sounds like apartment-fever.

This weekend contained quite the 'right-of-passage'. Aaron and I met with a realtor and toured our first home. Well, not our first home. We are in no way financially prepared to 'make a move' just yet. In an act of procrastination under the name 'getting educated about the market', I've slowly began researching homes in our area. and even slower - learning about equity, interest rates, FHA loans, etc. I say we aren't prepared just yet, but I feel that homeownership is actually a lot closer than I had previously thought. I just wanted to really get started with the whole process... and I ended up finding a property that we really liked. It's very spacious and in our opinion, much more than we thought we could get at our price range. I found the listing here - there's a whole slideshow.

I really liked the uniqueness, that it wasn't in one of the pre-planned cookie-cutter neighborhoods. Not to say we won't end up in something like that, but if we had our pick - we'd go for a restored 1920s bungalow-style anyday. Well after talking with Aaron's family, we thought it couldn't hurt to go take a look. I was hoping to find something wrong with it to tell you the truth. We didn't make an offer of course... But, this first step is very exciting. Aaron's already making his list of house needs: 1) grill 2) tool bench 3) dog(s)...

Just to brainstorm - On the one hand, we're very much tossing away money in rent every month. And most importantly, our stay in Oklahoma is somewhat temporary, and from a housing standpoint - we would need to get into something fairly quickly for it to be 'worth it'- even if that means some lower expectations and making quite a few sacrifices. But on the other hand, we're trying not to be naive about the process as well - there are so many extra hidden fees - closing costs, taxes, insurance... There will be so many added expenses - kitchen appliances, higher utilities, lawnmower...and heaven forbid if something should go wrong - your savings account now must operate as your convenient apartment landlord. We'd definitely soak up any advice from those with experience out there.

All in all, we had a more eventful weekend compared to most. (sequestered like hermits with our laptops.) Our sister-in-law, Sarah, turned over into her 26th-year & we got together at a Japanese hibachi grill to celebrate with the whole family. mmm, it's the only way to eat shrimp, i'll say. Aaron's grandparents came back for a 'grand tour' of our place, and then we spent the evening hanging out with all the 'kids'.

over the weekend, we managed to squeeze in some homework, cleaning, movies on Tivo, complaning about losing an hour of sleep...

After touring the house on Saturday, Aaron's parents took us out for pizza at Hideaway (Oklahoma-famous, I'll take you if you come for a visit)...and then I wanted to go to Cafe 501 & share with them 'the-best-cupcakes-in-the-world'...I don't think Aaron agreed with my superlatives, but they really have a delicious and creative selection of desserts.