A Week of Ups and Downs

This week has had some crazy highs and some depressing lows. It all started on Sunday, well, really it started as soon as I had sent this Sunday's list of houses to our realtor. I was so convinced that we would find something this weekend, because I felt like a we had a great set of choices in this batch, at least from what I could see in the pictures. They were all comfortably in our price range, they all had at least 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

My sister, DH and I took the Metro across town and ended up in Suitland, MD, which is the second to last stop on the green line (for all of you who are familiar with DC). The very first house we looked at was in a quite, safe-feeling neighborhood with lots of green space and a tennis court. The house itself was a foreclosure, but the bank had put in all new carpets and painted all the walls white. I really wish every home owner would do this when trying to sell their house, because it is so nice to start with a clean slate instead of some of the garish or just plain hideous colors, wallpaper, and carpets we've seen to date. Or if you have hardwood floors, rip out that old carpet and get them refinished.

Anyway, the first house was a split level, and part of what attracted us to the place so much was that it had a deck, it would have taken just enough work that we could put our own stamp on it without spending a ton of money or even really NEEDING to do anything right away (i.e. it was move-in ready), it was the brightest and happiest place I'd ever been in (part of that was due to the sunlight streaming in every window), and it had a finished basement that was just as light and airy as the rest of the house. Oh yeah, and it had three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. One on every floor. As far as I could tell, the only downside was that the stairs were a bit scary because the upstairs stairs and the basement stairs overlapped with only a wobbly banister in between a fall of several feet (I'm scared of heights).

We measured, we sketched, my sister and my DH went through the whole house with a very critical eye (my sister is way more critical than I could ever be). Then we looked at the other 7 houses. Some of them were complete duds, one of them was gorgeous on the inside but had no curb appeal, had weird wires trailing along the front of the house, and was in a neighborhood where I did not feel safe, and one of them had potential but potential that would have cost a lot more than we were willing to spend plus again with the sketchy neighborhood. As far as I can tell, Suitland seems to be very hit or miss when it comes to the individual neighborhoods.

So that evening the three of us went out for dinner and discussed the pros and cons of the first house in detail. We discussed the furniture my mother had offered to give us (a piano and couch set my parents have had for years) and if or how it would fit into the house. The repairs we wanted to make. I was mentally moving in. I called our realtor to let her know we wanted to put in an offer and didn't hear back from her until the next day. She told us that the bank had received several offers on the house and was no longer accepting any more. I was completely crushed. I felt like crying, I felt like nothing was ever going to be good or wonderful again. Our house would never be ours. I told DH and he was equally crushed. After much consolation, I finally started to see that there might be some good to be gleaned from the situation. Like the fact that we knew which neighborhood to look in now. And I proceeded to look for every house in our price range and with our specifications in that same neighborhood.

On Tuesday, DH had an interview. He is currently a line cook, working for an upscale restaurant. He had a chance to interview for an executive chef position and was told to pitch his idea for the restaurant. The restaurant doesn't even exist yet, it's literally an empty shell. We'd both worked on the idea for days, he focusing on the food, I focusing on the design. We made visuals, I gave him pep talk after pep talk, and I waited anxiously to hear back about how the interview had gone. They loved it! They loved his idea and even went and grabbed the blueprints of the restaurant to show to him. And they wanted him to send them a whole menu (he'd come up with a few dishes to show them the direction he wanted to take things). So we worked on that after he came home on Wednesday and were both so elated when he sent it off this morning.

Then I got the news that our realtor wanted to stop working with us. All legitimate reasons: too far of a commute to look at houses, didn't know the areas we were looking in, kept getting lost, potential jury duty at the end of the month, etc. I'm probably the world's most insecure person, because my first thought was... did I do something wrong? Was I too pushy? Did I expect too much? Then I became angry... was our price point not high enough for her? It's not like I wasn't completely upfront about our price, the locations we wanted to look in, our expectations, our past experiences with realtors and all of that. She at least said she would refer us to a couple who does work in the areas we're interested in, so hopefully we won't lose too much time.

On top of everything, I've been sick since Thursday, and I haven't been able to sleep well due to constant coughing fits while lying flat. Quite frankly these lows and highs, this emotional rollercoaster is making me feel exhausted. Enough already.