The One??

After being up in Milwaukee with the kids and involving them in the process, we needed to make some progress faster.  So last week Joel and I went by ourselves for a few days while Mom and Dad watched the kids here at home.  We saw 15 properties in two days - most of them on the first day.  Our realtor told us that the rules of the game are - if you don't like it when we pull up and aren't interested, we can just move on.  I thought that seemed kind of crazy.  Come all this way and not go into a house?  Then we pulled into the place by the county landfill.  Literally - we drove past the dump on our way, turned the corner, went down the street a bit and there was the house.  Cute as it could be, but I sure wouldn't ever open the windows!  We didn't go in.  So on we went - property after property.  One had a beautiful yard, but everything inside was outdated.  One had a gorgeous house, but there was almost no yard to play in.  One had good potential, but it was just too much of a fixer upper.   One had a beautiful house, but so much road noise we had to raise our voices outside of the car.  One had a lovely home with a nice pool on seven gorgeous wooded acres, but the taxes were impossibly high.  So many almosts.   We got to the end of two days exhausted, overwhelmed, and not any closer than when we had left.  I went to bed that night praying - Lord please find us our new forever home.
Four days later our realtor emailed us a property to look at.  It had potential, and Joel thought so, too.  Enough so that I wondered - is this the one?   We knew Joel was working in Milwaukee this week so we made an appt for him to see it Tuesday night.  We had learned the hard way that photos can be VERY deceiving so I said , " Let me know if you're disappointed, but if you really like it you could make an offer."  He said, "I can't make an offer without you!!"  To which I responded, "Yes you can!"  I was thinking I have seen nearly 20 properties in locations all over the greater Milwaukee area and beyond.  If this meets our criteria, I don't need to see another 20.
Tuesday night Joel called and said he wasn't disappointed.  In fact it was his favorite yet.  We spent an hour on the phone after the kids went to bed.  He talked me through it room by room and emailed pictures.  By the end of the conversation we had decided to make an offer.  The next day he called the realtor, and by Wednesday night we had our offer emailed to us to print, sign, and return.   Tonight Joel gets home and we'll have to read through each form, fill them out, and hopefully fax it back tomorrow.  Then we wait and see...  Until then here are some pics of the house.