Making a house a home

Well, it appears that we're finally buying a house here in California! We've been at it now for months. You wouldn't think that in the current economic situation where so many people are trying to sell their homes that it would be that hard to actually buy one...au contraire, mon frere! We've had a heck of a time. The very first home we saw when we started our search was perfect...until we found out it already had an accepted offer. We found another great home but were outbid. We visited house after house only to be disappointed that we couldn't seem to find a house that had all we were looking for. We finally reconsidered one home, decided it would work and put in an offer...only to find out that the owner had decided to take a loan modification and was no longer selling. We visited more houses followed by more disappointment. Then we found another "perfect" home; it was really special. We placed the winning bid and the owners accepted our offer and the paperwork headed off to the bank. Then, however, we received an e-mail from the realtor asking us to back out of the deal as the current owners had decided to take a loan modification to try and save their home. Aaarrgghh! I feel that God has a plan and it appears that he does. After spending part of last weekend looking at more houses, on Sunday, the very first house that we looked at in this comedy of errors popped back up on the market. The other deal had fallen through and so we grabbed our realtor and put in an offer....and it was accepted! Yeah!! So, we've spent the last week getting a house inspection done and meeting with landscapers as there's an HOA requirement that the backyard be professionally landscaped. If everything continues to go well we should close around the 1st of May. Hopefully, we won't run into any more snags! As I can't post without a picture, here are a few shots of Lauren taken by my very talented friend Ms. Tracy Cook.