House Hunting: You can't always get what you want.....

We looked at that "lovely house down the street" that Sunday and a number of times thereafter.  There were so many wonderful period details that were restored in the home. The paint was matched, corner cupboard reproduced and had a hearth that you could really cook a meal in!  The kitchen was stunning although I thought not practical for a real cook.  The tiger maple counters were like nothing I had ever seen before.  We went home and dreamt about what it would be like to live there and Dave made sketches of where the gardens and chicken coop would go.  My letterpress studio would be in the basement and Dave's work shop in the garage.  It could all be happily ever after...... We also thought it was an omen that the same ship weathervane that haunted me in my mom's back yard since my childhood was also at this house.  We pulled out the old weathervane at our house for good luck.  Dave arranged to get the cottage we owned put up for sale and we kept our fingers crossed.  But nothing happened......

As time progressed I kept thinking about the "dream house" and the 2 flights of stairs to manuver.  When you enter the house there is an immediate flight up to the kitchen (unless you use the front door literally onto the street).  I thought that was not wildly practical for a couple with 3 dogs who run in and out all day long.  How would I take food down to eat outside?  We are indoor/ outdoor people.  I like to bring my coffee out to the patio in the morning to assess the day and oggle the chickens.  This fight of stairs was a bummer.

We continued to look at other houses for sale.  Had a second runner up in case the first "grand" house fell through.  All the houses we looked at were very nice and very expensive.  It also seemed that each represented a compromise from what we really wanted.  I could not get past the fact that we own a charming little antique house on a nice lot that just needs some love.  All these other houses had owners that put some dollars into them, why couldn't we?  Every time I brought it up to Dave there was a frowny face and the uttering of the words "NO".  Somehow I had to get this to change.....

Every morning since October I have gotten up and looked through the new listings on Realtor.com.  My eyes burned from this activity.  I looked at houses way out of our price range to see if there was anything at any price I could see myself living in.  I looked up listings of the Realtors that I knew to see if there was anything I missed.  One such listing was in Madison and wow, it was exactly what I had been searching for- although unattainable in our budget and too far from here, but at least I had seen the future.