The Find

Diana had found a few places that were having open houses on the approaching weekend. There were three that stood out to S and I:

House A: was downtown, relatively low price and had really nice pictures
House B: a few blocks away from House A, a bit more expensive, but only had one exterior picture
House C: on the same street as House A, much cheaper and also had nice pictures

Before heading out that Saturday afternoon, we had set our sights on Houses A and C with B as a possibility. We started off our tour by checking out House C. After a few minutes inside, we realized why it was priced so low: it looked like it would fall in on us at any time. The house would either need to be completely demolished and re-built or gutted and renovated from top to bottom.

We had to wait for the open house to start at House A so we spent some quality time with Diana. “Let’s smoke” she said as she pulled out her cigarettes. S joined her and we stood around talking about how some realtors can be assholes and how much we liked Diana. I noticed while we were standing there that there was some family living on the street. House A just kept scoring more and more points with me.

When we finally got inside the house, I saw that the pictures had been accurate. The main floor was nice, spacious and well decorated. The backyard was quite long and the second floor was nice as well. And then we went down to the basement. It was unfinished, which wasn’t a deal breaker, but it had a random toilet in towards the back and there was a leak coming from the wall. That concerned me. We asked Diana about it and she said that if we wanted to excavate, it’d be tricky since the house was attached on both sides. We left, making our way to House B with a gloomy feeling. We had begun our afternoon with a lot of hope and promise. It was turning out to be a long day.

We walked through the door of House B and I think I immediately fell in love with it. The main floor was completely open, well decorated with a sectional couch and cute curtains. We continued to walk through and we went into the kitchen, stainless steel appliances and lots of counter space. We ended up in the backyard admiring the beautiful deck when S and I both looked at each other and went, “Yes!” We quickly decided to look upstairs and in the basement – we had seen plenty of nice first floors only to be disappointed by the rest of the house.

House B, however, did not disappoint. The second floor and the basement were quite nice. The basement ceiling was kind of low, but the bathroom down there was absolutely gorgeous. Plus, I don’t foresee us spending much time in the basement other than doing laundry. For the first time in our search, S and I agreed on a house.

We were quite daunted by the fact that so many people were at the open house. We were sure a house that nice in that great a neighbourhood would get a bidding war, something we were not prepared to participate in. We spent the rest of the weekend thinking about what to do. The next day, we went out and had another tour of the house. The second time around, we asked more questions and had a better look at the home inspection binder.

“We’re not going to get that house,” S said as the three of us (Diana, S and I) continued to drive around looking for other open houses. “Make an offer and if there are multiple bids, walk away,” Diana advised. She was a firm believer that things happen for a reason and if a place is meant to be ours, it will be.

The current owners of house B were going to be accepting offers on the Monday night. That morning, S suddenly remembered she had dinner plans. “Fuck!” she yelled out while getting ready for work. “I don’t want to cancel my plans.” I suggested that maybe her friends would be okay with postponing since she was trying to purchase a house. “We’re not going to get that house, you know that, right?” S tried to keep things realistic. We were both prepared for the fact that there would likely be a bidding war that we would walk away from.

That evening, we went over to Diana’s office (little head in tow) and signed our lives away on all of the necessary paperwork. Diana had been in touch with the realtor selling House B throughout the day and as far as we knew, we were the only people who had said they’d be making an offer. That will change, we thought. We drove over to House B knowing that we likely wouldn’t get the house. We took comfort in knowing that House A would be holding offers the next day. At least there we’d have a chance. While I didn’t like the fact that House A would need new windows, air conditioning and the basement leakage issue dealt with, I felt like it would be the house we’d end up with.

I couldn’t shake the feeling in my gut, the one that told me we’d be getting House B.

As it turns out, my gut was right, we were the only people making an offer on House B that warm July night. S wore a shocked look on her face as she realized that we would indeed be getting the house we had both fallen in love with that weekend. A deal was struck and we made our way inside where we met the owners and continued to sign more paperwork. Little head was having a blast exploring the place, she wanted very badly to go upstairs (she loves stairs), but we kept her with us on the main floor. Hands were shaken, teeth were exposed in smiles and then we parted our ways. On the way back to Diana’s car, it hit me, I just bought a house. “Let’s smoke!” Diana suggested. “Smoke?” I replied, “I need a drink!”

Eventually, we ended up back at our car in the parking lot of Diana’s office. “See,” Diana began, “it was meant to be yours.” S’s anxiety about the condo quickly crept into the air. “I can’t be excited about the house yet, not until the condo is sold.” Diana re-assured S that there wouldn’t be any problem selling condo. Considering the fact that it’s in a very trendy area always filled with events and festivities, I didn’t think there’d be any trouble selling the condo either.

Or would there be?