This weekend we entered contract to buy a house. It’s been a bit of a challenge, and it wasn’t looking good there for awhile. But we did it, and now we’re in the application and documentation stage.

The first problem came when I went out with the realtor to finalize which house we were going to pick. There were three to choose from; two we’d already seen and liked, and a third that we’d noticed and wanted to look at. At the first two we noticed problems we’d not noticed before, like signs of water damage, broken windows, evidence that the air conditioner was broken, etc. The third house, however, was looking pretty good.

And then suddenly it wasn’t. We realized that while it might be relatively close to my work, it was not going to be close to anything else that mattered to us. The layout started to feel wrong. Soon about the only things I felt good about were the neighborhood and the yard. We changed course and tried looking in some different parts of town that we’d not really considered all that much previously.

Oddly enough we found the best house yet on the first try. It’s got everything we find important: lots of bedrooms, good layout, plenty of storage, lots of mature trees, a big yard, a designated garden (well-cared-for and growing vegetables, no less), fruit trees, and room to practice baseball with the kids. It’s two blocks from the kids’ elementary, four blocks to the junior high they’ll attend, and four blocks to the high school. And while perhaps not as close to work as some of the others we were looking at, I’ll have several more options for my commute that may prove handy.

So we put in an offer, with several other parties supposedly hot on our heels. No other offers materialized, however, and while the sellers counter-offered, it was still acceptable. And we’ve found a lender who thinks he can get this closed in less than a month. So we’re ready to roll, full speed ahead.

We are going to love this house.