My brain is maxed out. I constantly think about floor plans, room size, colors, storage space, and landscaping. My mind bounces from house to house to house, reliving our walk throughs. I even dream about them.

We’ve spent the last week visiting about 15 houses. Since ours sold, we’ve been in an accelerated mode to find a new one.

We’re getting closer but haven’t quite found that perfect one.

Sometimes I wonder if we’re being too picky. Do we really need a 3-car garage? No but it would sure be nice.

Here’s what we’re looking for in a house:

Must haves:

1. Large, open kitchen – this is a must! We spend much of our time in the kitchen and I want this to be a space that gives us room to move and be together as a family. It also must have lots of cupboard and counterspace. Newer appliances would be preferred as well.
2. Eat-in kitchen and formal dining room – oddly, this is harder to find than you might think. Newer floor plans are eliminating the formal dining room in favor on a more open floor plan. We have an antique dining room table and I want it to have a special space in the house.
3. Main floor or 2nd floor laundry – we’re looking at 2-stories and I do NOT want to have to trudge down to the basement, lugging a basket full of clothes, every time there’s laundry to be done. Non-negotiable.
4. Storage space – one of the reasons we are moving is because we are cramped for space in our current house. More storage is key.
5. Large master bedroom, bathroom – Our master bathroom right now is tiny. So tiny that only one of us can use it at a time. Hence, I use it while CJ uses the main bathroom. It would be great to have a larger bathroom with lots of counter space, double sinks and room to move. Having a large bedroom would be great too. I’ve always wanted to have a comfy sitting area in my bedroom in which to curl up and read a book.
6. Big closets – I’ve never had a walk-in closet and dammit I deserve one! Would be nice for all the bedrooms to have large closets. Isabella’s is half sized right now and we really have to pair down her clothes as a result.
7. Decent sized basement – at least big enough to have a workout room and some storage
8. Fenced yard – can’t have Samson running away!
9. 4 bedrooms – 1 for me and Ceige, 1 for Isabella, 1 for another child in the future and 1 for Samson (or a guest room or an office). Again, we don’t want to be cramped for space!
10. Convenient location – close to work, shopping, family, etc.

Nice to haves:

1. 3-car garage – obviously this gives us more space and a larger driveway
2. Nice landscaping – we could do this ourselves but it’s nice to have someone start it for you!
3. Modern, neutral colors – sure, we can repaint if we have to but we just did that at our house and would rather not do it again for a while.
4. Attractive exterior color – again, this is something we can change ourselves but who wants to repaint a house as soon as they move in?
5. Whirlpool tub or hot tub – this is CJ’s. Any house listing we see that mentions a hot tub he’s all over. I think it’s a nice bonus feature but I honestly don’t know how often I’d use it.
6. Corner lot – we’ve been spoiled by having one for the last 5 years. Good for privacy and increased yard space.
7. Newer HVAC – when we bought our current house, it had all the original heating, A/C, and water heater. We were worried they would go out at any minute and actually both the water heater and A/C died in the last 2 years. Those are expensive things to replace and I’d rather not worry about that again!

Seems like a lot but I don’t think we’re asking for too much. Yet, we haven’t found a house that has everything. We’ve come close. The one house that’s on the top of our list has all the must haves except 8 (fenced yard), and only 3 of the nice to haves. It’s probably as close as we’re going to get without custom building but we want to look at just a few more before making a decision.

I worry about picking the wrong house. What if we move in there and then hate it? What if we discover that it’s a big money pit? I’m pretty sure that if it meets most of our criteria, we’ll be ok, but still, it’s a big decision.

And one that we have to make soon. Closing on our house happens in about 6 weeks and we need to give the sellers of our “new house” time to find a house and move. It would really suck to have to stay in an apartment, hotel, or crash at someone else’s house for a few weeks.

By the way, our house inspection came back. Not too horrible – only about $1000 worth of stuff to fix. Sounds like a lot but in the grand scheme of things, it could have been much worse. Once we get through all that it’ll be smooth sailing toward close.

Hopefully I’ll have an update soon on a new house for us!

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