We’ve found another house

Although I’ve been trying to post daily, the recent house hunting has just exhausted me. We thought we were going to get this house in Redondo Beach. (We put in an offer and then rescinded it before it was accepted.) It was beautiful. It had all of the “upgrades” that you would want in a house and more. It had an amazing back yard with a built in BBQ grill with stereo sound and a hot tub with stereo. Oh, the backyard also had a fire pit. Can you say – fabulous!!! But we decided to be more sensible and conservative with our dollars. We didn’t want to feel over-extended or fall into the “middle class trap” where both salaries are needed to survive. The house was really nice and located in a “beach” town. If you say beach here in Cali, for some reason it means something and that something is mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money! The beach is the most desirable area here. Another reason why we didn’t go with it is because I realized that it was a bit too far from things in LA that matter to us – namely, USC, my future grad school. I don’t want going to school to become a hassle.

However, we’ve found a new home. This is actually a house we found the same weekend that we saw the one in Redondo Beach. And we loved the house a lot. But we were wooed by the whole backyard and lost our minds (momentarily). The new house is located in a wonderful and ritzy community called Del Aire in Hawthorne, California. Although we don’t have any kids yet, this house is in a fantastic, award-winning school district which means no private schooling for children (if for some reason we are in this house that long) and greater re-sale. YAAY! It is just in a really nice neighborhood. We found out from our new realtor (who is a breath of fresh air and fantastic) that people really try to get into this particular area of Hawthorne which is only a couple of blocks. The house is also located near Manhattan Beach and El Segundo which has a lot of cute shops and restaurants. Anyway, the house is a lot bigger than the other ones that we’ve looked at and it offers us a “master’s suite” complete with our own separate bathroom and a walk-in closet that is big enough to be a room. Our bathroom is the Bomb because it has a Jacuzzi tub that my hubby and I can fit in (we’re tall so this counts). Plus, our bedroom is big enough to put a sitting area in it. We’re pretty excited about this house. This house looks like the “picture-perfect” house in the “picture-perfect” neighborhood. (Can you tell we're excited!) And guess what, it’s more affordable.

We made an offer on the house on Saturday and were hoping to hear an answer yesterday. Apparently, the people that own it are investors (we’re guessing) and jet-setters. One of the ladies is currently in Chile!! We’re hoping that she checks her email today and lets the other owner know her thoughts on our offer. We’re keeping our fingers crossed because we bid a fair but lower number than what they are asking for. And we are willing to negotiate so we’re expecting this week to be really interesting. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We are praying, chanting, and thinking good thoughts – please do so too!!! We’ll keep you posted.