The Hunt for a House Begins...

So we officially started the house hunt last week, this is the reason for my MIA status lately.

Apparently when I get a new "project" I obsess over it until my brain turns to mush, so I have literally done nothing but look for houses/condos online, in neighborhoods and exchange e-mails with my realtor for the past two weeks. We've seen a couple good houses, but nothing we would seriously put an offer on. We had one house that we were serious about until we saw it in the daylight, lol. It ended up needed WAY more work then originally thought. I took my dad to see it with me the day after Justin and I checked it out and the two of us spent a good two hours looking at every inch of the house. In the end there was just too much to fix and not enough funding/time for us to do it. It wasn't my dream neighborhood either, I would have been settling for a neighborhood I'm not crazy about, so I guess it's good my dad is meticulous and gave me the truth about the house.

Right now we're going back and forth between getting a house and condo. Here is the low down:
Condos are are much more updated, usually come with appliances, a little cheaper and don't require me to actually take care of outdoor things. The downside of condos: association fees and neighbors that are super close!
Houses in our price range (in our favored neighborhoods) are going to need quite a bit of work (we're talking more then paint and carpet) and we would most likely have to settle for an area that we aren't in love with. This scares me, as does being financially responsible for owning a house and taking care of the outside and any structural things that go wrong. I think (in the words of my mother) "the first couple years of marriage are hard enough, do you really want to be remodling a house at the same time?" um... NO I don't!

Moving on to other things...
BLACK FRIDAY IS FAST APPROACHING!
I have a love-hate relationship with black friday. One year I will love it, the next I will despise it and all the crazies that come along with it. I get anxiety in crowded places and that anxiety usually makes me crabby so me+no sleep+way too many people in one department store = crabby emily.
So I will usually decide the night before if I really want to make the effort to get up and chase down all the crazies for $10 off a DVD collection or a crock pot. The funny thing is, I usually end up shopping more for myself then anyone else, which is NOT the point of going out, but whatever. I checked out this years Target ad and have finally found a plan for completing my DVD collection before the "big move". Target is having AWESOME sales on DVD series, and this will be an excellent present for people to get me so when I move out, I will be able to take all my favorite shows with me. Over the years my mom, sister and I have collected a lot of TV series, but not all of them are mines, so they can't come with me. bummer. So this years Christmas list will be filled with seasons of The Office, Friends and Sex and the City. Love it!

So, I think last time I wrote, I promised some invitation mock-ups... well I'm still working on that. And by "working on that" I mean, I haven't started so leave me alone :P
That will be a Thanksgiving break project... hopefully.

This weekend is the Mary Kay party and New Moon date with Rachel. I'm super excited about it and will post some more info on what it is later. Maybe tomorrow.

So this will be all for now, gotta save something for tomorrow :)

Wish me luck on my house/condo hunt tomorrow, got 3 places to look at after work!