Siren Song

So The new obsession I posted about a couple of days ago turned out to be not the one. It was a great house, but listed at 400k, was a little our of our range. The listing agent pretty much told us it would be a complete waste of time to write an offer for less than asking, because they had 13 other offers on the table already. *sigh* goodbye pretty, super convenient house. hello more window shopping.

We've been out looking at tonnes of houses the past few days. We even have an offer in on a huge one, that we're both secretly hoping we don't get. (shh! don't tell!)
Last night and this afternoon brought us back to Riverpark.

Ahhh, Riverpark. Why do you have to be so tempting? It's like a siren call. The other houses in the area are great... but... they're not riverpark. which is partly what's so great about them, and partly what's holding us back in finding the perfect house.

I'm partly happy to announce we've come to a decision tho. We want Riverpark! Previously we'd been flip-flopping back and forth between two floor plans, and couldn't decide. Today, another got thrown into the mix, but after a lot of soul searching and debate (but no arguing! yay us!) we've decided on a plan.

Problem is it is currently sold out. Boo. If we had come to this decision 2 weeks ago, or even last week, we probably could have moved in next month, AND saved a tonne of money. (this is where the new floor plan enters. plan 6 is available right now, with some nice...incentives... but I'm not totally in love with the plan. Jason wants to get it, because it's a good deal... but what good is a good deal if it's not "home"?)

So I guess we will wait. and keep browsing a little...

Hopefully within the next 6 months I will be posting about my brand new house...

Window shopping again

We didn't get our house. Somebody came in a little higher than us. And while, yes, it's disappointing -it was a beautiful house- it's also kind of a relief. It WAS more than we wanted to spend (not super uncomfortably so, but enough of a difference between it, and some comparable houses to make me wonder.)

Also a relief because yesterday when we didn't hear from Larry, Bear and I went for a walk, and found an open house in our neighborhood. Already, it gets crazy bonus points for being in Camarillo, because it's a good city to live in... it's sort of like Burnaby or Coquitlam (for my fellow BCians) with less (read, pretty much zero) grow-ops.
It also gets bonus bonus points for being in the area of Camarillo I like (it's 5 blocks from where I live right now...)
only problem? again, it's listed higher than we want to pay. I'm hoping we can work out some kind of deal where we can afford it... but I imagine they'll get all kinds of offers that will be way higher than ours.

Stay tuned for updates on my newest obsession... ;)

Pendulum

It's been a crazy mix of emotions here the last couple of days.

You know how I said it was going to be the longest weekend ever? psh. what did I know? Things are happening like crazy!

Firstly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BabyP! and CONGRATULATIONS to your surely overjoyed proud parents! =)

Secondly, I just found out a dear family friend passed away yesterday. We haven't seen her often in the past few years, but she was a woman I admired greatly, and someone I considered family (the mom I always wanted? lol. jk, mom. but family all the same)
I hope her passing comes as a releif, both to her, and her family, and that she's having as awesome a time in heaven as she did down here with us =)


Thirdly, on the house issue...
We were sent a listing on a duplex in Camarillo. It's older, and a bit smaller than the Oxnard house we offered on, and it has a pool (which most people see as a bonus, but I don't want a pool). However... it's in Camarillo. ginormous bonus points for being in the city we want. and it's cheaper.
we're going to go see it tomorrow.
seconds after submitting the request online to see it, Larry calls. Boy, that was fast. This guy checks his email every 45 seconds. =)
Apparently there are some other offers on "our" pretty house... we upped our offer a little bit, and I guess we'll hear back soon. this is the final round for offers, and we're competing against 4 people now instead of one. =P where did these people come from anyway?

flip....flop... the pendulum keeps swinging... do we want it? or something else? of course we want it. we want it more than anything. ....no we don't. we want riverpark. it's shiney and new. but the oxnard house is a great deal! and no shared walls! but camarillo is camarillo...
flip.
flop.
.......

this is it, btw.

Driven to distraction

So, I came on here earlier today to post something, and ended up spending a lot of the rest of the afternoon messing around with the template instead.

I've forgotten what I came here to post in the first place.
(but, I hope you enjoy the new background. It'll probably change again a couple of times before I'm satisfied.)

While I'm here this time tho, I figure I should mention:

I'm sure most of you know Bear and I have been looking for a house. We started out just kind of casually "window" shopping, and it snowballed into a situation where, now is definately the time to get the house. The market seems to be bottoming out - read: houses are as cheap as they're ever going to get. And in October, First time homebuyer stuff gets a bit more expensive.
So while it still doesn't feel like we're "really" looking seriously... apparently, we are!

Last weekend Larry, (our...um...let's call him our real estate guy) took us to see a few places in one of the areas we'd been thinking about. We never did get to see the house I scheduled the appointment for... It's a short sale, and Larry is trying to avoid those. Apparently they take FOREVER.
Instead he took us to a bunch of foreclosure sales... the second to last of which turned out to be just what we're looking for, except it's a little pricier than we'd hoped for.

Not one to let that hold me back, we decided in the car on the way to the last house that we wanted it.

fast forward a couple of days and:

WE PUT AN OFFER ON THE HOUSE

... and are currently waiting to hear back. It could be later tonight, or possibly monday.
It's going to be the longest weekend EVER!

I don't wait well.

And here we go...

It seems more and more people are jumping on the blog-wagon these days. Within the last week three good friends of mine have sent me the links to the innerworkings of their brains.


So... if everybody else is doing it, I feel I should too.
(no, mom, if they all jump off a bridge I won't follow. But only because I can't swim.)



Welcome to my new blog.

There is no theme, so here you will find a sampling of the nonsense that clutters my brain on a regular basis. Thoughts, Recipies, Photos, Movies... you know the drill.


I'm partly afraid this will turn into another Xanga, where I make a few feeble, half-hearted posts for a couple of months, and then forget about it.

I'll do my best tho. I really will.