trees, trees, trees!

One thing that's possibly more fun and nerve-racking than ghost hunting is house hunting. We've been looking at listings online for months (actually, years, but only seriously for months) and Sunday was the day we finally got to see things in person.

On Thursday of last week a new house came on the market in our target location and I decided to drive by to check it out. I was antsy because we had several more days to wait before the official hunt. I'd been able to rule out several houses by driving by them, so that saved us time later.

As I came up the winding street I had a feeling. It was an older neighborhood with lots of trees and had a homey atmosphere. The description of the house on the listing made my heart flutter. It said it had 35 acres of open space behind it. A perfect place for little boys to wander. Also, it was walking distance from a small neighborhood lake. I saw the "For Sale" sign in the yard and pulled over to take a look. It appeared to be very well maintained and had a basketball hoop over the garage. I could picture the boys shooting hoops already. I pulled up more to peek around the corner and caught a glimpse of the space behind it. Trees as far as I could see! I started to freak out and called my husband.

"I'm sitting in front of our house and we need to see it asap!" I just knew it was going to sell before we got a chance at it. He called our realtor to find out if we could possibly see it before our scheduled Sunday trip. Our realtor called back and said the owners were not going to show it to anyone until Sunday. Perfect!

So I suffered through Friday and Saturday, the minutes ticking by and dragging on. I kept telling myself that if it was meant to be, it would happen and I just had to calm down. But it was hard. Besides, we hadn't even seen the inside yet. It could have been completely wrong for us.

Sunday finally came and we made the rounds with the realtor. After seeing about eight houses we determined that that house was indeed the one for us. Our realtor congratulated us for the fastest offer after the fewest showings. We just knew what we wanted so we didn't have to mull anything over.

Our offer was submitted on Sunday afternoon and we waited all day yesterday for word. Would they accept our offer? Would they have multiple offers to choose from? Would they counter? We could hardly think of anything else all day. Every time the phone rang my heart skipped a beat.

Finally last night around eight we got word that they had countered. It was a fair deal and we agreed to the terms. We also heard that another family was going to try and get in a last minute offer if they could. Our realtor emailed the contract, we signed everything in record time and faxed it off. With it being official now, they shouldn't be able to take any more offers.

But we're still waiting, holding our breaths, to hear more confirmation that it's really, truly ours. Obviously, at this point in the game there are tons of things that could go wrong. But if it's meant to be, it will happen. And then we'll have the yard we have been dreaming of for years. A perfect place for childhood memories just waiting to be made.