almost ours

our little wedge of the sky is almost ours. after several counteroffers we finally came to an agreeable value. nevermind that all the bric-a-brac needs to be removed and all the appliances need to be replaced. good times. now the inspections and repair arguements can begin. double good times. keep telling yourself... "it's all for the kids."

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a house on the bluff

made the offer today. getting ready for the volley...

bluff on the left, house on the right. watch your step...

(lots of) room with a view

after spending a good part of saturday looking at houses, and feeling somewhat dismayed (and excited) that we would have to build our own... we found one. it looks out over all of chattanooga, has just the right amount of space that is zoned just the way we need it to be. the yard is great, the neighborhood is great and the house is in great shape. i say this after only one visit to the house, but... you can tell the house has good bones. we'll visit one more time before making our offer and hope for the best. can't beat the schools or the views. and... it's about 10 degrees cooler on top of the mountain than it is down below.

we now need some good juju, mojo, luck, chi, karma or whatever.

almost bluff view

so we looked at this house today. a charming 1975 contemporary which the owners have tried to countrify with dark wood floors, crown molding, and tile countertops. to us this is icky. to others, prolly not so much. but the property and location are amazing. the house, overall, ain't so bad. we would need to do a lot of work to it to make it "home", but such is the nature of the proverbial beast.

to build or not to build

the debate continues... find a house already built, and customize to our liking. or build new? the least resource intensive option would be to buy the already-built home. this provides the least amount of customization to our needs, wants and likes, but is probably the right thing to do. my guess is, we'll end up deciding the traditional way of listing out the pros and cons, then ultimately flipping a coin.

shelter skelter

2008 is here. we are officially homeless. sheltered yes, homeowners... nope. my poor inlaws probably did not expect the degree to which their house would be used as a storage closet, jungle gym, cafeteria, sand box, home base, laundromat, hotel, and daycare. but they are real troopers. my thanks and love go out to them for continuing to put up with (the royal) "us".

the search for property has begun. our debts are paid off (i still can't believe it) for the first time ever. and the ideas for our new abode are flowin'. just like the spaces we expect to envelope with our translucent imaginations. uh... make that transparent. we're just simple folk. and simply we like simplicity, but with a twist. what we need though, is an organized filter through which to run our decision making process. efficiency and affordability through innovation. we'll see.