Good Reads

I love goodreads.com. I thoroughly enjoy keeping track of what books I'm reading or have read. And I've been gaining a list of books I would like to read by checking everyone else's sites. So, if you haven't checked this thang out, you should, especially if you enjoy reading and reviewing books. It makes me all smiley to finish a book and be able to change it on my site to 'read' instead of 'currently reading', then I can pick out a new one! It's the small things in life that make all the difference. :)

Back to the drawing board

The condo is not going through. Which is almost a relief to us in a way. We were afraid that we were going to run into problems that would make the place hard to sell in the future. So, I feel good about walking away from it and finding a place a little more ready for move in without spending lots of money.
I never realized how emotional the house buying process is. It's crazy! #1 rule, never fall in love with a place, because inevitably, a deal will fall through. I did not fall in love with this last place, but there was a condo we saw a few weeks ago that I really, really like and agonized over. It sold before we could even offer on it and it took me a few days to get over it.
I will keep you posted on how our search #2 goes. :)

buying a condo

John and I have been looking into buying a condo for the past few months. We picked up our looking more after we got back from California a few weeks ago. It's been really interesting trying to find a place that fits out needs. There are a few basic things that we need. I am a piano teacher as most of you know, and I need to have space for a piano in the place. This is a problem with a lot of standard condos and townhouses that are in most complexes because the living space usually isn't big enough to accomodate a piano teaching area, and a waiting area as well. Also, we need to have guaranteed parking for my students each week so our own driveway would be ideal. These requirements limit us to more 'house like' condos or single family houses in general.
We have been looking at condos and houses in Lowell. Most of them in our price range have been pretty run down, although we've found a few that had potential.
A few days ago I went with Carol (our realtor) to see a condo that turned out to have most all of what we're looking for in a place. It has a lot of living space on the first floor, and even a separate room that could be used as a studio for my piano lessons. It has its own driveway, and a shared backyard. We got all excited, showed our parents, and placed an offer. We negotiated a good price with the owner, and accepted. We just had the place inspected, and to our dismay, it has some serious issues, there is work on the foundation that needs to be done, the chimney needs to be replaced or fixed, there is a problem with the gas line, and a few other things. Basically, these things we would not want to do ourselves because it would be way too costly and it's hard to tell if a few other things are going to need fixing just a few years after we get the place. This puts a serious damper on the resale value unless we put some work into the place. So, John and I need to decide if we walk away, or renegotiate for the owner to fix all the issues before we buy. Ahhhh!
I've decided that being a grown up is overated. :)

I will keep you posted on what we decide, but don't be surprised if you hear about us resuming our search for a home. Decisions, decisions.....