Vegas, take 2, and other sources of anxiety

Well boy howdy, it's been ages since I've posted. Ages. It's probably the depression kicking in. Or the fact that we just haven't been home.

We drove to Las Vegas last week to do more house-hunting. Our hopes were high: there were 2 strong contenders leading the way (the fixer-upper disappeared before we even left Tucson) and we knew we could live in either one.

The drive up was surprisingly good. I highly recommend a DVD player and lots of Dora videos if traveling with toddlers.

On Wednesday morning, we dropped the kids off at the CDC. They hated it, and we hated leaving them there, but there was no way they were going to be able to keep pace with the number of houses we needed to see. We saw the 2 houses we liked, and had several discussions about which one we liked best.

Me: I like the Alamo house best. Great view, good neighborhood, good layout.

Tim: I think I like the Jake house better.

Me: Oh. So the Alamo house, then?

We saw several other houses that day, just to cover our bases. We arrived back at the CDC, happy to see the girls and ready to go play at the park before dinner. All was going so well.

That night, I popped into the computer lab to check if new houses had been listed. Funny, neither the Alamo house nor the Jake house appeared on my map. Slight panic. Search again. Major panic. GONE. Both houses gone. Also gone was our distant 3rd choice for the day. I began to feel queasy.

A quick call to Joe, our agent, the next morning:

Me: Joe, I feel ill.

Joe: Literally? Or figuratively?

Me: Both, I think. All the houses we liked yesterday are gone.

Joe: NO. WAY.

Back to the CDC, back to look at all the crap houses left on the market. Depression. Anxiety. Fear that we will have to live in base housing, or (GAH) stay in the TLF until we find something in like October. We saw nothing that we liked that day. It was the worst day. I think I cried. And then Claire pooped in the tub and I lost it in fits of hysterical giggles.

Friday was a better day, mostly because we found One Last House that looked good. Actually 2 houses, but one was a huge compromise (3 bedrooms and no pool. I know, what are we thinking?). We hurry up called the agent. No answer. Called the agent again 3 hours later. No answer. In the mean time, we saw more houses that would do if (sigh) we had to live in them, but they were by no means at the top of our list. Then, genius: Joe called the office of the agent one last time. He got a girl on the phone who was from Long Island. He's from Brooklyn. They clicked. She said maybe there was another agent working on that house, too, and voila, information! Just like we figured: there were 2 other bids in on the house already, but they were substantially below list, so if the bank declines them, we might get lucky. So that brings us to today: waiting to see what happens with that house. Hoping that the bank declines the other offers and then accepts ours. I'll let you know when I find out. Until then, I will not post pictures due to a strong superstition that it will jinx us.

Also: no takers yet on our house here. We had a couple more people through, but no offers. Real estate stinks.