Y3W: We're house hunting

After 6 years of dating, and 3.5 years of marriage, Ryan and I are finally ready to buy a house. This is so exciting for us, because we've been saving and daydreaming about this for years. Every night this week we've gone to look at houses, and we're starting to figure out what we're looking for. We thought we knew what we wanted when we started looking, but after seeing some places and thinking about how things work for our family, we've had to adapt our ideas. This is great progress though because it really narrows down what we're after. So far, our list goes like this:

We Need:

At least 3 bedrooms (because we'd like to have two more babies in this house and need room for them)

At least two bathrooms

A decent sized kitchen (we're finding this the hardest part since apparently builders don't think people use their kitchens anymore)

An open concept layout (this is what we've discovered is most important to us)

We Want:

A big mature back yard so we can have a swing set for Addie

A double car garage

A finished basement

A turn key house

So there it is, I don't think our list is too unreasonable, we're open on the square footage as long as the layout is good and works for us. We've looked at 1200sqft places and 2000sqft places and both would work well for us with the right layout.

We need to buy before May 2011 because at that point my maternity leave runs out and I will actually have to claim only my self employment income which is an annoying process that we'd like to avoid, .

Stay tuned for updates and eventually our new home tour!