Home sweet home

I know some of you might read the title of this and think that we found a new house! ...But we didn't. I am just referring to being back in the Lone Star State for good, and I wanted to give you guys an update on our trip and how the house hunting is going. Saturday we left at about 8:30 a.m. and said goodbye to mom, Erin, Kellen and Bonnie, who were waiting until a little later to leave our house because they didn't want to be sitting at the airport with K & B for hours before their plane left. We had a great time with them. I was wondering how well it would work for them to be here until the actual day I moved from Arizona, wondering if I would be a good hostess or too stressed out to think about having fun. It worked out well. It actually gave me a great reason to see a lot of the really cool stuff in Arizona that I will miss not being an hour or two away from, like the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Jerome. Most of you have probably heard of the first two places I mentioned, but if you ever get a chance to visit those, go to Jerome also. It's a really neat little eccentric ghost town that is full of artisans and literally built on the side of a mountain. We only got to drive through Jerome on our way back from Sedona because it started pouring rain on us. We actually had to pull over for a while so the rain would let up enough that we could drive in it on the curvy mountain road. Anyway, it was a good trip. We got Erin started on playing Scrabble and the last night they were there we made S'mores and played Scrabble and laughed a lot...a great way to spend my last night in Prescott. Anyway, I'm really glad they came, and now I'm really glad I'm back in Texas. At each state line I would turn around and say "Bye Arizona" and "Bye New Mexico," although I know I'll be back to New Mexico pretty often since that's where CBH is. But I didn't even cry when we left Prescott, which is a good sign because I bawled for hours when we moved from College Station 2 1/2 years ago. Luckily, Chad was driving the U-Haul then and I was driving my own car so he didn't have to listen to it.

So the drive on Saturday was bearable. It took us 11 hours with stops. Chad and I used to be under the impression that we shouldn't stop very often because then we would get there quicker and wouldn't have to be in the car as long. Now, we take a different approach: better to spend 30 more minutes on the road with snacks and an empty bladder than try and be a hero about it. So we stopped a few times (but only once to fill up on an almost 800-mile trip...a plug for hybrids) and were pulling into Lubbock at about a quarter to 10. First stop: Freebirds. Chad was so one-track minded about the burrito he was going to get that he was literally not listening to a word I said. Then he would make the same comment a few minutes later and I would say "I just said that" and he would say "Sorry, I'm thinking about my burrito." So we took our burritos to Celia's house and visited with Celia, Celia's son Kelly, and Kelly's girlfriend Mackenzie for a while. We will be staying with Celia and her husband Lynn until we find and close on a house, which will hopefully be sooner rather than later. If we don't find one in this first batch we may need to find a place to rent so we don't outstay our welcome. Anyway, they are very gracious hosts and Celia lets me use the computer to feed my blogging habit, so I'm quite happy right now! :)

By the way, on our way into Lubbock we drove by the new drive-in theater. It looks like a lot of fun and we'll have to check it out soon.

So on to what most of you really care about, the house hunting. We looked at about 11 houses yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure of the exact number because I lost count after a while and most of them don't really matter. We found a couple promising ones, but I still feel like the house we are going to buy is still out there and we haven't seen it yet. At least three of those 11 houses that we looked at looked pretty nice on the internet, but unless you have a scratch and sniff computer monitor, you couldn't tell that they all smelled really bad like cigarette smoke. Hmmm...maybe THAT'S why the house was vacant and the realtor had written "Seller motivated! Bring ALL offers!" on the MLS sheet. There was one really creepy house that reminded me of a house we looked at when my family moved to Austin in the early '90s...kind of a goth, dark feeling to it. This house was obviously built in the '70s judging from the wetbar with metallic wallpaper in it. They didn't show a picture of that on the preview sheet...I wonder why. It was vacant...kind of. They had left a mattress and box springs (ew!), a dining table, and their old nasty refrigerator...oh yeah, and three cats in the backyard. We're thinking about going for a second look today...not. So I've told you about most of the bad ones, which got me discouraged, but everyone who's ever gone house hunting knows there are way more bad ones than good ones, so I think we still have hope. We found two houses that we both liked. We both REALLY liked one that was a little above our price range (such is life, right?) but we wouldn't really have to do much to it at all besides a little paint, it's got a huge master bedroom with a double lavatory and big closet, and the other two bedrooms are a good size. Plus, the second bathroom also has two sinks. It also has a deck in the backyard and is in a really nice neighborhood. So, that one is one that we are keeping in mind. The other one has three bedrooms, and two baths with a bonus room which Chad and I were already thinking of things we could do with it. This one had more cosmetic issues...like there were 5 kinds of flooring in the house which really bothered me. We'd have to put new flooring in, and I would want to change the kitchen countertops and cabinets. But, this house was significantly less expensive, so that is also an option as well. It was also in a good area.

So was that too much detail? Probably not, for the loyal C & L's adventures readers. In a couple hours we will resume our search and I think we'll see about 20 houses today. Maybe we'll even put an offer on one! Keep us in your prayers. A lot of people have told me that I would just walk in a house and know it is "the one," but I'm not sure that's how I operate...that, or I haven't found "the one" yet. But I do know that the first house I talked about that we liked had to grow on me, and now I really like it.

Stay tuned for more updates.