The Wilhelms on Househunters

So some of you may have seen the show "Househunters," which I assume still exists. Here is our version, bear with me, it's been a while since I have seen it.

The Wilhelms are a family of five looking for a 4-5 bedroom house with a full basement. It needs to be big enough for their family as it exists now, with room for them to grow.

Here is house #1

A stately, 5 bedroom, 2800 sq ft Colonial, in a upper-middle class neighborhood. Small, unfinished basement without egress windows and some leaking. Also, about an hour's drive for Bryan each way to work.
A smaller kitchen with UGLY brown counters and "lousy laminate" counters (that was for you, Keri! I can't remember what you called it, but something like that. For the record, much as I would love something more than laminate, NOT in the budget, so don't think I am a snob.)

Bryan's favorite feature, the second staircase in the kitchen. He and the boys practice the Nerf fights they will have after moving into this house.

A second floor laundry "room," that isn't a room, just in the hall at the top to the kitchen stairs. Would have to add a door to cut down on noise into the kitchen. But would still be nice to not have to lug laundry up and down!

SCARY guest bath. Tiny, oddly-shaped (under stairs) and HORRENDOUS wallpaper! Makes even non- claustrophobic people start to hyperventilate.

The boys bedroom. HUGE!!! (This is less than half). Unfortunately over the garage, so boys would wake daily at 5 a.m. when Bryan left for work.

Window over fireplace, perfect for a Jesus statue.

Main staircase, complete with "bridge" to allow kids better access for throwing things at each other undetected.

Garage. Sort of. Seems to be a wall where car should go. Would have to remove wall, which has been wired. (How to dispose of entire wall? Probably have to rent truck.)

House #2

BRAND NEW Colonial in a new subdivision. 2400 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, no other houses on street. Builder is selling as a short sale. Only about 5 minutes from current house, but in a city with abysmal schools and a very negative connotation. Every says they would not live there. Decent sized, unfinished basement, with large day lite windows.

Bridge open to living room.

Small kitchen, but has nice looking "lousy laminate" counters. Cherry finish cabinets- HUGE PLUS. Bathrooms not only have cherry finish, also have high counters. (Nice, but even harder for kids to use sink.)

House #3

Ugly, dog-hair filled house with only 3 bedrooms and EXTREMELY high utilities. However, a rental, so no chance of losing value. Plus already reside here, so no moving hassle and fees.

Large kitchen with great counters (that are never clean) and horrible cupboard space, but lots of light.

Never have figured out what's with the microwave frame. Seems to be hiding a huge crack in microwave face. (Huge crack would be less hideous.)

Large, fully finished messy basement for kids to play in.

SO... what will they choose?

Will it be house #1, at the top of their price range with the hour commute but 5th bedroom and second staircase?

House #2 that is BRAND NEW with no one else's germs or dirt that is in the unfinished subdivision in the city no one wants to live in? The price is definitely right!

Or will they chose to stay in house #3, and either continue hunting or consider job hunting in another state instead? One preferably without winter???

Would you like to know?

Turns out, we first tried to buy #1, but so did someone else, and their offer must have been better as it was accepted.

So then we tried to buy house #2, for a GREAT price. And the offer was accepted. But the VA said no, because it is an unfinished sub. (Way more complicated than that, but you don't really want the details do you?)

And then, we decided to stay put for the time being and Bryan started applying to other jobs in hopes of getting us away from winter. But things are never what they are planned to be.

The Saturday before Easter, we received a certified letter from our landlord. Curious, right? Turns out he was terminating our lease, and we have to be out by May 31st. Ha Ha HA.

(Our lease was for a year, and is up May 31st, we just had no idea he was going to terminate it.)

So we are now moving into a 800 sq ft, 2 bedroom condo. The 800 includes the basement. The kitchen, dining room, living room, bath and bedrooms is only about 400 sq ft. If you ever saw our place in TX, it is truly about that big with another bedroom squeezed in. But the lady will do a month to month lease, so we can figure out what we are going to do. Selah will sleep in the living room, and we hope not to kill each other, as it redefines small. I am not sure that a family of 5 illegal immigrants would live in such a small space. And we will have people living above us. (I do not like to have people above us in a hotel, much less our residence.) On the bright side, it is WAY less to clean, and we will live near Eric and Tammy. So not only can we hopefully see them more, Bryan and Eric can carpool some, and I just might be able to have the van during the week to have a bit of a life. (With my 3 kids. HA.) We do ask for your prayers, as we feel very lost trying to find our future, but we know God has a plan for us, so we are trying to listen carefully. (If you want to see pictures of the condo, send me an email as they are in a word document and therefor I cannot post them.)

We will keep you updated on our ever-changing and "exciting" life. Never boring, I assure you...