We may have found our new home!

Randy and I decided to take today a little differently. Instead of all of us piling in the vehicle together and heading out through every house, Emily and I went while Randy and Grace stayed back at the hotel. He was getting frustrated with not finding what we were looking for so this gave me the opportunity to 'weed out' properties I knew he would not want to see. So, he and Grace eventually met up with us at the 4th house of the day, arriving at 16606 Blenheim Drive in Lutz (pronounced LOOTZ) to meet the realtor, Emily and myself. The flyer for the property describes it as:

"4 Bedrooms, 3 Full Baths, 3 Car Garage, New Stainless Steel Kitchen Appliances, Solar Heated Swimming Pool, Outdoor Kitchen & Scenic Pond.

It will be easy to make this wonderful house your home. It has a spacious open floor plan featuring high ceiling & decorator shelves. The kitchen has been updated with all new Stainless Steel Appliances and features a built-in desk. The formal living and dining rooms offer an opportunity to display your finest furnishings. There's a cozy family room / kitchen combo with decorative wainscoting, built-in entertainment center, a wood burning fireplace and breakfast nook overlooking the pool and pond. Nearly 2,700 s.f. of living area in this sturdy concrete block / stucco home offers plenty of room for your family to grow. The exterior paint, A/C handler, water heater and pool pump are fairly new. The huge 15 x 30 swimming pool has all new sreens and is solar heated. There are beautiful shade trees everywhere. Windsor Park is a gated community that features tree lined streets, scenic ponds, playgrounds, tennis courts, an activities pavilion and a boat/RV storage area for your use."

So, we went through it as a family and we all really liked it. Randy especially loves the pond view and there was even a duck swimming across while we were there. The owners put a wooden bench swing down near the water with a lattice arbor as well as a wood & rope swing hung from the tree. We left there though and went and looked at a couple more but finally decided we just wanted to go back and see the first house together again. I have to admit, I never had the AAAAAAHHHHHHH moment I was hoping for but I can definitely see my family growing in this house and us definitely making it our home. There is a wonderful little pond when you walk up to the front of the house and when you reach the front step the 'mauve-colored' tile becomes very noticeable. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention there is mauve tile throughout the house but the owner's were going to to change it out before they received a job transfer so are giving an allowance for the cost-estimate they received. The mauve tile even surrounds the wood burning fireplace! It's actually not that bad though - I'll know better when the house is completely empty. The master retreat is huge with sliders to the pool area. There are also sliders from the formal living room, the breakfast nook (2 sides) and the family room with a separate door to the pool bath which is next to bedrooms 3 and 4 (on the opposite side of the house from the master retreat). We will probably convert the formal dining room into Randy's office - guess that means we'll have to do better about keeping it clean!!! Bedroom 2 has it's own bath and private door to the outside of the house, but it's on the side of the house and not the back where the lanai and pool are located. The pool is beautiful with a lage covered area and the whole thing is screened. There is also an outdoor kitchen with a built-in down-draft Jenn-Air grill. In anticipation for the dog the girls want to get, there is also a dog run located on the side of the house!

So, we've returned to the hotel for the night and our realtor went on to run the numbers and see what sort of realistic offer we can make. We already know the taxes on the property so all I have to do tomorrow is call around about insurance. Then our mortgage-guy will crunch them all together and let us know if we're within the ballpark of where we want to be. So, tomorrow's the day...hopefully we'll find out if our total number is within our reach, make the offer, and hopefully have it accepted.