Overwhelmed

O.M.G. I am So Very Glad we left the girls home with Buji while we went house shopping. We saw probably 55 houses in 3 days, leaving the last day to revisit the ones we liked, talk numbers, and make decisions. I do not even know where to begin with the stories. Perhaps I should let some pictures do the talking. First, some background: Las Vegas is the number 1 highest market for foreclosures in the U.S. right now, and I think there are more than 20,000 homes for sale there as we speak. I feel like we saw half of them. Also, we named most of the houses for easy reference later.

The yard-sale house. We did not open any of the cabinets. Do not ask what the bathroom smelled like.

The leaky house. Those 'patches' are cardboard taped over giant holes where water had seeped through the ceiling. The hole on the left is not covered.

One of many of the green pool houses. There was a dead bird off to the left of the hot tub. Seriously.

The crayola house. "Here, son, draw me a picture."

The leather house. Clearly a foreclosure: the owners encouraged people to cover the bathroom walls (and toilet) with permanent marker.

The reason the leather house got its name: the upstairs walls were wallpapered in leather, complete with brass tacks like you see on sofas. Hmmm.

The Providence house. In case you were getting worried about our income level: we did find some very nice homes. This is a favorite.

The view from the balcony of the greenbelt house. Also a favorite.

I wish I could tell you that we have a house. You know how the housing market is horrible? And how Las Vegas has the highest foreclosure rate of any place in the country? Well, the house we want already has two buyers ready to bid on it. It is a foreclosure, and people like us are sensing an incredible deal. We are putting in a bid, but probably won't know if we won until next week. We're hoping Really Hard that we get it, because the house we like second best is also not likely to be on the market for much longer. So much for the housing crunch, at least for our home-buying experience. Our home-selling experience, now there we are feeling the housing crunch. Bonus.