Update: From nightmare to dream come true…
Updated update: Photographs of the house (hover over photos for description)
Google is your friend.
No. No 4027044.
![[photo of exterior of house]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leehouse.jpg "A wide-angle view of the house from the front lawn -- the lawn doesn't really seem this big.")
1814 square feet farmhouse on 3/5ths of an acre — two car detached garage, workshop, garden shed — four bedrooms, 1-1/2 baths, hardwood floors, period architectural details — elaborate rose gardens, many mature trees, privet hedges — tucked into the heart of Oak Grove
Kris found a house, we both fell in love with it immediately. We rushed to make an offer.
Our offer was first — and good — but a second offer came in today. With knowledge of our offer, the other buyers were able to outbid us.
We are sad at heart.
We just spent three whole days pouring every spare moment into this dream, and we came up short by the slimmest of margins.
Woe are we.
(Kris notes that we’re not really house shopping. This just happened to be the Perfect House, and it appeared unexpectedly. Please don’t tell us about the house for sale in your neighborhood.)
Kris and I sulked after hearing our offer wasn’t accepted. Denise and Shannon (and Ryan) were over — dining on Mac‘s seafood pasta — when we got the news. I’m afraid that for the rest of the evening our minds were elsewhere, and we were less than perfect hosts.
Last night and this morning, we talked and thought and talked some more. For different reasons, we came to the same conclusion: We really are ready to move, ready to live in a house that we truly love. We decided to look around.
We lay in bed for hours, reading real estate magazines, looking at web sites, trying to find a house that we loved as much. No dice. There’s nothing even close.
Still, we found a couple that we liked enough to drive by. We set out this afternoon to do just that.
We were winding our way through Gladstone, looking at houses, when Mary (our real estate broker) gave us a buzz.
“J.D.,” she said. “The first offer backed out. The house is yours if you still want it.”
We were in a state of shock. We told her we needed to talk about it.
“Do you still want it?” I asked Kris.
“Of course I still want it,” she said.
We called Mary back to accept the counteroffer. “There’s a complication,” she said. “The seller’s Realtor is expecting another offer. If you don’t sign the papers by the time she receives that offer, she’s legally bound to present it to the seller.”
We zoomed to Custom Box Service where we waited by the fax machine for the documents to arrive. We waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And they came. We signed them in a hurry and faxed them back.
Mary called us a while later. “I talked with the seller’s agent,” she said. “She confirmed that she’d received your signed paperwork without any further counters, and that the other offer had not yet come in.”
“Does that mean the house is ours?” asked Kris.
“That means the house is yours,” Mary said.
We’re giddy with excitement, but we still don’t know whether to believe it.
Right now, our closing date is June 15th. Anyone want buy our house?
Rock on!
![[photo of two-car garage]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leegarage.jpg "Standing on the street looking at the garage. This photo is taken directly W of the house, looking NE. In front of the garage, you can see the rose garden.")
![[photo of house from near rosegarden]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leeroses.jpg "Looking at the house from the street, over the rose garden. This is taken from in front of the garage, looking SE. On the right, you can see the big bulk of plants and trees that make up the entryway path.")
![[photo of dining room]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leedining.jpg "The entry to the house is here, in the dining room. Note the big flowers on the wallpaper. You can also see the newish carpeting, which covers the hardwood floors. We don't know what kind of condition the hardwood floors are in. We also don't know if the light fixture stays with the house, but assume it does. This view faces SSW.")
![[photo of living room]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leeliving.jpg "The living room, with bay window and hobbit-hole window AND the wallpaper that I love but Kris hates. The hobbit-hole window looks out onto the entry-way porch, right next to the front door. This photo is taken from the doorway connecting the living room to the piano room, at the exit to the back porch (see below), looking SSW.")
![[photo of piano room]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leepiano.jpg "Next to the living room -- and just off the back porch -- is the 'piano room', which we will turn into a study. Notice the high ceilings. The exit to the back porch (see below) is just off the right edge of this photo. This photo was taken from the doorway connecting the kitchen to the piano room with the photographer facing NE.")
![[photo of kitchen]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leekitchen.jpg "The old-fashioned kitchen has the only aluminum window in the house, metal cabinets, and a gas range. Entrances to the cellar and to the main bathroom are off the frame to the right. The utility room is off the frame to the left. This shot is taken facing NE.")
![[photo of back porch]](https://jdroth.com/wp-content/uploads/leeporch.jpg "There are two covered porches, the largest of which is the back porch, shown here. Just inside is the piano room -- or study. The plants next to the back porch are overgrown and will require trimming, I think. This shot is taken facing N.")
Boy do I know how you feel. I was just searching for houses moments ago. We’re in that limbo-land of having not quite sold our house (Joel, Amy sound familiar?) but are still thinking of “that number ($)” that our house will sell for AND THEN look for the dream house. I guess I’m not pacing around the house but I know the appeal. “House porn”.
Porn is such a great metaphor.
I’m in the middle of our school’s musical (Anything Goes) and the kids were commenting on how bad the story/plot is and I said, “Ya, it’s kind of like porn, it’s not about the plot but the “action”. In a musical the “action” takes place during the songs…
Corrupting young minds one ensemble at a time.