Charts and Checks- an update on our move.

In case anyone is wondering, I am STILL in San Antonio. Nope, we haven't moved yet, and although I've been saying this for four months now, we expect to move in about a month-at this time it looks like it will be sometime around the 15th of July.

I've become completly obsessed with house hunting. As anyone who knows me for even an hour can tell you, I am ready to get out of this house that we outgrew 3 kids ago, and the reality of finally getting a new home is HUGE to me. So I spend hour after hour researching our new destination of Phoenix AZ. Phoenix is enormous, and when I first started my search I had no idea of where to look. Where are the desirable areas? Which schools should we avoid? What are the neighborhoods like? I have so many questions!

Luckily, I have a couple of friends to steer me in the right direction, as well as the fabulous internet. Suzi, one of my high school classmates, lives there and she has been key in helping me narrow down the search. She also hooked me up with a great realtor named Jeff Duncan. I haven't met him face to face yet, but so far he has been incredibly personable and helpful, and I can tell that he is committed to helping us find the house that will be our home.

I'll be going on a house hunting trip very soon, with the intention of securing a house in only two days. Oh my gosh I'm so excited! I'm the kind of person who house hunts for no reason-I drive neighborhoods, stop in at open-houses, and generally window shop even when we have no plans to move. The idea of actually looking to find one is like going to Disney World for me, and I am 100% prepared. I have charts and maps, color-coded and organized to perfection:







So far, there hasn't been a single house that is perfect in every way. If it has all the features we want, it is out of our price range. Of those we can afford, we will have to give something up, something important like the number of bedrooms or bathrooms (critical with a family of 6), or the distance Chip will have to drive to work, or grass in the backyard (can you believe many houses don't have ANY? It's the desert, ya know).

And now I'm terrified that one of my top picks will be taken before I can get there. Terrified is not too strong a word, either, as evidenced by my obsessive computer checks every hour to make sure they are all still activly listed. We just lost one yesterday. I mourned the loss of my possible home. There is, however, a silver lining-new houses get added every day as well.

In fact, I think I'll check in now...because you never know!