House Hunting

Looking for a house is exhausting. No one warned me. Actually, they did warn me that it was exhausting, but no one ever really explained why. Now I know. Here's why:

1) too many unknown factors. Basically you're buying a house you've seen once or twice. The inspector might find a problem or two, but even he can't rip out the walls and check the wiring or guarantee the air conditioner won't break in two months. We're also new at this, so I don't know the right questions to ask, etc.

2)estimating how much all the stuff you want to change is going to cost. The a-holes on the internet don't put the prices per square foot on their sites, forcing you to have to GO TO THE STORE. This makes me very, very angry. All I want is some very basic information, and now I have to drive all over town just to get the most general number possible. I don't even know if I want tile floors - I just want to know if they are a good financial decision, and now I am being forced to enter a place where I have to talk to a salesperson who is going to make me uncomfortable and try to sell me something I'm not ready to buy. And then I'm going to have to shoo the person away and feel guilty for potentially hurting their feelings. Ugh! I have seriously turned into a stranger-hater.

3)the conversations with Jonathan have not been going well. We have different ways of looking at these houses, and they are not very compatible, so I have been getting very frustrated. We're doing a good job of finally getting our points across, but the process is difficult and exhausting. We had a little breakthrough yesterday which actually was great, but it came after over an hour of conflict. We're not fighting, though. I mean, there's no yelling or anything like that. I just feel like we are talking in circles, and after an entire two hours of conversation, we are no closer to understanding one another than we were when we started. I can see that these conversations are actually positive things, but effective communication is always hard work.

So, there you are. I think those are the big things that are making me just want to sit around and pretend I don't see the chores I have to do. I want this to be over SOON.