tap, tap, tap, tap

I'm still waiting. The lawyer said he'd get me a draft of the order on Friday to review so we could get it sent out to opposing party via certified mail today. I still don't have it. blast. Luckily, though, I am not waiting for (yet) another hearing date to hammer out details. At least that much got worked out last week.

We had a fun weekend of poorly lit photography, parks and house-hunting. The last part was actually fairly disappointing. The one I had the highest hopes for was a huge, huge disappointment. The one that I *thought* was going to be a pleasant surprise when we first walked in, ended up being a total let down as well. I mean...I guess it could have been perfect, if we needed to collect all of our marbles into one corner in the back room. yeah...the whole room/addition kind of sloped. Oops. That house's backyard also would have been an ideal place to house all the children we plan on kidnapping - lots of gates, roofed decks, and a maze of walkways between them. Oh, wait...we aren't really into kidnapping that much. That left the first house we looked at.

Ben's been wanting to look at that house since he got here. And it was a pleasant surprise (for the most part) for me. It did turn out to be a little awkward when the current homeowners were there throughout our tour. And at one point, we had to ask one of them to finish brushing his teeth so we could take a peak at the master bathroom (I didn't actually look). Bubba fell down the some-what steep, curving stairs to the upstairs bonus room. It was dark. The kitchen was sorely outdated. The "laundry room" closet was cramped. The carpet was torn away in one spot. But the price is right, and it had potential. It actually had quite a bit of potential. The question is...do we have the time, money or know-how to actually turn this house into something we'd want to live in? And is it practical for us? It's a 3 bedroom, with a bonus room upstairs, but the rooms are all really small, and the fact that there's no real office, other than the bonus room which we were hoping to be a guestroom/play room/rumpus room, etc... Argh. And that kitchen. Oh, the kitchen. Ben got a better look at it than I did. In his words, if I had seen what he saw, we wouldn't even be considering this house. But for some reason, we are.

I think if we had an extra $100k in our pockets, this wouldn't be a problem. We'd just move up a price point (or three) and get everything we wanted in our house. But, as with most things in real life, we're going to have to settle. So now the difficulty lies in which items in our long list of "needs" for the house turn back into "wants." Do we compromise on bedroom size? Number of bathrooms? Yard? Commute distance (for me)? Or do we refuse to downgrade any further, choosing to rent for another year or so and roll the dice on interest rates? If only the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, in the perfect price range would present itself minutes after our Omaha house sells...

Oh yeah...and someone, anyone, please buy our old house!!!