HOUSE.

OMG YOU GUYS WE'RE BUYING THE HOUSE. YES WE ARE. OMG OMG OMG.

I am DYING with excitement. I mean, obviously we haven't closed yet, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work out, unless there's a financing issue (and we're preapproved, so there shouldn't be) or something horrible comes up during inspection (which I doubt). We went to look at the house again on Saturday, along with another in the same neighborhood, and decided we wanted to make an offer. We made the offer on Sunday, the owner countered two hours later, and we came to terms that night. We weren't planning on buying a house quite so soon. But then again, when I met Torsten I wasn't really looking for a serious relationship, and look how that worked out. If the perfect thing comes along, snap it up, even if you weren't expecting it to happen for a few more months. Right?

We are on a 12-month lease in our current apartment, but we knew we'd likely buy before the end of the lease term and made sure that we could break the lease--and we can, for the penalty of one month's rent.

And you guys, the house is perfect. The other house in the same neighborhood but not next to a highway that we looked at this weekend? It was smaller. It needed a lot of updating. The kitchen was fine, but low-end. The floors weren't great. The rooms were small. The closets were tiny. The whole thing felt wrong. And it cost $120,000 more than ours.

I tried making a pro and con list for our house, but everything was a pro. Even the highway, because it allows us to get a much nicer house in our price range.

We did a lot of research into the highway thing before we made the offer. The sound wall is great, and throws the sound up and over our house--unfortunate for the neighbors a few streets away, but good for us. It blocks particles from coming into the yard, so we don't have to worry about pollution. The decibel level isn't high enough to cause any sort of stress-related illness. We sat in the yard for 10 minutes and by the end, we barely heard the highway anymore. And in the house you can't hear it at all.

And the house. OMG, the house. Torsten took some photos to show his parents, and you can see them here (plus you've already seen a few photos).

The entryway:


The living room, with bay window visible this time:


View from the kitchen into the family room, which the renters are using as a dining room for some reason:


Three quarters of the master bedroom (unfortunately you can't see the GIANT double walk-in closet):


From the back:


You guys, this house has everything. If we had made a checklist of what we would look for in our ideal house, this would be it. For example:

• Five bedrooms. Not necessary, but it allows us to have two kids, each with their own bedroom, and an office for each of us, assuming we both keep working from home long-term.
• A beautiful finished basement.
• Hardwood floors upstairs and down.
• Gorgeous, remodeled kitchen.
• Great neighborhood, about 15 minutes from downtown, with nice houses, quiet streets, lots of families, good schools, and easy lightrail and shopping access.
• Incredibly spacious bedrooms with huge closets.
• Big windows and lots of light.
• Separate formal dining room.
• Two fireplaces.
• All new, beautifully-done bathrooms.
• Two-car garage.
• Big fenced yard with covered patio in the back.
• Brand new roof, two new furnaces, new electrical panel, and new paint. No updates needed for at least 15, and probably more like 25, years.
• A price low enough that if Torsten, the high earner of the two of us, were to lose his job, we'd still be able to cover the mortgage on my salary. It would be tight, but we'd manage.
  

Seriously, you guys, it is perfect in every way. Not only does it have everything we were looking for in terms of location, size, bedrooms, etc., but it is done in a beautiful style that perfectly suits our taste. I never would have thought that we would find such a perfect house, ever, much less so quickly.

Although really it hasn't been so quick, because I've been looking at it since it first came on the market in October, and other listings since even before then. And we first saw it in person almost a month ago. We've been doing tons of research and looking at tons of listings, and we know that this is the house we want.

Assuming there are no snags before we close, we move in in just a month. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG HOUSE.