House hunting

We've been house hunting the past two days and it has been exhausting.  Yesterday, we (I) thought it would be ok to bring the boys along.  They did well for having to get out of the car every 5 minutes, but as Andrew said, when you're trying to make a decision about where you're going to live for the next 4 years, it's best to be able to make that decision w/o crazy town going on behind you.  Today, we got a babysitter (props to an ex-Perth wife who hooked me up w/ a babysitting agency) and it was a world of difference.  The way the housing market works in Perth, agents have an open house for oh, about 15-30 minutes and usually, based on that time alone, they will have applications and the house rented out.  It's insane.  Yesterday we found a house that Andrew loved and I was meh about.  Today, we found a house that I loved and Andrew was blah about.  Finally, we saw an amazing house at the end of the day - we put an application in on it, but know that at least one other person has put an application in on it so it's up in the air whether we'll get it or not.  Fingers crossed.  Prayers prayed. ;)  If we get it, I'll go into more detail, but it was a place both Andrew and I like which is huge.  And it has character and feels very Australian.  We're hoping. 

Ok, I just have to say, we saw some SCARY, crazy places on our house hunt.  One house in particular - the former tenants were still in it (which is another Australian weird thing = they do open houses with the tenants still in it = their crap is EVERYWHERE) and it had been functioning as a home for mentally disturbed teenage boys.  So, imagine walking into a home and turning to find a teenage boy sitting on the couch staring straight ahead.  And then going into the kitchen to find 2 teenage boys just sitting at the kitchen table in silence.  It was weird.  Kind of reminded me a bit of my time doing fieldwork on the inpatient psych unit in a NYC hospital.  Needless to say, that house wasn't an option.  When we were walking out Andrew asked me, 'so, what did you think?'  I said that I thought it seemed a bit creepy.  And as Andrew confirmed, 'that's cuz it WAS creepy!'  Glad we agreed on something....;)