  Today I began ( in earnest)  the exciting and scary search for a new home.  The first place I went to was pretty nice,  but a bit farther than I'd like.  It was also at the higher end of my personally-
set price range ( the lenders would probably lend me more,  but then they'd own my ass)  It also had the downside of having 3 offers that were being submitted as I was viewing the house -  so unless I was ready for a bidding war,  only 30 minutes after starting,
 then I was out of luck.  The second place was a bit more to my liking,  and at 10k cheaper than the first house,  a bit more to my wallets liking too.  This place is on a corner,  with a bit bigger yard (
front and back)  than the first house.  But over half of it is in the front,  and since it is all grass I can already forsee many an afternoon spent mowing.  Since I was actually giving this place a chance,  I inspected it more closely and here's what I saw.
 Upsides:  Not too far away,  in a nice neighborhood right off 148th and 116th ( I used to drive past the spot on my way to Green River many years ago)  Niceties:  two marble fireplaces,
 marble kitchen top,  skylight,  and comes with all appliances Room sizes were quite adequate ( there was no formal dining room,  but I'd have no idea what do with it even if it had one)  and the kitchen has plenty of cupboards and a window over the sink Main downsides that I noticed:
 -  master bath is smaller than second bathroom ( and has pink- tiled shower and sink)  -  doesn't appear house is wired for cable -
 the owners appear to have flunked out of Tim Allen's do- it- yourself school of home projects:  ( 1)  even though there was no cable,
 they put an antenna on the roof,  and wired the tv's to it.  It looks like they just punched holes in the wall and threaded the wire through ( note the operative word punch -  they didn't drill,  it looks like the simply took something heavy and pounded out a hole)
 They also didn't appear to follow any cabling standards as the holes are too close to the floor,  and they didn't even bother connecting the wires to a wall- mounted connector -  the wires are just dangling out of oversized holes in the wall.  ( 2)
 The driveway has/ had a thick crack running across it and it appears they tried to fill it with silly putty.  I'm not kidding,  it really does look like they just tried patching it with whatever they had lying around.  ( 3)
 They did every room of the house with a different carpet ( color and style)  and none of them match the rooms they are in.  Its too bad this is the first place I've taken a real good look at.  None of the downsides ( even though they may sound bad)
 are beyond repair -  some of them the owners may even be required to fix ( or pay to fix)  before they can sell it;  and it is a nice place.  At least no one has placed an offer on this house yet.
 I'm hoping that a couple of other houses come on the market in the next couple of days so I have something to compare it against.  For those interested,  I took several pictures with my new camera ( graduation gift from my Dad/ Step- mom)
 Oh well,  time to get some much needed sleep.  PS:  I also got to see a really cool albino kitty,  with two different colored eyes;  one blue and the other gold.
