Houses, can people really live in these?

Bill and I have different personalities. No matter how similar we are, we definitely look at things differently.

We had picked out many houses for our Realtor to show us this weekend. They were across the board because we wanted to get familiar with what the area has to offer. Now, in normal everyday life I am the pessimist and Bill the optimist. We soon found, when looking at houses, these roles reverse.

We looked at houses built in 1880, 1920, 1961 and 1983. I would say the house from 1880 was the worst, followed by the house from 1983. The 1961 was on the small side. And the two houses we looked at from 1920 we GORGEOUS! The woodwork was all original. They were American Foursquare. We looked at houses in the country (town of 500, not even a grocery store in the town and 20 minutes from anywhere), houses in the city (city of 5,000, with one grocery store in the town, but safe streets where you could see children playing, it was like a flashback from the 50's, or 80's I guess) and some old farm houses (I'm sure if I didn't make him Bill wouldn't have even gone in these ones, he passed the threshold and said "No").

We are both middle children. Bill has matured and grown into a man. Me, on the other hand, am still the perpetual middle child. I look at something and see what I can make do with. Thereby limiting myself and always cutting myself short. Bill has his standards and won't endure through something unnecessary. I am thankful for his insight. And now I am learning to also not settle for less.

I had heard stories of women when shopping for a house have this list of amenities and qualifications. I totally did not relate. Now, I guess I have matured a little, congratulations to me, I am setting those standards.

So, please, when we get settled in our new home, whatever it might be, come and visit. It will be a home for sure and hopefully everything I want:)


Some weird quirks we encountered: 2 inches of water in the basement but a completely updated bathroom (it was like walking into a spa teleporter style), a carpeted pole in the middle of a room (yikes!), tree trunks supporting the floor joists in the basement, many houses that were like mazes to walk through, pans of charcoal scattered throughout the basement, a bathroom that you can't get to unless you walk through bedrooms and it had closet doors to get into it, septic tank drainage into the ditch right next to the house and a drive under the house garage (you could fit like 3 cars down there, Bill actually didn't like it)