Finding Nemo

We began our hunt for a house in the early summer of 2011, having fun on the weekends looking at houses in the Hillsborough area. (Post about Hillsborough in development). In late summer, we found a charmer tucked back in the woods on a street called Lyric Circle. The kitchen needed work and the floor plan (two potential kids' bedrooms on the main floor with the master on the second floor) was sort-of hard to figure out but the setting was idyllic. Thrilled with the possibility of being 20 minutes away from work, a 10 minute drive to close friends and in a setting like a campground (but with all the amenities of home) we put in an offer. That was the late afternoon of a weekday. At 7:00 we got a call from our realtor saying we had been outbid (a full price offer on the place had come in at 6:00 AM that morning and the owners jumped on it). Whoa!? That can happen?! Little did we know, that was the first of a series of real estate debacles we were about to experience. Buoyed (yeah, I just said buoyed) by 2nd trimester energy and a strong desire to not have baby boy Hexdall sleep in a dresser drawer, we pressed on.

Next, we found a beauty of a house very close to the charmer, on a beautiful street with other beautiful, well-maintained homes. It was a foreclosure, which did not scare us but probably should have. All looked good until the inspection. It was bad news after bad news: mold, hole in the roof, bathroom fixtures would all need to be replaced and, the kicker: coliform in the water. Now, coliform alone is not that much of a problem. But, it means that there could be other nasty bugs in the water too. Goodbye! Given I was about 36 weeks pregnant, the idea of having bad water  for bathing, cooking and let alone drinking gave me the heebie jeebies. Moving on (we hoped).

Next, Ethan was born! Not much of anything happened until early January when we started looking again. Nothing struck our eye until a brand new house came on the market in a new subdivision. (Suddenly, we shifted from a charming house in the woods to possibly living in the 'Burbs). Pretty much 3 hours after seeing this home, we put in an offer. The wheels were finally spinning, we thought! Then we saw the contract: they're locking us into what? They (massive builder company) have how many lawsuits pending against them?!  We ran. Having learned that it really isn't worth pursuing something, especially a house, that gives you a bad feeling in the beginning.

Next! We had often looked at houses in a neighborhood called Cornwallis Hills, where some good friends of ours lived. Each of the houses, however were in bad shape or just did not "fit." We gave Cornwallis Hills (now Camille sees the entrance to our neighborhood and says that the sign says "Camille's House") another shot. The house was nice, but, we weren't sold. We liked a lot of the features, but it lacked some others we had hoped for. It was in a good school district, but it just wasn't perfect. Hmmm...quite the conundrum. As we walked out of the house, a woman across the street was sitting on her front porch. "Are you all looking at houses?" she asked, with an air of hope in her voice. "Boy are we!" we didn't say but we did say, "yeah, we're just looking at options."

Well, we looked at her house and it was a beauty -- large, wooded backyard, too many bedrooms than we really needed but oh to dream, great kitchen, paint colors we liked, etc. Serendipity! Providence! We Eric and I mouthed to each other!

(Skipping a bunch of boring financial details).

The hitch was, she was on the fence about selling. She lived in this interesting world where compromise just didn't exist. SO...here we were: we had a house that was next-to-perfect across the street from a house that was farther from perfect but had a lot of aspects we really liked. And, is there really ever a perfect house? Well, this long story made longer does have a happy ending. We decided to settle in this not-so-perfect-but-perfect-for-us house.

Now, back to Nemo. In our now-perfect-for-us house, when we looked at it as potential buyers, there were fish. Lots and lots of fish. In the garage. (All in their own tanks of course). The owners bred clownfish for a second living and boy was it a living! The man of the house, upon his exit loaded up his plumbing truck said, "these two are work $100K each!" (Whaaaat?! Maybe you could have used some of that $ for a cleaning service when you moved out! I think now). So it wasn't all bad that this couple bred fish because...fish breeders depend on their fish food. And their fish food must stay cold (?). And the couple had a bonus large freezer in the garage that stayed with the house (niiiice). AND, if the power goes out, the fish have to stay alive and their little fishy food has to stay cold sooooo, a generator is a must! Yes, with this house, we got a generator that kicks in minutes after a power outage that basically runs the whole house for a few days. For my husband, this massive piece of electrical equipment was in the "pro" column. The extra freezer spaces was also in the "pro" column for me. The potential for fishy smell, definitely a con. But, as luck would have it, we have never smelled anything fishy. Really.

So, Nemo took a while, but it is now ours. As I think about this house, it has many wonderful features that I love. It also has a "blank slate-ish" feel. Sure the only two rooms with walls that have any color on them are the kids' rooms (and it is a horrible paint job) but that means potential! Lots of potential. And, most importantly, it is home.