Finding the Perfect Home

It is hard to believe that Dennis (the Menace) and I have been in our house for almost 5 years. When we got married, he moved into my 1000 sq ft house but none of his belongings did. There was no room. Eventually we faced the fact that we needed to buy a home of OUR own.
My sweet little house.
So I began a house search. But with some really specific criteria, it was a difficult search. The new house needed to have a huge garage or a separate shop for my husband's tools. It also needed to have a good sized yard for my gardening passion. We wanted 2 bathrooms and at least 2000 square feet. All this needed to be found within a specific area of just a few miles. Because we own rental houses, all in various states of remodeling, we wanted to be within minutes of them for convenience.
My house was on double lots and I loved my yard.
Each house I looked at was either too small, or had no garage or shop, or had a tiny yard. I must have looked at two dozen houses. I finally located one that was perfect! Well, maybe not perfect, but as close as I was going to find within the small location circle. I was sure it was the one. I took Mr. Menace to see it and he immediately agreed. After all, it had 5 garages. That's right. I said FIVE GARAGES! That more than made up for the fact that the yard was not large. We signed a contract on it right away. However, we put a contingency on it that my house would sell before we closed. 
For Sale: Well-loved cottage
The housing market crashed and nothing was selling. The Tornado of 2011 had wiped out a lot of the community where we were buying and as insurance money came through, people were rebuilding, or buying existing houses. As luck would have it, someone wanted and bought "our" five garage house. Lesson learned. If you really want a house, do not put any contingencies on the purchase. Just suck it up and buy it. 
So, the search was on again. I looked at another dozen or so houses and finding anything that would compare to what we lost, looked bleak. One day my realtor and I had looked at two or three unsuitable houses and were on our way back to my car, when he pointed out a house with a new for sale sign in front of it. He asked if I liked the looks of it as we drove by. 
Dream Home
I immediately said yes, but in my mind I just knew it was out of our price range. It was too beautiful to even be possible. My realtor turned around, pulled into the driveway, and called the listing agent. She gave him the details and the code to the lockbox. Glory be.... it WAS listed within our pre-approved loan price range! 
Talk about curb appeal!
I was sure excited to see the inside because I was already IN LOVE with the outside! I saw 2 garages as we walked up. That was a good start. When we walked in, I was pleased to see that it had basically the same floor plan as the house we lost. Some slight differences, but I knew that Mr. Menace would agree that we had found a house just as good as the one we lost. In fact, the yard was even better! And the curb appeal was spectacular. We immediately wrote a contract. No contingencies. 
The garages.
The back yard.


And in about 60 days or so, we called her ours.

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