House Hunters

We have been living with Matt's parents since the week of Thanksgiving. For the most part we have all made the transition fairly seamlessly. There are definitely days that I feel bad for my in-laws, we are a lot to handle in the late afternoon! There are other days when I feel bad for the kids, it has got to be hard to have five grownups talking to/at you at any given time. Matt seems to be handling the commute and his new work schedule really well. He leaves Maine on Monday morning around 9 and gets to work by 11. On Monday night he stays at a friend's house near his office, works early on Tuesday morning and is back in Maine by dinner time. On Wednesday he works from home and then repeats the M/T schedule on TH/F. The kids and I are pretty darn excited when he walks through the door on Friday evening.

I am a creature of habit and it has been hard for me to go without any semblance of a routine for the past 7 weeks. The holidays are definitely partly to blame, with siblings in town and various grandparents on vacation no one was really in their normal routine. This last week everyone went back to work and a week from today my brother flies back to VA. I'm not exactly sure what the kids and I will do with ourselves but establishing a routine is high on my list. Lily is enrolled at a preschool so we do have a least a little structure. Aside from everyone being on vacation I am finding it a little hard to really get into a routine because just like our old house we are living with one foot out the door. I would like to settle down here but there are several other surrounding towns that we are looking at and making friends is hard enough without feeling like everything could be temporary. I am really hoping we love our new neighbors, whoever they may be!

Having just sold a house I think we are very sympathetic buyers. We waited until this past weekend to start scheduling showing because I thought it was really unfair to ask people to let us traipse around their home the week before Christmas. We take our shoes off, take our time to look around, and then leave everything just as we found it. You wouldn't believe how many people came in to our home and made a mess or broke something. And this is the part were I count my blessing again that the home selling process is behind us! (I promise the epic moving post is coming this weekend)

So here are the criteria for the dream house hunt:

3 bedrooms is a must but we would prefer 4
A large yard where we can put in a pool
A playroom/bonus room where the kids can bring their friends (now and in 10 years)
A mudroom or entryway where we can drop our winter gear

That's it. I would like first floor laundry but as long as the basement isn't a dungeon I can live with lugging the basket.

Matt has a few other things he would like. He is a sucker for a great front porch and would like some land but we have come to the conclusion that even an acre is a lot of space. We would both like to have a wood stove but again, that isn't a deal breaker.

We have seen a few houses in our hometown that we really liked. This weekend we are heading north about 30 minutes to look at a bunch of properties in a few surrounding towns. The inventory isn't great this time of year but we are hoping that we can find a place and close before the spring when inevitably home prices and interest rates will rise.

I'll keep you posted, keep your fingers crossed that our dream house is out there just waiting!