Where is HGTV when you need them?

We are house hunting. We have been house hunting for the last few months. We are house hunting and it is not cute and fun like the HGTV House Hunters show. We did not look at 3 good viable options and pick what was best. We looked at a good solid 20+ in person and went through a good 300+ online. We found TWO viable options. Two. We put offers on both of them. Stress.

Let me tell you about Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads. It is a military area. There are 1.5 million people crammed into a small area. Most were/are military. This area exploded in the 80's and was not planned well. So houses are thrown up next to each other and have not been changed since the 80's. Housing is ridiculously expensive for what you get. Ridiculous. You need to start in at least the high 200's for a decent house/neighborhood. Otherwise you go farther out for decent neighborhood and houses. The town homes around here are so horrible you can barely stand to look at the outside. I seriously get panicky when we drive through some of them. Imagine 4-6 member families, all their vehicles and toys and bikes living in the ugliest town homes you have ever seen crammed next to 60 other homes on a block. That is typical Va Beach living.

So, looking for an adequate home has not been fun. Most of the homes in our price range are short sales. Short sales are notorious for taking months and months and sometimes falling through. The bank has more short sales than they know what to do with and if the seller's agent is not aggressive than they will fall through. That's happened with us. We found a home we liked and felt good about and put in an offer. Nothing happened. The agent would not call our realtor back. A bank proprietor was not assigned. We kept looking in the mean time. Our closing date was today. We still have not heard from the house and our contract is now void. I really thought it was our house.

We found a second house that was two blocks from the first. It is actually perfect for us. It fits our needs and we would only need to paint it. It is at the very top of our price range, but is a regular sale, which means we could close and qualify the $6,000 tax credit. Plus we can move before I am too enormous and fat to do anything.

Some one put an offer on it an hour before they were to look at our contract. We had to re negotiate and pray our offer was better than the other offer. Stress.

Where is HGTV when we need them? Why are we not sitting at a cute cafe, sipping lattes and waiting for the " You got the house!" phone call. I am pretty sure no one is going to decorate a whole room for us either. I think I would rather be in a t.v show than to be in real life.

Maybe we will have a cute little house with a huge backyard. Maybe will be stay in our little condo and cram another little baby into it. Maybe HGTV will come to my rescue.

Spring means

...a beautiful Saturday morning stroll through the zoo...

K

There has a been a whole lot of kicking going on around here. Kicking, twisting and bouncing around. Baby likes to kick when I am trying to rest and relax. Baby especially likes to kick at bedtime for a good solid 20-30 minutes. He has definitely made his presence known!

There has also been a non-stop work on the kitchen. We have a sink and dishwasher back and they are installing the counter tops as I write. We just need to get the cabinets refinished and painted and the wall paint to be touched up. A month long kitchen repair. I can't wait to have a finished kitchen.

Kissing. Lots of kissing is going on around here. Jack likes to give kisses. Not just cute little kisses. He likes the dramatic, face grabbing, heading shaking, on the mouth regardless of what his mouth looks like kisses. He also makes a long "mmmmmmmmm" noise while he kisses. Dramatic and way over the top, but oh so wonderful. You don't mind the substances that are left behind when you are given such a kiss. These are very Hollywood worthy kisses.
He also likes to kiss my belly, thus kissing "Hi Baby!". The cat is NOT a fan of kisses. He stays a few feet away at all times, especially during kissing time. Jack has also started to understand kissing Mommy right away before she sees what mischief he caused MAY help him out. Silly smart boy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Kicking, kitchens and kisses... pretty much sums up life this week.

It's a...

....Bouncing Baby Boy!


This kid has really been bouncing around a LOT for the last few days! He is super sweet with long fingers like his momma and long toes like his daddy. He also was flexing his muscles at us, to make sure we knew he was a big, strong boy. Jack is going to have a little brother to befriend and we are very excited.

I foresee a lot of running, laughing and special momma kisses in my future.

One more little man to add to my little brood.

Pink or Blue

This Wednesday we find out if our little "Lenni" is a boy or a girl! I am 20 weeks along today and half way through this pregnancy already. It has gone by really fast.

People ask if I have an idea of what we will have. I have no idea. People ask me if I have a preference. I don't. I honestly do not care if it is a boy or a girl.

Jack wants a sister. When we ask him if the baby is a girl or a boy, he always says "irl". When asked if he wants a sister or brother, he says "seeser". Maybe he knows something that we do not. Maybe he just like girls. Maybe he can't say brother. Who knows?

I feel pretty much the same as I did when I carried Jack. I am carrying high again, like I did with Jack. At the 16 week appointment the heart rate was 153.

So... what do you think girl or boy? Pink or Blue?

Vote here --------->

IRL

This is what my kitchen looks like...in real life. 2 1/2 weeks later. The good news? We get new counter tops, we are re-finishing our cabinets and the contractors are painting the kitchen. The bad news? This is my current kitchen.