A Successful Hunt

I'm not really an adventurous person by nature. I am content to be the navigator when we travel. I am happy to cheer from the stands. I love to be the "behind-the-scenes" director of our trips. This weekend I was forced out of my comfort zone and into the driver's seat....literally. Daughter and her bestie and I went to join Husband in Omaha Nebraska for some house-hunting. We loaded all our hunting gear, the car snacks and the GPS and headed out on Thursday afternoon. Like I said before I can not, will not drive in traffic I am not an aggressive driver and prefer to be the navigator and was getting butterflies at the thought of the city traffic...but that was hours down the road and I was content for the moment to watch the monotony of the Dakotas pass us by. I loved the empty highways. The feeling of complete control over the road. Just me and the occasional side of road-kill. I did start to notice, though...the closer we got to Sioux Falls the heavier the traffic was getting. Not worrisome, really....just annoying. They were really wrecking the chi I had built up. I was still OK. Doing my own thing...just a little faster now...more of a frenzied pace and other travelers seemed to be using my space to further their own agendas. We were packed pretty tight in the 3 lanes that were allotted us when out of nowhere some sadistic road engineer (a man with NO spacial issues) pushed us all into 2 lanes!!! And then my space was totally invaded and I felt the need to find a rape counseling center. After a bit the traffic eased up and we hit Iowa....and I do mean hit....their roads look like Swiss cheese and feel like cobble stone. Not the smooth sailing we had experienced in the Dakota's at all. How I missed them. It was getting dark...as it usually does at night, and I was feeling more and more anxious. The cars seemed to be driving faster and in closer proximity to my own car....and then....we encountered construction cones. Their evil orange gleam taunted my not so steely nerves. I was about to completely unravel when, without warning, the cones (and therefore the traffic) veered suddenly to the right and INTO THE TUNNEL. OF. DEATH!!! I am not kidding when I tell you some idiot (probably the same man lacking spacial issues) had set up concrete barriers for us to drive through with only an inch or two of clearance on either side of my mirrors...IN THE DARK!!!! My hands were sweating and my tummy knotted and I was sure I had a seat wedgie. The teens were fine with the TUNNEL OF DEATH...except for the fact that the car was being driven by a woman on the edge of a mental breakdown. And as suddenly as it came on...it was gone. I was left to ponder the meaning of life for a while longer....and then we rounded a bend in the road and came face to face with skyscrapers. OK...maybe not skyscrapers....but some REALLY tall buildings were there....right there in our view and I knew a fresh new hell was about to begin. Sure enough...then the road began to split and curve around on itself like a snake straight out of Harry Potter. We had to dodge right and merge left and then dodge left and merge right and there were cars and trucks and headlights and I am sure I saw a flying saucer at some point and then....THANKFULLY...the GPS dinged and it was time to leave the madness and the insanity of the freeway and navigate our way to the nearest institution with padded walls hotel where Husband was eagerly awaiting our arrival. He was so happy to see us that I felt bad that I was so rattled that a proper hello was the last thing on my mind. I changed into my jammies and went straight to bed. Friday morning we started with the Realtor...Nancy Woolley....a fabulous woman who truly seemed to really know what we wanted in a house. Husband had been out looking with her a couple of times already and they had a few new properties to show me as well. We looked and searched and hunted all day on Friday. We saw homes that were $170,000 all the way up to $270,000. We thought we had decided on a house. It was nice....not perfect...and a bit over what we wanted to spend....but nice. We decided to sleep on it and look at 2 or 3 more on Saturday and then we would know. We drove up to this house on Saturday morning....
"A little small", was my first thought. But then we went inside. It opened up nicely. A bathroom, a laundry room and two bedrooms to the right of the entry way and then straight on into the living area.
The fireplace is pretty and the paint colors are really nice. The kitchen is smaller than I am used to....but it has a nice island work area and it really is nice. The house does have a basement with a big bedroom and 3/4 bath, a huge family room and a nice area for storage.
It is in a subdivision with 699 other houses so we won't be lonely. And you can't see from the pic really well but we could see the tall buildings of downtown Omaha from the deck.
After seeing 2 other houses on Saturday and comparing all of the houses we had seen we decided that this one was the house for us. It felt right and that is something that none of the other houses did. This was the right house at the right price (with a tiny garage...sorry babe). We made an offer at noon with a deadline of 5 and at 4:30 Nancy had called to let us know we were under contract. Yeah, we don't really mess around. So we now own a house in Omaha. After we close and before we move in we will replace the white carpet with something a little more user friendly and put granite and tile back splash in the kitchen. Those are the only major things we wanted to change in this house and we are so happy with it. Sunday was not only Easter but my 18th wedding anniversary. It was nice to be with my honey that day, but sad because I had to leave at noon. The TUNNEL OF DEATH wasn't nearly so treacherous (or long) in the day light and the windy merge-y freeway wasn't nearly as traumatic in the emptiness of Easter Sunday either. All in all the trip home was quiet and uneventful...except for the...well, never mind....I guess you had to be there.