In which we get our dream house.

Well.

Of course we got it.

You really think a couple of realtors and a pair of homeowners would stand in the way of two Ironmen who know what they want?

It looks ordinary, but it's not. It's a sage-green, stucco home with a brand new roof and brand-new stucco. It has a brand-new interior all chosen and decorated by people with taste. Not that we don't have taste. We're just not creatively tasteful, most of the time.

Our new cottage sits on a huge, 1/3 acre pie-shaped lot, and on the other side of the back fence is open space, where we go trail running a lot. A bit further beyond that, maybe a mile, is a national wilderness. We'll cut about about 30 minutes off our work commute, once we move into it. This has nothing to do with the wilderness thing and more to do with the fact that we'll be on the complete other side of the city from where we are now, which is where work is.

Sweet Baboo has always wanted land to run around on, and now he has it, I mean we has HAVE it, without the hassle of maintanance and taxes. I have always wanted to live in the city, meanwhile, so living on the very edge of the city, abutting the Sandias, is going to be really, really great.

So there it is: our "adults only" (not in the bowchicaBOWBOW way, but in the all-the-kids-are-grown-and-have-lives-of-their-own sort of way, although I'd never rule out bowchicaBOWBOW way) home. 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a nice little wood stove to cozy up to on winter days. Otherwise, I 'spect we'll be hitting the dusty trails that run by our back gate. Often.

...

It's a soap opera.

At least now, at this point, the biggest drama in my life is whether or not we'll get a house we like, and if that's all the drama I have to deal with, I'll take it.

We went out today, on our day off (Now that we work in the same placeI figure that everything, I mean everything, will be "we" until we're talking simultaneously or sequentially in a cute or slightly creepy way) and looked at houses.

We've found houses near trails. (Funny, so far every house we've looked at has involved us looking at aerial photographs or walking up and down streets to see how close the trails were.)

We've found houses that were cute.

We've found houses that were in nice neighborhoods.

We've found a house with a decent-sized yard.

We saw houses that were closer to work.

But we didn't find a house that encompassed all these.

In fact, most of the houses we've seen have had tiny little yards and at least one of them desperately, desperately needed to be saved from the seventies and at least one house that was so peculiarly modified for its owners tastes that it was just plain weird.

>Sigh.<

So, we went back to the house on the hill near the path that got our attention in the first place. Walked through it again. Noticed how cottage-like it felt. Walked around the huge back yard. Noticed, for the first time, that it had brand-new stucco, as well as the brand new roof. Noticed that, when you're sitting in the living room, it feels like you're outside.

Remarked about how nice it was, after all, to see people headed up the trail, that was so near the house.

And then, well, we made another offer. We've decided that, well, we want this house. It's probably the last house we'll ever live in, and it's turn key. At this point, there's no question of buying it, it comes down to how much of a deal we can get on it.

As soon as we have some sort of deal, I'll post some pictures. Until then, I'm too superstitious to do that.

~~~

Oh, Well.

So, the people weren't ready to accept our price. They counter offered with a price that was still about 40% above market value. Their agent sent us several comps to justify what they were asking, but all her comps were custom homes, and this is a nicely updated late 80s tract home. Big difference. We said no. Their "counter" was pretty ridiculous. They'll sell it, eventually, but probably not for that price. Meanwhile, they'll be paying utilities and payments. More power to them.

So, we'll keep looking around. We are still getting this house ready for an eventual transition, and that includes 2 estimates each from roofing companies (we have a couple of broken roof tiles, no leaking or anything), and some painting and other odds and ends. Today will be a parade of workers trooping in and out to provide estimates. One of them will be answering the burning question: why is there water in the bottom of my dishwasher AND my refrigerator?

I know that appliances, "aren't made like they used to be" but these are 4 years old. I suspect that the fact that Mini-Baboo's main chores are kitchen-based this has something to do with all this. For instance, he made eggs while cleaning the kitchen, in the microwave. Didn't put anything over them. They splattered all over, and then he just left the bowl and splattered egg in their to dry. And don't get my started on his bathroom. Teenaged boys, I'm sorry to say, are disgusting. But you know, it's all good: just 6 more months and then it's "Anchors aweigh, my boys, anchors aweigh!"

Weight: 168
Mood: Cranky.
Other stuff: My back hurts and I feel old.

The house Saga.

So, here's the situation: Baboo and I found this house, well actually he found it, while were out trail running. It backs up to "open space" which is localspeak for designated park land.

It's a good house for us, since we'll be empty nesters in a couple months. It's single story, smaller, which I'm wild about, but nice with recent updates inside. Best of all, it's right off the trail where we like to run, and has a large backyard - did you know Baboo likes to garden? I love, love, love to watch him putter around the garden, putting out birdseed and such. I've missed that in our current house, which has a little walled back yard that is about 20 feet wide and 15 feet deep and COMPLETELY surrounded, mostly by people who don't care about back yards, and are satisfied to just have a back yard full of sand and tumbleweeds.

So anyway.

So this house. Well, it's also about 9 miles from work. We currently live across the Rio Grand about 23 miles away. There are four roads that cross the Rio Grande from home to the VA, so as you can guess, it's about a 45 minute drive, at best.

We did some digging, and figured out that the owners probably originally built it back in the 80s. So maybe they are sentimental, which might explain whey the owners have priced it about 45% above current market value. My wise, analytical husband found out that in this zip code, of all the houses that have sold what the average price per square foot is.

Pricing that high up over is not the way to move a house these days, folks, because I'm telling you that just in Albuquerque alone, a city of just under 500,000 people, there are over 2800 homes on the market, and those are just the ones listed with agents.

So Saturday, we made an offer. It was based on the average price per square foot of recently sold homes in the area, with an additional 25% thrown in for the fact that it borders open space. 2 hours before the deadline, we were asked for extra time, as the owners had been gone all weekend, and said they wanted to comp homes that had sold locally and were near open space so that they could see about a counter offer.

Our realtor did that for us and and sent the results.

There were four.

They average price per square foot was below what we'd offered.

We also know that ours is the first offer they've gotten in the over 70 days the house has been listed.

So, we are waiting to see if they are serious about selling the house or not.

I want this house. We, want this house. It's nice and clean and updated and in a decent little neighborhood. I can totally see myself in it. I love the idea of running, literally, through a small gate in my back yard and hitting some good running trails. I might even get a mountain bike if it call comes together. But we're not going to be stupid about it.
So have you ever bid on something on ebay and then waited, waited, waited?
This is like that. But way more exciting/terrifying/fearful/fullofdreadandworry.

What will they say? What will they do? They can just say no and hold out, if they want.

Aaaggghhh! I hate waiting. I'm just not very good at it.

...

Things I just happen to know today.

1. I started this post during lunch at work on Friday. Right now there's a kid out in the lobby that is one of those kids that, when they're happy, they make that really super high-pitched screaming screetching noise. I tried closing my door but high-pitched sound waves are high-energy. I learned that as a science teacher. Anyway, the screaming comes right through.
   


2. I've lost 5 pounds since I started working here. Kick ASS. One of the things I do about 4 or 5 times each day is run up a flight of stairs and then back down, either to get supplies, or photocopy, or what have you. My butt is going to look GREAT!
   


3. Somebody asked me on my blog about how I consider myself lazy? well, here's your answer: Sometimes I just don't do anything. Nothing. Nada. I didn't do any working out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...I'll try a trail run tonight. I'm REALLY GOOD at it, too. I can do nothing and look extra, extra like I'm doing a whole lot.
   
   
4. After 2 weeks at the VA, I'm just about detoxed from FaceBook, but I still have the occasional craving.
   
   
5. We cleaned out from under our bed. Oh. My. God. I mean, we've only lived here for four years, but: Oh. My. God. There was a lot of loose cat hair, pennies, and for some inexplicable reason, a lot of benedryl tabs.
   
   
6. I've learned how to estimate market value on a house that's for sale. We looked at ones that sold recently in the same area, figured out the average per square foot, and then offered them about 25% over that to make up for the location of this particular house we're looking at.
   
   
7. I also learned that when a "used" house sells, it's appraised. If the appraisal is way below the agreed upon price of the sale, the seller has to be willing to negotiate.
   
   
8. I had a great trail run today (Sunday) . It's the longest continuous run that I've had in about a month. The left leg still hurts, but I can run. I managed about a slightly sub 12 minutes pace over a little over 5 miles, with no hiking or walk breaks.
   
   

Gosh, when I see it written down like that...

October's totals:

Bike: 15 Mi Can you tell I got pretty sick of the bike? This past Saturday was actually the first time I got into a saddle since AUGUST. I had several back bike experiences that really kind of freaked me out. First, there was my tire blowing up at Barb's race. Then there was several times that I fell over while trying to clip in going up a hill. Then there was the couple times I got ditched on rides with other people. I'm going to do indoor cycling for a while. I predict a better season next time.

Run: 52 Mi - My injury is slowly getting better - in fact it felt better this past Sunday than it's felt in weeks. I'm planning to start bringing this up soon, to get ready for my first 50-miler in February at Rocky Racoon.

Swim: 4700 M - I'm in a master's swim class now. We do a minimum of a couple thousand, so look for this number to increase pretty fast.

Wrapping up the 2008 Triathlon season. What did I accomplish?
I did a 25K midnight run in Texas.
I did a 25-mile trail run in Colorado.
I did four marathons, in Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, and Utah.
I did a 50k ultra marathon in Alabama and one in Texas.
I did five sprint triathlons in New Mexico
I did the 1.2 mile swim and the half marathon run at Barb's race.
I did one ironman triathlon in Idaho.
I lost ten pounds, and gained thirteen back. (170 lbs right now)
I lost a dress size, and then gained that back, too. (size 12)
I can do 8 pushups in a row now. (I've been slacking on this. I'll have to get back on the ball if I want to meet my year goal of 10 in a row)
I've just about got my last kid graduated and gone.
I got four black toenails.
I got my first over-use injuries!

Here's my 2008 totals, so far:
Bike: 1644 Miles (2740 km)
Run: 669 Miles (1115 km)
Swim: 32 miles (51,541 M)

Apologies to my international friends. I'll put up KM and KG up soon.

Not bad for a big girl who hates to exercise!

...

Shameless promos from my blog.

1) We're selling our house. Mini-baboo is graduating and joining the Navy, so we no longer need this big old house in the suburbs, and we work completely on the other side of town. We're looking at a house very seriously that is smaller, flatter, backs up to an area that we do trail running on, and has a much shorter commute. I'll have pictures up soon. Of the one I'm selling, I mean. It was built in 2004.

"Staging" is going to be a challenge. We have personalized this house quite a bit, and selling means de-personalizing. And cleaning. Where did all this STUFF come from?

Looks like we'll be buying boxes. And bubble wrap. And tape. And maybe getting a storage shed. I'm actually kind of excited about playing the game, "how-badly-do-you-want-this-nickknack-do-you-want-it-badly-enough-to-pack-it-in-a-box-and-move-it-and-unpack-it?" I played this game ten years ago, and it was liberating. In 1999, I rented a dumpster and filled it three times.

2) I'm flying to Arizona for IM Arizona, so if you want to meet up I'll be there. I'm planning on doing the Gatorade swim the morning before the race before the mandatory volunteer meeting. I'm doing the bodymarking and thenthe women's T1 changing tent, and then I'll spend the rest of the day screaming like crazy, eating junk food, and waving a cowbell.

3) Hmm. There was a third thing, but I can't remember what it is right now. I'll think of it soon...