Rejection #2...followed very quickly by "we want this one instead!"

Ok so jeff and I have had some serious house identity crisis. If you recall, we started this adventure on the "2 bedroom condo that we can live in a few years and then when we have 1.5 kids we rent it and buy a bigger place." Then we started thinking about (and I quickly jumped on this bandwagon while Jeff was more hesitant) "how about a 1200 sqft 3 bedroom house that is a longer term live in but can still easily be rented out?" And so the identity crisis began. We have literally looked at everything for 800 sqft condo to a 2000 sqft 4 bedroom house - and every type of townhouse in between.

So we took a much needed break when Jeff went to Vegas and I went to San Fran and then we got back and pretty much instantly went of the family gathering so we've had a couple of slow weeks. But on Monday we were back in the saddle. We had a bunch lined up (again ranging across the entire spectrum) and we went looking. And we found two that we liked:

- the turn key Beacon Hill house - http://www.movoto.com/seattle-wa/4886-24th-ave-s-seattle-wa-98108-501_802941/ - completely redone, totally move in ready, with the potential that we could live there probably our whole lives if we wanted to. Only weird factor was that it's in Beacon Hill (good neighborhood just not what we had in mind) and we knew instantly that it would sell for way more than asking price and jeff was basically needing to breathe into a paper bag when he thought about the words "half a million dollars."

- the fixer-upper condo in West Seattle - http://nwhomes.seattletimes.com/homes/for-sale-3435-california-ave-sw-unit-304-seattle-wa-98116-nwclassifieds-nwhomes-798269-d - this would be going back to the original plan (and bonus - the building doesn't have a rental cap so easier to rent) PLUS it would give us an opportunity to dip our toe into the reno arena without using sledge hammers (hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, and the adventure of installing an IKEA kitchen).

So what happened was this: we did a pre-inspection on the Beacon Hill house, and put an offer in for a slightly lowball number (only in Seattle real estate is $501,000 a lowball number for a 3 bedroom house) and figured "hey if we get it then we got a really good deal and we'll see where the neighborhood takes us....and if we dont get it, we're doing anything we can to get that condo." And as of an hour ago, we're moved into the "we're doing anything we can to get that condo" phase. And to be completely honest, we are both really relieved. The Beacon Hill house would have been nice, but I dont think it really hit me at all until we put an offer on it that "lifetime house" meant lifetime. And we would have seriously rattled around that place for quite a few years, whereas the condo will be just right for us now and we can make big life long decisions after we have a kid so we're used to making big life long decisions :]