We’ve been in Middletown, PA for over two years. Come December, we’ll have been here twenty-seven months. We lived in Ellensburg for twenty-seven months. We lived in Newport for eleven months, also in Mechanicsburg for eleven months, and in New Cumberland (together) for just shy of three years.
      Why do I bring this up?
      Because once again, we’re moving.
      T&R, who have been amazingly wonderful to us during this crazy year with Mark in school and then out of work and having had a pre-stroke warning event… but they’re tired of the city, they’re tired of this house (which has way more wrong with it than it has right with it), her dad is sick, and their kid needs other kids around. So they’re going to do Christmas here, but then they’re moving down to North Carolina.
      Which is GREAT for them. The kid will have cousins and friends his age, they’ll be able to help her parents, and T gets to transfer within his company.
      But it is STRESSFUL for me. And Mark, a little.
      We’re going to try something insane.
      I guess buying Blondie emboldened us.
      Because we’re looking to buy a house. BUY. Purchase. Go in extreme debt. Yay…?
      It is terrifying to me. I worry hourly that something catastrophic will happen and one of us will be out of work for weeks/months and we’ll lose Blondie AND the house. I mean, every single time we’ve been in a good place financially… we end up screwed by life.
      But we can’t not live because we’re scared something might happen. Right? We can’t live in that fear. That’s why we waited so long to get married, and why we’ve waited so long to have a kid, and all that. Because we keep waiting for the RIGHT time and that means we miss out…
      No more.
      So since we HAVE to move anyway, we’re looking at some beautiful homes trying to find something we can actually afford and buy and move into…
      Such as this house, on Yellow Breeches (our favorite, so far!):

      Or this one, on Limekiln Rd, near our old place in New Cumberland.

      Or this one, literally three doors down from our good friend, Paul:

      See the lovely hardwoods and such? This is the sort of thing we HOPE to find in our price range… hardwood or laminate floors. A good-sized kitchen. Two bathrooms. A basement for gaming. Hot!

      Anyway – what do you think? We’re excited, scared, nervous, eager… And we don’t want another dump (like our trailer) so we’re worried about how to pay for inspections and fines and fees and all that jazz. But we’re fairly sure we’ve got our “big” requirements settled. We require TWO bathrooms, minimum. We want a good-sized kitchen. A basement for gaming is fairly high on the list (though other rooms with gaming applications would be acceptable. We are pretty sure we’d like 3 bedrooms. Hardwood/laminate floors (or at least, a minimum of carpet to replace later on) would be nice, but we can always work on replacing them over time. A pool, that is highly desirable for BOTH of us. In fact, the Yellow Breeches house above (which we looooove) has a nice in-ground pool.
      I would love a more “rural” setting where I can raise chickens. But…
      Not too far out because we’ll have just one car and going to the grocery store can’t become an all day event.
      What else?
      Gas heat and central air, if possible. But lots of these older houses have coal/oil/steam… old crappy heating systems. I want to avoid those.
      We have our own W/D, but if they convey and they’re nice, yay. We want a dishwasher. We’d like a fenced yard for Venna (and future brother, Cheese).
      Definitely, we have to have room for Cheese (and Bacon, the pretty kitty I am going to adopt!).
      …yeah, it is pretty stupid, I guess, as a list. But the big things are two bathrooms, dishwasher, and the heating-type. Also, whatever the inspector says.
      Wherever we buy, we want to stay for at least 5 – if not 30+ – years. We want a decent home at a decent price in a decent location.
      Wish us luck!

Note: Image is “Moving Box” by (CBIDesign) from SXC.hu