14 hours is a long drive inside a car.
Tomorrow I begin my adventure house hunting for the right home for my family. Mike has to work each day (locally) while the baby and I bust out as many homes on our list as we have energy for. At the end of the week he will be able to view my final selection so we can get us a home. Our realtor is most excellent, family friend. Hours have been spent on MLS and Builders' sites looking at photos and descriptions. It's like we have been cramming for a test. Only instead of a grade we get this place to live and grow in. Make some friends in, invite family over, make memories, maybe have some more babies in, laugh in, work hard in, teach my kids in. A home is an important place. And although I know as long as it's safe and clean, what goes on inside of it is way more important than what it looks like, I am still nervous of picking the wrong one. Even though that doesn't mean a meteor will crash into it. It's just a space to put our stuff and keep us cool from the freaking heat. Why does it feel so scary?
It's a strange feeling, I don't want to let any of them down. I know ideally what we are looking for and it's a super nice time to be on the buying end of things. I just don't want to be emotionally turned off from a home that is the right layout and overlook something important. Or even better, totally get mixed up and write down the correct notes about the incorrect home and lose the connections in my mind after looking at so many back to back. There is a reason, after all, I chose a career dealing with warm fuzzies (HR) and not rocket science (NASA).
I know what we want and there are things we will certainly learn as it will be our first experience buying a home. It's par for the course. I just hope those mistakes won't be too huge, like a school district that falls apart and turns the children into gang bangers. Or the lot was built on a cemetary like the movie Poltergeist. ZANE GO TO THE LIGHT! Or move in thinking it's all dandy only to find dozens of scorpions stinging my children. Or bats in the attic, you know you saw that show and how the lady went blind from the air quality. The Money Pit, who doesn't recall that one?!
Seriously, though, I have my realitor and tools of advice and research on neighborhoods, schools, crime rates, sex offenders, inspection, etc. in addition to our family wish list for our price range and it will work out more smoothly than I imagine. It's such a funny feeling going into an experience for the first time. You gather up all the conversations together from those whom have done this before, but there are still gaps in understanding of what it's going to be like because everyone has a different experience. Just like going into marriage or parenting, it's so different depending on a gazillion variables that could apply.
No matter what it will rock to have my own parking place for our cars, a garbage disposal, dishwasher, no bathroom next to the kitchen sink, and a yard. Brooklyn does that to a girl. The rest is just butter.
