No exciting news to report. We went to look at the displays and check out the homesites. The house - there's only one word to describe it - AMAZING. The whole ride out there RD had this gruff look on his face, knowing in my head I was already moving us in.
When we pulled up he looked over to "the one" and said, "Is that it?" He said it very casually, but I could tell he was impressed. We weren't even five feet in the place and I could tell he was sold. He was studying every detail. He went from room to room saying, "We should do this...I want that...isn't this great...we'd need this..."
Now on to the lots. There were only a few left, only one private. It was on the small side, but we loved the house so much we were quickly coming up with all the reasons why "the big yard" could wait.
Then we saw it. How we missed it is beyond me. I think we were so drunk over this house we were oblivious to any imperfections that might be lurking.
A huuuuge rock quarry. A fully-active, rock quarry. Right next to the community. RD hates it when I use the word community. "Will you just say subdivision, because that's what they are." "Yes, but they call them communities." You know, those "they" people that know everything.
We went back and forth on how much this mattered to us. You couldn't actually see the quarry from this particular lot, but we'd have to hear it, right? How could we not? We debated back and forth for the rest of the day on whether or not this was a deal-breaker. We both knew it was, but I was having a hard time letting go of this "perfect house." I sat down on the couch late lastnight to go through the big folder they gave us with all the literature on the builder, the area, etc. In the very back, hidden behind all the brochures going on about how great this place is was a letter from the City Examiner - about the rock quarry. It went into great detail about how home owners may be startled by the noise, some home damage is to be expected (which they then downplayed because all homes suffer some wear and tear...yaddayadda...), and more red flags that screamed that this place wasn't so perfect after all.
I shouldn't be surprised. The price they were asking for this house seemed too good to be true - now we know why.
The problem with getting so worked up and excited about something is the low you get when things don't go your way. We watched The Terminal lastnight. RD loved it, but I couldn't stop thinking about the house. The house itself was so perfect, why oh why did it have to be next to a rock quarry. It kind of reminded me of an old Seinfeld episode. Remember the one where George was dating this woman who would be beautiful if it wasn't for her HUGE nose. He hated her nose, but knew if it weren't for her nose, she would be too beautiful for him - out of his league. Silly analogy maybe, but I guess that's how I looked at the house. The only reason we could afford this awesome house is because they thought that the constant booms and vibrations warranted a discount of sorts. So we move on.
So tomorrow I am going to check out two more communities. The one has larger houses on small lots and the other has what I would call average-size houses on larger lots. I'm going to check out both. I'm kind of wishing now that we hadn't seen the first. That first house we looked at was so grand - I'm afraid all others will pale in comparison.
We shall see.
In the meantime, have a wonderful V-Day! RD and I are going out to dinner while his mom watches the kids. Let's hope we have lots to celebrate! ;)
