waiting... and bananas

It feels like we've been waiting forever, but really it's only been a week.  Watching House Hunters and Property Virgins has undoubtedly taught us a lot about buying a house, but apparantly it's not true that you can buy one in 30 minutes. 

Our realtor presented our offer to the seller's agent on Saturday.  Then we heard nothing.  Our realtor heard nothing.  So Monday it is.  We went to the open house yesterday and met the seller's agent.  Is that weird?  We just wanted to see the place again.  This time through, 1257 square feet felt a little more like 1257 square feet than the last time we were there.  But nonetheless it's still the cutest little place and I'm starting to realize what it means when people have an emotional attachment to a house.  The agent said he was expecting (but had not received) two other offers.  We went to another open house yesterday for a place in a different part of town (where we don't want to live) and that agent had 10 offers already.  I think we can handle being the first of 3.  We're supposed to hear back from the seller by Tuesday afternoon.  The way this is going, I'll be glad to hear anything by Friday.

In the mean time, we made two fantastic purchases.  The first is literally the best thing I've ever eaten.  Not literally in a Chris Traeger kind of way, but in the literal kind of way. 

TJ's flattened banana.  Amazing!  I got home, ate the rest of the package that I couldn't finish on the way home without hurting myself or others, and found a website telling me how to make it.  Easy!  That's for another blog.

This beauty was our Saturday morning Craigslist score.  50 bucks!!  It could use a little love in the form of sanding and restaining, but it's awesome.  There is a perfect place for it in our hopeful new home.  Unfortunately there is no place for it in our one bedroom apartment, or in our maxed out storage unit.  So it's hanging out in our living room for now.  The bay area seems to be a mecca for mid-century furniture.  Just another reason to love it here!



more house details

So here's the deal on the house.  The seller is from Colorado, but moved here for a two year assignment for work.  They bought the house, knowing all along that they would sell and move back to Colorado.  It went on the market last Sunday (which is when we saw it), and we would have put an offer in that day, but the seller was out of the country.  Now we're told by the seller's agent that he will start accepting offers next Monday.  They are scheduled to have an open house on Sunday.  So we decided to write a preemptive offer and just make it sweet enough for them to see that it would be easiest to go with us instead of waiting.  I included a letter that let them know some about us, especially that we, too, were from Colorado.  They have til 4pm Saturday to respond.

I feel like if it was any other time or place or situation, we might not be so pushy with a deal like this.  I take that back, we definitely wouldn't be so pushy.  It's the hastiness of everything that is freaking me out! 

But for one, we really do absolutely love the house.  It's in a great location and is beautiful and doesn't need any work (which is good because it's at the top of our budget).  Second and more important, the market is awful for buyers right now (here).  With so few houses on the market, the good ones are being snatched up within a few days after getting multiple offers at well over asking price.  We're trying to avoid that situation as much as possible.  As much as we love the house, we're not going to get into a bidding war.  There will be other houses that come along.  Third and probably most importantly, interest rates are at 3.5% again, and we (Randy especially) are hard pressed to get into a mortgage at that rate before they go up at all.  Leave it to Randy to constantly be thinking about how much more we would pay in interest if it goes up to 3.625%. (p.s. it's a surprising amount!)

So that's the deal.  Our realtor is going to try her absolute best to present our offer in person today.  If the agent and seller completely refuse to even look at it, we have to wait til Monday or even Tuesday.  We're just praying.  I feel surprisingly unemotional about the house.  I guess I'm just sort of prepared to lose it, which is what I do to prevent myself from being let down.  Plus I never really thought we would find a house this nice in our price range anyway.  The bottom line is that we trust that God will provide, and we know He's in control.  If this isn't the house He has for us, there will be another one.  Surprisingly level headed coming from me, right?!
What's that?  You want to see more pictures?  Good idea.

On the side of the house in the backyard.  About where Randy's hand is, there is a lemon tree!

More backyard.  We really love the yard.  It's hard to visualize from this, but there is a path behind those first bushes that leads up to a sitting area with a bench.

Front yard. Really beautiful landscaping.

View from another side of the yard.  One of those trees is an almond tree!

Not a great shot, but this is part of the living room with the sliding doors out to the backyard. Yes, it's west facing.  Good thing it has central air!

Hallway. Original hardwoods throughout. 

hunting for a home

We've wanted to buy a home for a long time.  As with everything in life, we've had to wait.  We knew that when Randy got the job out here in San Francisco, we would finally have a chance to find a home and make it our own. 

What we didn't anticipate is the fact that there are maybe four properties on the market at any given time in the area we want to live (and in our price range).  We've expected a small 3 bed/2 bath home and are the least of all things, picky.  We just want a yard and to be less than 10 minutes from the BART.  We're very fortunate and thankful that we are able to get a single family home (hopefully) in this area at all. 

This weekend we saw an old house that needed a complete overhaul inside and out (could be exciting, but not for us).  We saw a house that was decent inside, but had no yard (no thanks), and we saw a house that I adored, but Randy didn't.  Sad face.  But of course, the fourth and last house on the market, we fell hard in love with.

What do you think?  She's modest and cute, and surprisingly, already wonderfully remodeled which we didn't expect to find.  Because there are so few houses on the market, there is a ton of competition and many homes are getting multiple offers exceeding the asking price.  And wouldn't you know, this house is already at the top of our budget.  So we're praying that God will do something incredible.  You can join us. 

See?!  It's so cute!  We were fortunate to be the first to see the property, but we can't put in an offer until Wednesday because the seller is out of the country until then.  Our realtor says we have a lot going for us, so we'll see what happens.
In the mean time, we're doing all we can to get our minds off of this nerve-wracking process.

We spent Sunday morning at the bustling farmer's market in the city, although apparantly I forgot to take a picture of the actual farmer's market.  It's huge!  It's like going to the Costco of farmer's markets with all the samples, only with the best fresh California peaches and apricots, figs (figs!) and plums, cheese and meat and hummus and bread and... you've ever had.  Eat that Costco.  We've got a new tradition.

And had a rockin fried oyster po' boy along the waterfront.  It was a pretty great day pretending to not think about what could be our new home.  :)
P.s. Doesn't Randy look amazing in these new cool shades we got him?!  Just can't keep my hands off him!

What post is complete without Bubba?  It actually got pretty hot one day, and we found him like this in front of the fan, his hair blowing all over.  Sweet boy.