Wait a second. Maybe he doesn’t enjoy house huntingwith me.
Take today, for example, our fifth weekend in a row of having his realtor drag us around the Wicker Park area. So far, we’ve seen fifteen single-family houses, two condos, and a townhouse. All of them beautifully renovated places. But I think that’s the problem. They’re all renovated, and with that comes the reality that everyone that’s doing that now is choosing white, black, and gray as their colors. Example. Every place we’ve looked at has white kitchen cabinets and white countertops.
They’re lovely places, but that’s not what I want. I want that place with the exposed brick, a fireplace, and a kitchen that looks like it’s original to the house, which means wood. To me, anyway.
Frustration is written all over Nate’s face today. He’s liked all of the houses so far. He should. They’ve all cost upwards of a million bucks. According to Nate, though, that’s how much we’ll need to pay to get our forever house in the area we want.
Ridiculous.
Not the forever house part. I like that part. Just the prices these days. Those are ridiculous.
While I’m not opposed to a fixer-upper, Nate is not in favor. I guess since it’s his job, he doesn’t want to come home to projects. He’s also said he doesn’t want me and Brynn to have to deal with that. So, I’ve let that go. Our focus is on renovated properties.
“Now, this is our last showing of the day,” our perky little realtor, Bridget, says excitedly. I bet she’s anxious to end this for today too.
“Thank fuck,” mutters Nate.
See?Grumpy boots is back.
Truth. I sort of missed him.
I’d laugh if I wasn’t exhausted. And I miss my girl. Sara, Nate’s mom, is babysitting again today. I’d worry about us calling on her too much, but she’s thrilled. Robin has stepped in twice as well when the realtor called suddenly to tell us she had a “hot new listing” for us. None of those panned out.
“This one has five bedrooms, three and a half baths…”
I want to scoff, because I know how muchthat’sgoing to cost.Five bedrooms?Yikes.
Bridget keeps right on talking. “It’s thirty-six hundred square feet…”
Choking, I gather myself quickly. “It’s huge,” I whisper to Nate.
“That’s what she said.”
And that’s exactly what we needed. Something to make us laugh. Which we both do, until we pull up to the house of my dreams.
“That’s it,” I practically gasp.
“It is?” Nate looks from me to the two-story home with a Chicago brick exterior.
It sits on a corner lot, which means there’s going to be a decent-size yard for Brynn. “How much?” I quickly ask Bridget.
“Just under your max budget. $949,900.”
“Holy shit,” I grumble. It’s way too much. I told Nate we should only look at places that are less than half a million dollars. God, that amount makes me feel a little sick, so this number is much worse. “I thought we decided—” I stop talking because he had agreed on one million.
Gah! Just saying that amount in my head is surreal.
“Maggy. I’ve told you. I’m listing my place. That will cover the cost of our new place. Our budget is a million. It’s not a big deal.” He runs his fingers through his hair and glares out the window.
“I know.” I sigh. “Let’s take a look.” This is a bad idea. It’s like that show where the people try on wedding dresses. The host always tells people not to try on dresses out of their budget because theyalwayswant that dress.
I love that show.
We follow Bridget up six steps to the front door; all the while, she’s still chattering on about this house. I listen. “I believe this is only two blocks from the flower shop, Maggy.” She looks back at me like she knows that’s a big selling feature. It is. She goes on, “It’s been completely renovated. There’s a pretty little park about a half block from here.”
I saw that park. She’s right, it’s perfect. There’s a playground and everything.
“Ten-foot ceilings. Walk-in closets in every bedroom.”
