not the house, but the street...chapter five

We arrive into Denver and have Monday and Tuesday to make something happen.  Scott and I ask Matt, our Colorado realtor to widen our search to additional towns. I had spent hours upon hours before the trip looking on the internet and was feeling a little dejected because I didn't see a lot of new listings since our last trip two weeks prior.  We spend Monday looking at several properties in surrounding areas. We increase the search to include 2 floor homes, but at the end of the day, my body was dragging and I was concerned that two floors wouldn't work for me.  None of them feel as a fit for us. Some of the homes, I didn't want to spend any time inside, because I felt strongly it wouldn't work. (and one belonged to a cat lady and the allergies started to kick in.)

One of our agreed conditions of the home was that we didn't want an older home that had more maintenance associated with it. And, wouldn't you know that Scott started to feel really good about an older home that would cost significantly less than what we were planning to spend. The dollar signs started to light up in his eyes and yes, the backyard was wonderful. But I had to remind him of our plan and lovingly explained the things we would have to do in this home to get it to feel nice and newer.  Then, it was my turn to get a little "struck".  I wanted a home that was mostly white and super nice condition. It was one story, but it was more of a grandparents home because the backyard was 95% flagstone patio. It was really pretty, but Scott nudged me into the right direction again.

I'm getting a little frustrated because we are down one day and have a second day to find a place for our family to live in a few weeks.  We asked Matt to set appts to see homes on Tuesday and he talks about the other home in the same cul-de-sac of the home we were going to put an offer on.  We continue to widen our search in surrounding cities for Tuesday.

The home that Matt mentioned, was one that we saw on the first visit. It was cute and I loved the curb appeal and the main floor and I was impressed with it during our first trip out. It had a finished basement, but had only one guest room in the basement (the other had 2 big bedrooms). But, we couldn't get over that it would be right by the other house we would have put an offer on.  We didn't know if we could get over loosing that house we planned to purchase.  Late Monday night, while Scott and I were discussing how the day went, Scott mentioned "maybe the impression that you had wasn't for that specific house, but it was about the street? I think we should go into that home again and see how it feels."

We finally agreed to see this home again at the end of searching on Tuesday. Tuesday, we looked at the edge of our $$ range, and still the houses didn't seem to be working. We like comfortable and easy, and many of the homes seemed a little too fancy, or had 2 floors. A few of the homes would have worked, but something didn't click.  At the end of Tuesday's looking, we went back to the street that we loved, and to the neighboring house we thought to place an offer on.  When  we entered the home, we both felt really comfortable about moving our family there.  It was an amazing feeling to see how things would work, how we could set up the basement so it would fit our family, and even where the dog would go.  It felt exciting and just fell into place. It was like an answer to our prayers.  That night, we prepared a contingent offer and asked if they would rent to us beginning in two weeks.