A couple of weeks ago, Bruce and I started on a journey we didn't know we were going to go on. For fun we visit open houses on the weekends. Mostly we just look as anything in our price range is too small for us and anything that would fit our needs is out of our price range. That is why we had talked with someone about an addition to our house. The thought was we would add space by building out toward the back yard, four feet down with a raised basement and level above it. Then we saw a house, just like our house, but it had a full basement already. We called a realtor, and *presto* we have officially begun a house hunt.
The housing market here last year was absolutely nuts. Prices skyrocketed with houses more than doubling in price. Prices are still crazy. However, we were very fortunate that we bought our house before the prices made their steep climb. And last year, the market was definitely in the seller's favour. This year is a different story. The market is flooded with houses being listed. People have time to get the house they want. I always thought it was ridiculous that in order to buy a house last year you had to make a snap decision, overbid, and have no conditions. If I'm going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, I don't want to "impulse" buy! Like I said - NUTS! But because things have changed, we are rethinking the renovations. The costs to add onto our house will probably be extremely high because building costs are up considerably in and around the City. The advice we've been hearing has been moving may be better than renovating.
In order to buy a house, we will have to sell our house. I'm glad we are in a position where we don't have to move. We are also being fairly particular about wanting to stay in the same area. We love the school our kids are in and don't want them to have to switch schools. This has narrowed down our options slightly. But like I said, we don't have to move. So any offer we put in on a house will be conditional to our being able to sell our house. Which, with the buyers market, may or may not happen.
In any case, we have decided to start getting our house ready to sell in the event we will need to list it. Some of the little things that needed fixing have been worked on. Bruce has been cleaning up a storm. Items are being packed up and hauled out to the garage for storage (the reasoning is, we are looking for a bigger house and then we'll have room!) We started painting the kitchen last night. I really like the colour. It's the same colour as it was before, just MUCH lighter. Right from day one I didn't care much for a dark kitchen. The lighter colour really lightens up the whole room. I had intended to change the walls entirely to the same colour as most of the rest of the house, but Brendan convinced me to stick with green (it's his favourite colour). Bruce thinks it looks blue - but I like it. Tonight I'll do the second coat.
And all this is happening in the midst of regular, crazy busy life continuing. Although I said to Bruce, it's funny how I've wanted to do all this stuff before, but it has taken the motivation of possibly moving to actually get it done. Maybe now we will have to stick around for a while!
