The House Hunt

Have I ever mentioned I'm picky? I have a preference for everything and homes are no different. Our list for our next home is:
a) MUST be new. No major upgrading and outdated is just that. No grand envisioning is allowed.
b) a three car garage with pad for parking a 30' trailer
c) a large enough yard for our two large enough dogs
d) a space for me to work from home, without feeling like I live at work (is that possible?)
e) a view of mountains would be nice, but not necessary
f) no budget busters!
This list has been difficult to accommodate. Around here most of the homes are only a car length from the curb (and a small car length, no extended cab, long bed trucks fitting here), the backyard is a hop, skip with no jump, with your neighbor's front yard directly behind your backyard. It looks like apartment living made gourmet. Add in the tricky street system and scary neighborhoods and it has been difficult. We narrowed our search down and with the help of a realtor I went looking at homes yesterday. The first home is in Washougal. The town is east of Vancouver and right on the Columbia River. The home was beautiful, but the backyard was three sets of terraces only wide enough to walk along. Although wonderful and bigger than our current home, I didn't feel myself in this home. It was like all the others, drive by and give a maybe, with a furrowed brow thinking it might work. We then drove around Vancouver past several homes, but none really had the parking for our 30' trailer. The realtor treated me to lunch and then we headed for our next destination, which was a group of homes being built. As we drove around looking for the correct address we stumbled upon it. When the realtor pulled to a stop I had to fight back tears in my eyes. Just looking at it I knew...I was home. It's funny how you get that feeling. As a kid, my dad would always let out a small gasp of happiness when we rounded the bend from Provo and entered the Salt Lake valley. After our first couple years in Logan, I found myself giving the same happy sigh when we popped out of Sardine Canyon. I wasn't sure if I would ever have that feeling again, but somehow, Atlas walked over and picked up his giant world off my shoulders. I wanted to skip, shout, jump over the moon, but my reserved nature kept me in check. I'm pretty sure my realtor felt the pressure release, as she was giddy too. When I went to take a picture with Bryan's phone, I had the sinking realization I had left it at the restaurant. Bryan was in a store in Milwaukie, Oregon (a suburb of Portland) for a store manager meeting. I was his only lifeline and ride back to Washington. When I called him using the realtor's phone, it was hard to relay my happiness as he had been waiting 45 minutes already for me to pick up the phone and drive the 30 minutes there to pick him up. The realtor and I hurried back to the restaurant, saved the phone and went to get the rental car. I then drove like a maniac through Portland rush hour to save Bryan. Just for you to know if you ever come out this way, Washington drivers haul butt and do NOT stop at red lights or stop signs. It's kind of a pause, but only kind of. Oregon drivers are slower, but will suddenly jump lanes and zoom off. The driving here is not for the faint of heart, and it's weird to get used to. Nothing like Utah where every driver is far too involved in their own world to realize they're plugging up the left lane.
After grabbing Bryan we drove straight back to the house so he could see the outside. And he felt that this was it too. I don't know if it was as strong as my reaction, but I think he felt relieved to have found a place in the time frame we had allotted. The home is in the northeast corner of Vancouver, in a more 'rural' area of the city. There's still many fields out this way, but the building boom of new homes has started. The home is about 7 minutes from Bryan's work, which is convenient, as right now we're exactly 6 minutes. It's also not quite finished yet, which is perfect because then we can choose our floors, cabinets, counters, bathrooms, etc. It also has a two car garage...with an 18x30 SHOP! Plenty of space to park a 30' trailer and plenty of space in the shop to completely overhaul a car. Now that we've spent the last 10 years doing DIY on our home, we can spend the next 10 doing DIY on the three hot cars we own. Two 1970 1/2 Chevrolet Camaros and a 1940 2 door Chev. We've also been pre-approved, with no contingency of the sale on our current home. PHEW!
I've also spent the last two days doing work remotely. It's been wonderful! I'm able to answer all my emails, look up problems and get them solved, as well as create email judging packets. The dry run test worked and I'll be able to keep the job I've grown to love over the past 9 years.
Through all of this we've been blessed. Although the dreams of growing our family have not happened, the dream of becoming a store manager has been achieved. All of this has been quite smooth, extremely fast, but easy. Bryan's new co-workers are great! He loves his new management team and is very excited and eager to get going. I still have worries about the sale of my current home, but maybe the good luck will continue to flow. In the three full days we've lived here, I've found peace. The landscape is gorgeous, just as everyone said. The people are 'good people' (per Tom Poulson). And the moving roller coaster has become a Sunday drive. We may actually get to have a fun day tomorrow, a day off to have a little fun and explore; something we do best.