Direction Connection

So we were supposed to go see three houses tonight, but our realtor wrote us this morning to tell us that two of them are already under contract. As Melissa so aptly put it in an email to some friends of ours, it’s like we’re playing musical chairs and we keep being the ones standing. In all honesty, of course, we’ve only been at this seriously for, what, a week? So we will either get used to it or just buy the first house we saw and call it done.

It should be said in the midst of all of this that we love our Realtor, Wendy Evans at Prudential Carolinas. We got hooked up with her when we called about another house in the neighborhood a few weeks ago (surprise surprise, it was also under contract, within about 24 hours of being listed). We were planning on taking things slow, having a little sit-down meeting with her, nothing serious. Then one day last week we found ourselves with an appointment to see a house, and we realized we ought to have someone with us who knew what she was doing. I emailed Wendy at 6:30 p.m. on Memorial Day; she called me back half an hour later. When we went to see the house, she was just invaluable, and she’s been incredibly patient and responsive as we figure this whole thing out. It’s a little hard to believe we thought we might navigate this without any help.

So tonight: cute bungalow around the corner from our house, bought in February for $100,000 less than they want for it now, newly refinished attic, fenced back yard. Wednesday: back to the first house we saw, with a contractor to tell us what it would cost to fix everything the not-so-handy owners did wrong (see The Dos and Don’ts of Drywall). But can you say granite countertops? And five-eye gas stove? And convection oven? And Bosch dishwasher? And so many cabinets that our current kitchen would hide its face in shame?