it's all in the specifics

The potential buyer is looking for a three-bedroom unit, so our condo is out. I'm not terribly surprised - he wants a place to fill with renters until his kids enter college, and I kind of figured our place was just plain too NICE, not to mention too small.

The tour of realtors went fabulously, and I got a gushing call from our realtor:
+1 for the fresh flowers dotted around
+1 for having all the lights on so they didn't have to figure out how to light each room
+1 for having Bach Pandora radio on (+1 to Rob for that one)
+1 for the pots full of flowers on both porches
etc.

I WIN!
Except that no one else has called for a walk through yet. We have a short open house scheduled for Sunday, so we'll see how that goes.

We've toured a few places, which is fun and a little horrifying because I get all embarrassed for the homeowner and the fact that they clearly do not watch nearly as much HGTV as they should (that is, as much as I do). I fell in love with a house that had a creek on an acre out near the airport until we realized two things:

• Rob's priorities for renovation/sweat equity are not the same as mine, and neither are all that modest: "First we'd knock out this wall... " "Uh, no. First we'd rip out all the flooring and countertops... " "Uh, no. First we'd install sprinklers in the yard... " "Uh, no. First we'd update all the windows... " In unison: "Uh, no."
  
• The address says Bozeman, but the school district is Belgrade. If we stayed there as long as we'd imagined (20+ years), I'd be driving children in the absolutely wrong direction. Or sobbing like a baby as I put them on a bus. Not good options.
  

We've moved on to pinning our hopes and dreams to two separate houses that look pretty good and are about equal on paper. We've been through one and it's mostly turn-key, close to schools and works, etc. The biggest downside is that there are condos across the street, and apparently you just never know what that means in the future, but we think we'd be content to live there. We like it, but we don't love it.

The other is in a neighborhood we both like quite a bit more, has more room inside but less yard, and is a much better price. We get to see the inside tomorrow, but the outside (I drove by again today) is cute as a button! My biggest fear now is that someone died in there and it smells badly, or that someone else will buy it out from under us. I am working on my fear by getting really really really well acquainted with it.

Of course, any offer we make is contingent upon our home selling. Our prayer is that this little condo will meet someone's needs beautifully, and it will be a blessing to them as it's been to us. Blake's prayers are more specific: "Thank you, Jesus, for this food and bless it to our bodies. Please help us to buy a home with a swing, and room for a pet, and a creek so Dad and I can build a bridge, and a trampoline."