The Art of Househunting

King Neptune Statue on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront

So Colin and I have been in Virginia for exactly eleven days and I'm proud to say I can get to Target and back without getting lost! Other than the Food Lion (Colin calls it the Food Kitty), those are pretty much the two places I've really been to. It's progress right?

When Colin hasn't been at work we've been house hunting. Hard. We spent a week here in February looking at places, about 30 of them. After returning last week we saw about 15-20 more. Everything from foreclosed 3,000 square foot detached homes in the burbs to four story stand-alones on the beach. Ultimately we decided to put an offer on a house in a neighborhood that in my opinion, is awesome.

Working at Norfolk, Colin has a tough commute. I won't even begin to imagine how many thousands of people drive to that base every day. Too many! Being an older city; good, safe and affordable neighborhoods are few and far between which has forced us to look further out. It's funny because we originally came to Norfolk thinking: Let's buy a detached, 2-3 car garage, 3-4 bedroom house with a moderate sized yard and maybe a cul-de-sac. Growing up in overpriced Southern California I figured we could easily find that. Well we decided on an attached, 1 car garage, 3 bedroom townhouse with a tiny yard (even that is a stretch). I fell in love with the neighborhood. It's new, gorgeous and next to a golf course. Having mansion sized homes in the neighborhood doesn't hurt either. :)

The good news is they accepted our offer and we're waiting on the inspection this coming week. Still, I refuse to get my hopes up too high for the time being, you never know what can happen in the contract process. If all goes to plan I will finally get to decorate my very own house which I've been dreaming about for way too long. I admit I keep a file in my Iphoto library of home and garden pictures I come across. Colin thinks I'm nuts but then again, he still misses his bacheloresque black leather couches and glass and lacquer coffee table. Oh my.

So hopefully by my next post we'll have some good news from the homeowner front!