Steady...

So there's some question about whether or not we'll be able to purchase our first choice house. We weren't able to get our loan pre-approval paperwork faxed in on time (LOOOOONG story) and now it looks like there may be another offer on the house. ARGH!
After a lot of deliberation (like HOURS of debate, surfing the MLS listings, prayer, more debate) the hubs and I have agreed on 1 thing: whatever we buy needs to either have an attached apartment or have room to expand into a seperate apartment. There has been a lot of really ugly stuff going on within our group of family and friends lately and it appears that we need to be prepared for the possibility of some more long term house-guests. Ana's divorce is about to be finalized (Holy Crap... FINALLY!!!) and she's planning on returning to school and moving out in January at the latest.
I'm pretty sure that if/when she does move on, she won't be the last person who will need a place to stay, and the next time I saddle up to this merry-go-round I'd like to have some seperation of church and state, so to speak, and actually have a spare apartment available rather than just a spare room. If you can't beat 'em, at least make sure they have their own seperate entrance.
So we've been hunting for some back-ups in case our pet project doesn't pan out. I think we may have found a suitable candidate. It's much humbler and I'm actually really not a big fan of the second floor... but it has an entire turn-key 2 bed 1 bath apartment in the basement and the yard... oh the yard! 1/2 acre of fruit trees, grape vines, and vegetable patches plus a workshop which I could convert into a greenhouse... divine!
It's just not my little house on the hill, though, so I'm still hoping, praying, and obsessively checking my MLS page to make sure it's still there.
Heavens how I wish this was just over by now.