no one else was in the intersection, so I just slid through and then backed up and inched around the turn. Yikes, it was scary. When we turned onto our road, there was a cow coming down the road! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop then either and end up hitting it, but it turned down the drive to its barn, so I didn't have to stop after all. Phew! When we finally inched our way the rest of the way home, I went inside and called the owners of the cow to tell them it was loose, but it turns out the guy was in the barn feeding them and saw the loose cow come home.

While we were out yesterday I bought Troyer some snowpants, since last year's just weren't going to stretch over him anymore. He was very excited since it was snowing, he thought he'd get to go right out today and put them to use. Well, the temperature today was 19 and it was windy. Right now the wind chill is -5 degrees. Brrr! No way they are going out. They'd have to come in in 3 minutes! He's very mad at me now, LOL.

I am planning to make a trip to house hunt next Sunday. I hope the weather cooperates. I'm not sure what I'll do if I can't get the van down there. The inspector is supposed to come this week to inspect our house and septic. That means digging up the lid and pumping out the tank. I hope Chris can find the lid under the snow. He's not thrilled LOL Cross your fingers that the inspector doesn't find anything serious.

SOLD!

Yes, we sold our house last night! One of the couples who walked through on Saturday came back on Sunday and wrote an offer. We got our asking price, no haggling needed. It is very exciting! Now we have to get to work on finding a place to move to! Closing is set for March 31 so we have about 2 1/2 months to get out of here. :-)