The Pride of Ownership

Yikes, I forgot how stressful it is buying/selling a house. It's like having a baby-- you get amnesia almost immediately after the birth so you can't recall all that pain and suffering, and end up getting pregnant again only to put yourself through all of that once more. Well same thing with buying a new house. Here we go again... Don't get me wrong, we're greatful for what we have, but for the last year or so we've been salivating at the idea of having more than a postage stamp sized backyard. I became seriously disgruntled after a stupid neighbor decided to permanently park their city bus that they "won" at auction (don't ask, it's a long story) on our nice suburban street. Although I often complain about our HOA at Tahoe, I really think there are some benefits to having a group of people who tell you NO, you may not trash the neighborhood by parking your crap on the street. So our goal became to 1. buy a house where our neighbors aren't so close that they can hear me yell at Madison for not flushing the toilet and 2. move into a community that is regulated by a Homeowners Association of some sorts. After coming to terms with the fact that we may be once again "house-poor", we decided to go for the gusto and attempt to buy a house that we actually stand a chance of living in for more than 5 years (3 1/2 years is our record so far). I won't say anymore about the house we're attempting to buy because I don't want to jinx it-- suffice it to say, it's a cool house and the property ROCKS. If we pull this off, it will be worth all the pain, suffering, and very unromantic evenings spent pouring over numbers with our real estate agent.