I check the calendar – “let’s see, four months ago would have put us in March, when 
we were trying to figure out whether to buy a house or tell the Edgars we’d stay in 
their house for a year and a half.”  And four months before that would have put us in December, just after we moved into the apartment.  Yet we had just gone through a 
brief, but quick house frenzy right before that trying to see if we could find a house 
we liked. 

The worst part about it is, every time we get in these “moods,” we usually find a 
house we love, yet are nowhere ready to buy.  Even before I took the job out here, 
while I was interviewing and checking out housing in this area, we found a wonderful 
home that we fell in love with.  And then there was the Playroom House.  And the 
McIntyres house.  And then this past weekend…

Armed with three house listings that Jen printed off of realtor.com, we began yet 
another chapter in the Li House Hunting Saga.  Even though we love the small town 
we're living in right now (which also happens to have the highest median income 
per capita in the entire state of Arkansas), Jen has always loved older homes.  She 
grew up in one.  They just have much more character than the cookie cutter ones 
being built everywhere today.

We had driven by this neighborhood we were checking out numerous times in the 
past, but for whatever reason, never bothered to give it much thought as a place to 
buy a home.  Plus having never lived in what can be considered an "ancient" home 
by today's standards, I think I was hesitant to open my mind to the possibility.  Most of the homes in this particular part of town were all built in the 1930s, but a lot of them had been renovated or updated, and most were in considerably good condition.  Front screened-in porches, hardwood floors, detailed interior design all seemed to be 
the norm.

We found the first listing pretty easily, and the house looked decent from the 
outside.  Again, our main goal was to see what the neighborhood was like, and to get a better idea of the size and condition of houses as well.  However, finding the 
second listing was no simple task.  Not all the streets were continuous even though 
they had the same name.  And it was difficult to determine which part of a street 
was considered "North" and "South." 

So we ended up stopping in front of a house where the tenants were moving a dining room set into their truck.  We pulled out a map and tried to figure out where we 
were.  Then I realized that Sunday was the day for open houses so I opened the 
newspaper to start looking for open houses we could stop by.  All in all, we had 
probably been sitting there for only a few minutes.  Jen remarked that the tenants 
probably thought we were acting suspicious having parked in front of their house for 
so long.  “With two kids, a newspaper, and a map in plain sight?”  I asked, “I 
seriously doubt it.  Now moving furniture out of a house onto a truck – now that
looks suspicious.” 

After spending a while searching for open houses – not that we were in any hurry as 
the open houses didn’t start until 2pm, and it was still a few minutes before, we 
finally found a few that looked promising.  One was definitely out of our price range, 
but we wanted to see what a house of that caliber offered.  One was barely in our 
price range if we went without anything but the necessities (you know, shelter, food, clothing, and internet).  And the last one was definitely in our price range. 

We drove to the first house, and as we pulled onto the street it was on, we could 
definitely tell a difference from the houses we were just looking at.  The street was 
wide, the houses were large, and the lawns were very well-manicured.  We finally 
found the open house, and the house definitely had some European flair. 

Before Ariel could open her mouth, both Jen & I turned to her and said at the same 
time, “now remember, no comments.”  You could tell we had done this before, and 
this was not our “first time around the block.”  Not that there is anything wrong with 
it, but Ariel tends to have a rather loose tongue at times.  So our house tour is 
usually interjected with comments from Ariel about how much she loves every room, 
how she wishes we could buy this house, pleading for us to buy the house, asking us 
if we could afford the house.  All of which are innocent enough questions, but just 
gets quite annoying when she does that for every house we see (and some that we 
don’t see), and sometimes within earshot of the agent.  Last thing we need is to 
have an agent overhear us say how we can’t even afford the house to begin with. 
There’s not a more surefire way to get an agent to dismiss you than by conveying 
that to them. 

And it’s amazing how fast the attitudes of some agents change when they find out 
that either we can’t afford the house to begin with, but that we’re just looking, or the fact that we’re stuck in a lease and won’t be ready to buy for another year.  Most agents have still been pretty amenable to talk to us and answer our questions, but there have been a few where you can just see their demeanor drop, clearly indicating that they have no time for us non-serious house buyers who are simply a waste of time.  I’m sorry, but first impressions go both ways.  Just because we’re not ready right now doesn’t mean we won’t be sometime in the near future.  And that’s the quickest way to lose a potential client in my book.

I seriously wonder what is going on in Braden’s little brain when we go house 
hunting.  I wonder what he thinks of us going into stranger’s houses, looking in their 
closets, and walking through all their bedrooms.  Does he think we don’t like where 
we’re living right now?  Does he think mom and dad are a bunch of weirdoes with 
some sick fascination for other people’s belongings?  Does he think that mom and 
dad are scoping out their next target for B&E? 

I still remember driving around with my parents when I was 5 or 6 years old while 
they looked for houses.  My dad would carry around a tape recorder with him and 
dictate notes and house details when he drove by a potential house.  I distinctly 
remember him tape recording the information of the house we ended up buying, 
although I don’t know if that really happened or it was something I convinced myself 
really happened.  In any case, I remember being fairly bored, and making the same 
comments Ariel makes now.  I’m sure my parents loved it as Jen & I do now.  Not. 
There just may be something to the saying, “just wait until you have kids.” 

The last two houses we saw of the afternoon turned out to be very nice.  One was 
very inexpensive, and needed some obvious work, but Jen fell in love with it over 
and over again as we went through the house.  Yes I admit, I definitely was jealous 
that she was giving away her affection to an inanimate object.  Not only was it 
spacious, it had several bedrooms and a finished attic which would make a wonderful 
playroom.  The other house was renovated and took up 2 ½ lots, a definitely rarity in any town.  The side yard was so nicely landscaped that it resembled a small park, 
complete with park bench and flowers.  Ah, c’est l’amour.

Fortunately for us, these moments of insanity don’t usually last long.  I think we’d 
drive Ariel crazy dragging her out to open houses every weekend simply because 
mom and dad like to look at houses.  These panic attacks are usually preceded by 
the knowledge that we will be moving in the near future.  But amazingly enough, our 
housing arrangements have always worked out as long as we’ve been married.  In 
retrospect, despite all of our fears, panic attacks, getting screwed by apartment 
managers, and last minute prayers, we’ve always had a place to stay that worked 
out to our best interest.  It’s one aspect of our life that we really feel blessed with, 
and really just need to put our trust in God.

Our timing has been horrible I admit.  But like anything else where timing is critical 
(throwing a grenade, making love, asking permission from your spouse to buy the 
widescreen TV), practice makes perfect, or so I hope.