The End!

Well, it looks like 2011 is starting off with quite a bang. After the mad house-hunt of 2010 (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), I took Luis out to see one last place the first week in December. It was a long shot. The house is older than what he usually is willing to look at and it doesn't have much curb appeal. It has a fully finished 3 bed 1 bath basement apartment, though, and it's in one of the best neighborhoods in Provo. I was shocked when he decided that he loved the place. Mostly for the same reasons he liked this one. In fact, the square footage is pretty close to that house, it needs less work, and it has better views. Really the only major problem we could see with the place is that it has a heaping portion of late 70's ugliness.
We put an offer in on it on the 13th. We heard back that we'd been outbid on the 15th. We were heartbroken, yet again. That night I had a dream. In the dream I was holding a paintbrush in that gorgeous living room. A voice told me "you'll get the house, but not until after Christmas." Call it inspiration, divine intervention, or chalk it up to me projecting what I want into my dreams, but on Christmas day I checked back and it was still listed as an active listing on the Utah MLS page. We contacted our agent when we got back from Mexico, and he contacted the selling agent. Apparently the competing offer fell through due to financing in the early stages of the transaction, so they never even bothered to update the MLS page. They even officially lowered the asking price. We sent in an addendum to the first offer, raising our offer $1,900 and asking for closing costs. We heard back less than 24 hours later with a "YES" from the bank.
Yup. After 11 months of "NO," we finally got a "YES" and it feels so good. I actually cried when I got the news. Not only is this the end of a year long house-hunt, it's the end of a 5 year real estate transaction that started less than six months after we bought our first little starter home. 5 years is a LONG time to not know for sure where you're going to live next month. The thought that I may finally have some permanence in my life was a bit overwhelming to me at the time. It still overwhelms me if I think about it too long.
We still have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to the end of this particular rainbow, but we filed the paperwork for the loan last night and will have an inspector out there on Monday. Unless something alarming comes up, we could close by the end of this month...
The only things on my want-list that this home doesn't have are ooh-la-la landscaping, a walk-in pantry, and a three car garage. The only things on Luis's wish-list that this home is lacking are ranch-style layout (I love stairs, he doesn't), the newness factor... and a three car garage.
The things I like best: wall of windows in the front room, incredible views, private balcony in master, master closet that's nearly the size of Andrei's current bedroom, LARGE laundry room (no more piling clean clothes on the guest room bed), STAIRS!, open concept layout, fully autonomous basement apartment with private entrance, sunny, south-facing hillside yard (hello fruit trees and vines!!!), corner lot, incredible neighborhood, nice kitchen layout with tons of storage space, bonus (aka craft) room on the main floor, instant equity because we're only paying about $50/sq foot. It's nowhere near my beloved river trail, but the neighborhood backs up to a national forest. I was driving through it the week we put in our first offer and saw WILD TURKEYS!

So without further gilding the lily, here she is.

My (hopefully) next home, the answer to a lot of prayers, and (hopefully) the end of a very long journey for me that has challenged every pre-conceived notion I ever had about happiness and success.
All in all, we're very excited, and waiting with baited breath for the results of the inspection.