House Hunt

 Dan and I have lived downtown condo style for a few years now and we decided we would like to buy a place of our own. We have been house hunting since the beginning of January. Seriously, I bet we have looked at 50 houses in the last 6 months and with the exception of one townhouse we weren't able to buy, we just haven't found "the one". It's not that we are picky, but it's a big investment and we want it to meet our needs.

I have to admit Dan and I are somewhat on different pages as to what we are looking for, but have come to compromise a few times with houses that we like. We are finding it difficult to find a nice looking home downtown Indianapolis that meets our needs and our budget.

We have seen several houses that we have such great ideas for. I wouldn't consider us fixer uppers so when it comes to remodeling or changing things in the house we will need some help. Ideally we would like a low maintenance home, which is difficult to find in the downtown area with mostly older homes. The ones that have been remodeled are completely out of our price range.

As our rental lease approaches we are getting more and more anxious. Unfortunately, this is also the time of year that people place their homes on the market as we learned this weekend.

On Saturday we met again with our realtor (bless his understanding and persistent heart) to go see a few more houses. We happened to drive by one for sale and decided since it was empty we should go see it. Turns out it was beautiful! We fell in love! I can't tell you how fabulous this house was. It had gleaming hardwood floors, updated kitchen, beautiful fenced back yard, screened in porch, great neighborhood and only slightly out of our budget. It was the first house we have both seen and immediately wanted to put an offer on. We calculated how we could make it work and were ready to move in that day if we could.

And then we got our hearts broken. The house had only been on the market for 8 days and already had an accepted offer on it. Unless a miracle happens it will never be ours. :( I've been sad, fondly thinking of the outdoor parties we could have had with our kitchen doors open to the screened in porch and Pancho running around the yard.

I knew this would happen. I have so often heard stories from other people falling in love with houses and then losing the house one way or another. It's heart breaking when you start imagining yourself living somewhere and the future memories you will make there. So I guess we will move on and continue to look. Wish us luck in our continued house hunt.

Indianapolis Neighborhood map. Taken from Urban Indy