I See a Red Door and I Want to Leave it Red

I really want to believe there will come a time again where I don’t need to wear my ski jacket to catch the 6:34 train. It’s unreasonably cold every morning.

I just sent one of the more potentially life-altering texts of my life. Diana and I have an offer in on a house. The price is hard to beat for the city, but it had as many things that concerned us as things we liked about the place. Since it was a short sale, we’ve gone from early January to now without anyone bothering to look at or accept our offer, and nothing had come up on the market in the last few months to justify jumping ship on it. Nothing until Saturday, that is. We were supposed to be looking at two properties. One of them cancelled on us at the last minute, but another came on the market the day prior, and it was just a couple of blocks from our non-cancelled appointment.

By sheer serendipity we managed to get a time for a viewing within an hour, and let me tell you, it’s got a lot more right than it does wrong. The things I dislike are no different than the house we’ve been on the hook for (air conditioning and ductwork are alien concepts to a city at 7000 feet), but it gets a lot of our concerns about the other property right. It also represents about a 20% increase in price, but it looks like that premium might be needed to not have to sink an equivalent amount into repairs and maintenance right away. I told Diana that anything at this price range would have to be damn near perfect. This one is. So we’re retracting our offer and putting in one for this new place. I just sent the text message to our broker to make it so.

It is farther away from work, farther away from the gym. Both tough to give up, but both by small amounts. I’ll live. It’s a difference of about 8 minutes for each. If that’s the biggest downside, we’re in great shape. It’s the first place we’ve looked with an honest-to-god “view.” No pretending there’s one to reassure ourselves about the place, this one’s backed up against an arroyo and that’s land that will never be built on. I feel so much better about this place. I don’t have to worry about an eight-foot-tall stone fence that’s leaning a good 25 degrees towards the side of our house, and would for sure demolish the place if it ever fell.

I feel good. I feel like we made the right decision. Wish us luck.