There are two theories about trying to buy a house as winter approaches. One is that the competition among buyers is lower and you might even get a better price.

And the other, more astoundingly accurate theory, is that no one bothers to put their house up for sale as winter approaches because they don’t believe anyone out there is actually looking to buy a house and then be crazy enough to move in the dead of winter. (A fool such as I…)

It has been so frustrating. The couple of houses that were left on the market by the time I finally got my pre-approval in hand for the mortgage, got snatched up so fast it would — yes — make your head spin. All those houses that were in my price range in late summer and early fall are all gone. Sold. Or just plain off the market.

But I remain hopeful. Each night before I go to bed, I pray that some old person somewhere — in this county or even the next one over — will transition to the sweet hereafter by morning and that the perfect house for me, right in my pre-approval range, will suddenly spring onto the market and I can go grab it. (And of course I pray that this random old person already had a rich and deeply rewarding life…)

I have looked at a few houses and it just gets exhausting because they don’t work out for one reason or another (the worst being that it could be a great house but the owners didn’t take care of it and now no one in their right mind, who isn’t a house flipper, would attempt to buy it). Pretty much every day now, I’m exhausted because of the housing search.

This means, I’m getting no writing done. And the more I get no writing done, the less happier and more exhausted-er I am! (Actually, you’ve gotta be one helluva great writer to even come up with a great convoluted sentence such as that!)

It takes a lot of focus to find reasons to stay cheerful, to stay hopeful, to just keep going until I find the perfect house, especially when I’m trying to do this nonsense all by myself. (Although I have an amazingly great & patient realtor.) But I’m so tired of living out of boxes. So tired of not having access to my stuff. So tired of not being able to really celebrate any of the holidays. So tired of living in a few hundred square feet with 8 constantly shedding cats…(can you say “sinus condition”?)

I want a home again!

Okay. The seriously good news is that I am actually starting to make real friends out here in the Hinterlands.  Really nice, authentic people, who use a lot of four-letter words and who all seem to own guns. However, they’re just good, honest people. I really like them.

And even a really nice guy has sort of come into my life. It’s way too soon to know what might come of it, but he sure is nice. And funny. On the outside, he’s seems like just a grumpy, half-deaf, slow-moving older guy who always looks either pissed-off or bewildered; he always seems a million miles away. But on the inside, he is just the nicest person, with a sharp wit.  And very direct.  I like that.

All righty. I guess I should get something done around here today, since yet another house I was interested in looking at has been reported to be a sort of “handyman’s special.” And I am decidedly not handy. So now I suddenly have the whole day free and to myself. So I should make some use of that.

Before I close, though, I regale you with this! A few of my cuties transfixed by some sparrows outside the living room window this morning:

Thanks for visiting, gang, and I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday, wherever you are and with whatever you’re gazing at and getting transfixed by! I leave you with this wonderful ditty that I’m currently playing nonstop in the Honda Fit as I go tootling around the Hinterlands!

See ya!