The Red House?

Yesterday I found out that the house with a view is under contract with someone new, someone not me.  Oddly, the news was kind of anti-climactic.  I found out through my on-line real estate service that sends an email any time a favorite property has a "change in status" -- I had a feeling even before I opened the email that this time it would be that house.  It's not that I'm not sad and disappointed but apparently reality has caught up with me.  I need to buy a house that isn't going to break me, and that house isn't it.  I wish I was the person who could live in the house with the amazing view, and gardens, and layout, and artists' decorations, and... massive repair and renovation and legal challenges, but it's just not possible, at least in this phase of my life.  

I did look at another place this week -- this morning in fact -- which also is a house with a view.  But while it's lovely, it has nowhere near the draw of the old rambling place -- it's a row house, tall and skinny, with the owner's apartment at the very top, meaning I would have to haul my groceries up 4 (!) stories.  My arms are already straining.  And as Kanha says, the yard -- as lovely as it is from my point of view, with a mix of low-lying bushes and wildflowers, not dissimilar to "my" other house -- is simply not big enough to play catch with the (still-to-be-bought) dog.  The view from the deck off the top floor is stunning, almost as amazing as from the door in the roof at the other house, but it competes in no other way.  And they're asking nearly $700K -- although it has also been on the market forever (5 months or more...) so they would probably come down.  But to me it's just not worth it.

I finally brought up "the red house" with Nikki on Monday -- it's a for-sale by-owner house with a front yard only, small apartment as part of it, a third floor that needs the renovation finished on, in the West End although not a perfect location, but big rooms with lovely hard wood floors, 4 fireplaces, and a good karma -- both Kanha and I seem to be drawn to it whenever we walk by.  (For her, I think it's more the two adorable shih-tzus that the young woman in the small apartment owns than the house itself -- she's a dog kind of a girl, I just have to accept it.)   Interestingly Nikki was quite supportive -- I think she just wants me to find a place to live and exit from her life at this point....  I've emailed the owner who is away until next week, and will probably go look at it once she's back with Kanha and a contractor.  Of course, the tenants in the owner's unit have just signed another six month lease so how quickly we could get in, assuming we can agree to a price and all other contingencies check out, is unknown.  Leave it to me to wait until JUST when their lease has been re-signed to feel my interest reignite.  My special way of making things even harder for myself.

Eh bien, we will see what the next week brings.  Maybe a house, if not with a view.