Wife went to bed last night with terrible stomach cramps and various other forms of gastric distress. She'd been to the dentist who'd prescribed antibiotics to knock out the tooth infection it seemed she had. Her body doesn't seem to like the pills at all. She was miserable last night, and not good this morning. She pushed herself out the door with me at 11AM for a full day of house hunting. Today was 1/2 day for revisits and 1/2 day for new houses -- eight (8) in total.
We drove northwest to Cypress to look at our favorite house in the Sydney Harbour subdivision. We'd nicknamed it the Karina because that's the name of its floor plan. This is the house we like the best, but it is also the most expensive and has the most difficult commute. A re-visit didn't change our feelings about it.
Our realtor told us that the "cheapie" red brick house in Jersey Village that I'd been sort of holding out for, was now under contract and off the table. One less house to look at and consider. So be it.
From there it was a 45 minute drive south then west to a house we'd peeked into, but not entered. We were calling it the "Wood Floor House" because we'd seen a sign through the window "Take off your shoes. New hardwood and carpeting." Well, yes, it had that, but the bedrooms were tiny; they'd dismantled the kitchen sink and range and not connected them. Generally, it just seemed a little out of sync.
From there we drove to the house next door to the model home (we call it "Vicki's House" in honor of the agent) in Chelsea Harbour that we thought we could get with furniture. We thought there was an outside chance we'd like it better than the model. It was lots bigger -- the biggest we'd actively considered actually at more than 3800 sq ft. Inside, it was frankly 'buggy'. Lots of dead little critters in all the corners. Once again, we just didn't love it.
At this point the truth about the model next door came out. We'd wondered why our realtor hadn't taken us through it. When I asked she said, "The agent told me that you couldn't move in for two months. You'd buy it then lease it back to them for two months." Now that's NOT what we thought we heard from the agent. Well, we're right next door so I go over and ask her. She says, "That's right. We'd lease it back from you for $2500 per month. But, if you really need to move in now, I'll talk with my supervisor about it." Also, as we've thought more clearly about it, do we really want all that cheap furniture that isn't our taste? Sure, sure, we could sell it piecemeal on eBay, make some money and buy our own stuff over time. That's still an option.
From there we drove to Telfair subdivision. Wife and I had visited and seen a house we liked quite well. We took to calling it Erik's house. Its claim to fame is that frankly it's beautiful inside, has a big (comparatively) back yard, and the Telfair subdivision is the closest commute we've been able to find. 
The subdivision sits within five minutes of a main artery (Rte 59). You jump on that and it takes you straight downtown. Vicki's house requires maybe 15 minutes of driving just to get to the expressway. It's our classic dilemma of trading of commute time for other things.
Other builders in Telfair also had houses that we thought might fit our ticket. With our realtor's help, we saw three of these. One was just a couple doors down the street from Erik's house. Erik's house was open again. When we walked in, it confirmed our initial thoughts. Our realtor said, "Wow, impressive."
So negotiations start tomorrow. We're going to get the best price we can from the builder for Erik's house. Their "Sale" ends tomorrow. He better throw up some discounts. We'll also talk with our realtor about how to negotiate for Vicki's house. That's much more complicated. It's not just price and fixing what's broken; it's move in date, amount of lease back if any, handling of the furniture, and probably other things I've not thought of yet.
So tomorrow the fun starts ... finally.
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