House Hunting and Bribery

We have all temporarily given up our regular lives for house hunting. Kent and I, with the girls in tow, have looked at maybe 3o properties over the last month in our quest to find our next abode. We looked at nine houses this weekend alone. The novelty of these adventures wore off long ago for our little ones, so we've resorted to bribery. Saturday included ice-cream sandwiches from 7-11, Sunday included a trip to the junk aisle of Target and a trip to the park, and Monday's adventure resulted in Costco frozen yogurt.

I have come to the conclusion that buying a house in Northern Virginia will require one of the following components: either Kent will have over a commute of 75 minutes one way, or we'll have to settle for less than ideal schools (or pay for private schools), or we will really have to stretch financially. So far, we haven't fallen in love with a property enough to accept one of the above mentioned sacrifices. But, we are persevering.

Here is an example of a possible backyard pictured below. It has a house we all really, really like. It's big, has .75 acres including a creek, large picture windows looking out to wooded views, has a large shed with power that Kent could convert to a dreamy detached studio, and the price is right. However, my commute would go from 20 to 40 minutes, Kent's would go from 60 to 80 minutes, and the high school it's zoned to is not desirable. But, the lot and the interior of the house are awesome, and we've been to look at it four times. We haven't ruled it out yet, but the search continues . . .