Mother's Day, Moving and House Hunting...

So today is Mother's Day. I got to sleep in until the ripe minute of 0630!! YAY!! Yes, there is a little sarcasm in it. Honey, when you read this..Next Mother's Day I would like to at least stay in bed until about noon? OK..I'll get up about 0930 to go pee..but don't expect much! And I want coffee in bed..And the special breakfast you like to make us all! I'm not too needy..lol

On a different note..We have been house hunting in Leavenworth Kansas. As some of you know we are going to be stationed there. Jim flies to Connecticut on June 15Th, our HHG's are picked up on the 16Th, and we start driving to Kansas via a touring route on the 18Th. And hopefully by the time we get there a new house all our own will be waiting. Which I am really eager about.

We went through a trial an error stage but have found a very honest and straight to the point realtor named Barbara Hancock. If you want her number, let me know. This woman is beyond awesome! And oddly enough she became the realtor for us on accident. But so far, she has gone above and beyond in my personal opinion. As a first time home buyer I am sure that I have annoyed the living crap out of her. But she is patient and answers all of my questions. And Jim's questions. I'm sure it can not be easy to get emails from two different people. But she does, and she deals with it. I am almost positive she will do a Mexican Hat Dance when she finally sells us a house.

But, to be honest..we did put a bid on a house. We had found a beautiful 4 bedroom 2 bath split level ranch. It had a full basement that had been redone into a family room with the 4Th bedroom. It was on a pretty good size corner lot but the back yard sloped downward. One car attached garage. It was about 1800 Sq Ft with ceiling fans through out. They were asking 115,000 for it. So we offered 105,000. Oh, it also had a sun room that Jim didn't like the looks of, and a ghost in the third bedroom. Jim said it was a smudge on the camera lens..*wink*

So we offered 105,000. He countered with a meet in the middle of 110,000. Jim and I said..110 and you provide the stove and refrigerator. He said he could not afford that. And sadly we had to not accept the offer.

Now I know it is crazy to put a bid on a house that we have never seen. But there's a few things that make us comfortable with this. The first is that Barbara has been doing this for almost 10 years, and she knows what the VA will and won't accept. That is comforting to know. So as long as the VA accepts the house *and they have very stringent rules*, we know it is sound. Also, there are warranties and what not in place when you purchase a house. So knowing that, if anything major went wrong along the road in the first year, we wouldn't be paying a ton of money to fix it. And lastly, there is so much information available online. We can research and look at different websites to find everything from appraisal values to future and past taxes. Pictures galore! Even videos of tours in each of the houses.

One thing that Jim showed me was the maps on google.com. If you have never messed with the satellite map on google, you have missed out. It's sooooo much fun!! But it allows us to really check out the neighborhood, the schools, the area in general. And to top it all off, with the prices of some of these houses if we don't like something in it we can just change it along the way.

So as things progress we shall let you all know what we decide on.

Right now, I'm going to go watch cartoons with Chase while the baby naps.