Prospects of becoming a house owner are exciting, scary and exhausting all wrapped up into one lovely package. I was excited when Dhrumil and I came to the agreement to start house hunting, but it was hard to quiet the positives and negatives of this endeavor which were in a constant shouting match in my head… Stability! Goodbye money! Ownership! Responsibility! No close neighbors! No neighbors! Easy! Hard! Staying! Packing! GOODBYE MONEY
One would say this is a buyers’ market… and it is. BUT living in one of the most expensive counties in America always tends to put a damper on things. An 1100 square foot house is the same price, if more expensive, than a BRAND NEW 2400 square foot house in Indiana. Sigh. Thus our search began on the thought that oh wow that house is only 450K how can that be!?
We decided to start this process with Mikayla in tow. Our realtor thought it would be great for her to be part of the experience and though apprehensive we agreed. The first house we viewed on a day of 5 houses Mikayla yelled “NO” the first step we took into the house. I couldn’t have agreed more. Though Mikayla was an angel during the house hunting, the rest of that day had a mixture of no living space, no closet space, smelly basements and no bathtubs. Needless to say by the end we were feeling deflated and defeated. Unless we were millionaires living in our county might not happen.
Instead of throwing away the towel we decided to get back out there and see more houses. Sunday morning we were all dressed and ready for church as we embarked on yet another day to view potential dwelling places. A block from our first house Dhrumil pointed out a little Chihuahua mix walking down the sidewalk alone. **DISCLAIMER – Dhrumil has radar for stray dogs, he sees them from a mile away and has delivered many a pooch home to their owners. I have encouraged him on numerous occasions to open DADDY D’s K9 rescue, but he has decided to stay in Finance** Maybe this dog should have been a clue or omen to what would come. I sprang out of the car and pounced on the little dog, as though rehearsed I called out the phone number from his collar and Dhrumil called the owner. Already late for our first house no one answered the call and Dhrumil told me to bring the dog in the car. He seemed friendly enough… so in the car he came. Thankfully I spotted the street that was on his collar and I again sprang out of the car and delivered him to his owners.
To continue… we finally made it to the house and liked what we saw. I then happened to notice many pictures hanging that had Dhrumil’s good college friend in them. WAIT!? Ended up being his friend’s parents’ house. Such a small world. Though we thought that house was the best we’ve seen so far, we just didn’t think it was the one. So on to the next.
The next was a flip and though the inside was very nice, we didn’t like the street and while discussing this with the realtor we both happened to turn our backs for a SECOND. I’m sure many of you know what turning a back for a SECOND can do when a toddler is loose. Wasn’t it a toddler who started the economic crisis because her dad’s back was turned while she did a little buying and selling of stocks?
Anyways I hear an “OH NO” and look to see my sweet angel in her white Sunday dress have her hands covered in gravel tar. You know that black stuff that they put on streets? I ran to get wipes, that didn’t work. We ran into the house and while Dhrumil held Mikayla the realtor and I both scrubbed her hands all the while Mikayla was screaming and yelling MIMI MIMI! That is what she calls herself… maybe she was saying mimi was dirty? Yup so that didn’t work either. We decided to run to the nearest Home Depot and while Dhrumil was saying his apologies to the realtor I ran into the house to try to clean off the tar hand print on the white door. Yup that didn’t work. Once we arrived at Home Depot we realized neither of us had our wallets so we had to drive 30 minutes back to our house, all the while I was in the back seat ensuring Mikayla’s hands did not come into contact with her face, her mouth or my dress.
On our drive back I had a light bulb go off… they clean those oil covered pelicans in the commercials with Dawn...maybe it would work on a toddler? Though I didn’t have Dawn, I grabbed the kitchen soap and while Mikayla played with her toys in the bath I scrubbed… and after 15 minutes we had a clean Mikayla.
Has this episode deterred us? Of course not. What has it taught us? Kitchen liquid soap is a powerful ally in the fight against dirty toddler.
Stay tuned to more adventures of house hunting!
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