This is it

As you may have heard, we found a place that is just perfect for us. More details will follow, but for now, I'll just discuss a few of the high points. First though, a feature that this house does not have is walkability. There are no restaurants or stores within practical walking distance (ten minutes). Being downtown, however, nearly everything (including work) is within ten minutes driving distance, which is fantastic. And although there aren't any businesses for us to walk to, there is an off-leash dog park (the only one downtown, in fact) that is in walking distance. Also, the neighborhood is beautiful, scenic and quiet, which is ideal for the dogs. Even better is the back yard which, if not huge, is fenced in. So Lux and Julian can have the time of their lives there.
Other features include: gas heat, a gas stove, a (operational) gas-log fireplace, a washer and dryer, a basement, an attic, hardwood floors, a carport, new windows, a screened porch (complete with porch swing) and a brass railing with a "W" monogram. It was meant to be!

We spent Friday and most of Saturday wracked with nervous doubt as our credit and background checks cleared. Of course there is no reason that there should be a problem, but still - you never know. And now we know. We are signing the lease tomorrow and moving in August.

Pictures and more details will follow.

Catch and release: pictures!

Here are some pictures of yesterday's heartbreaking, soul-crushing, emotionally draining search for a new house. These pictures are of two houses and are in no particular order. We said no to both - one decision was easy, one was not. But now on the other side of that decision, we are very glad with the choice we made. We are looking at three more places tomorrow - fingers crossed!

Catch and release

This week has been a flurry of house hunting activity. We saw one house on Monday and two more on Tuesday. One of the houses was actually pretty good, which was more of a problem than a benefit. Because it basically fit the profile of what we were looking for, it was automatically at the top of our list. But it also lacked... I hate to use the term, but it lacked an "X Factor." You know, it didn't have much in the way of anything special. But because it had met all of our requirements, it was very difficult to say no. But after much agony, we eventually did say no. It is far too early in the search to commit to a house that we are not wild about. House hunting - even rental house hunting - is a very nerve-wracking game, because houses don't just come off of the line (some do, I guess, but we're not interested in those) and the benefits aren't strictly comparable. As a result, the Perfect House may not exist. Or there may be many Perfect Houses and even more Perfectly Adequate Houses. And they are all coming down a conveyor belt and once you say no to one option, that opportunity may well be gone for good.

Man - if searching for a rental is this stressful, I can't imagine what it's going to be like when we look for a purchase in three years! Yikes!

Foggy Monday

Saturday was packed full of downtown Raleigh goodness. We went to the Farmers Market and had breakfast and picked up some fresh squash and onions. The Farmers Market is huge - when we live closer (and no matter what we find for housing, we will certainly be closer), we will be able to go to there as an actual regular produce market. They sell fresh baked goods, fresh local goat cheese and local honey in addition to the local fruits and vegetables - many of which I have never seen before.

After that we went and checked out houses. There was a pair of houses we had marked out specifically to visit, but after seeing both of those (both were good, each had pros and cons and they both depend on seeing the interior) we moved on to driving up and down and in and out of neighborhoods. Now that we have a large list of prospects, it is getting very exciting. We're starting to think about painting, which we did not do at the Mill (thank goodness!).

The benefits to moving into town are tangible and exciting - not only will we have quick access to restaurants and coffee shops and Whole Foods and, in a year, a new Trader Joe's (the one that is here is in Cary and not exactly convenient), but we'll also be in a neighborhood with people. Not that the Mill doesn't have people, but they are kind of reclusive. They are the kind of people who enjoy living in relative isolation (there's a Super Target ten minutes away, so it isn't quite the middle of nowhere) and not really fun to spend time with. However, there are also some things that we'll lose by moving. Things like this beautiful morning, as you can see below, will be missed.

Not yet

Another near miss - or is it a near hit? We found a place that may well have been perfect but at the last minute turned out to be... um, not available. So that was disappointing. Because we're both obsessive and paranoid, we're having a hard time remembering that this is pretty much the absolute earliest possible time we could start looking. The fact that we haven't found a suitable place to live after less than a week of actual research isn't cause for concern.

Hunting Season

Over the past twelve years I have lived in eight different locations. Some moves were short (from one apartment in Lake Ivanhoe Shores to another) and some were long (Winter Park to Wake Forest). None have been easy, none have been cheap. There has been a compelling reason for each move - I consider each one to be an upgrade of some kind. I've never lived in a single place for longer than two years. Lake Ivanhoe Shores is nearly an exception, but although we stayed there for four years, we moved from a one-bedroom unit to a two-bedroom unit. Our house on Kentucky Ave in Winter Park was fantastic. Although it had some very real problems (terrible AC, windows that didn't open, rats) it also had some very real benefits (location, architecture, plenty of space, yard care) that I really miss. I think that, if we had not moved to Raleigh, we might have stayed there for several years. That might have been the last house we ever rented before buying. Clearly things did not work out that way and although I do miss that house, I am very happy with the course that our lives have taken.

So here we are in Raleigh, living in an old mill with rough stone walls, high ceilings and in the middle of nature. As with everything else, there are pros and cons. And without the least bit of bitterness toward the Mill, I am happy to announce that the time for us to move is nearly upon us... yet again. We still have a few months left at the Mill, but the search for a new home is officially underway. We're looking for another rental. We've heard all of the arguments for buying a house, but we just don't feel prepared for it. The plan (there is one, believe it or not) is to find a place fantastic enough to stay for three or four years while we save money for a reasonable down payment for a house. We visited our first prospect on Friday. Sadly it was not for us, but not to worry - there are plenty more where that came from.

Although moving itself is a hassle - a real, literal physical struggle and emotionally stressful - I always look forward to the exciting elements, such as finding a new grocery store and a new route to work. And in this case, since we'll be moving much deeper into Raleigh, we get a whole city to explore on a completely different level. At the moment, we go into Raleigh often enough - I go in practically every day for work, in fact - but it is not convenient to go shopping or out to eat. We live outside of the city, and this distinction is much more significant than it is in Orlando.

We'll keep everyone up to date on our house hunting adventures!