House Hunting is frustrating!

My main job these days has been to find us a new place to live. While we love Venice, it is time to move on and find a more suitable place to live. Finding exactly what we want for a price that does not break the bank has been challenging. I have to tell you that there is a lot of crap out there for a ridiculous amount of money. We looked at one place earlier this week that actually had a kitchen so small that there was no room for a refrigerator and yet they wanted $2400 for it. Yes, it had a yard and a lot of extra storage space, but going outside into the workshop shed to get my milk in the morning does not sound appealing to me regardless of how much extra storage a house has to offer. At first, we were restricting ourselves to one particular area and then it dawned on us that it wasn't so much the area that we were so interested in, it was getting out of apartment living and into house living that was our #1 priority. No, we are not moving to the valley, but we have expanded our search area this week to include a wider selection. While I thought this would just flood my Westside Rentals and Craigslist listing page, it didn't. Not with anything good anyway. I figured that people would want to practically give away a house during the holidays as long as they could rent it before the New Year. It's kind of how we got the place we are in now. We happily moved during the Thanksgiving break and the guy we rented it from was grateful that we did. But this year, we have not been so lucky. I don't imagine moving during the Holidays is for everyone. Personally, we don't mind but I don't imagine we are in the majority. I am a firm believer (as is Jess) that the perfect place will come along when it is meant to and since we aren't in a hurry to get out of our current home, there is no rush in finding it. I am on a mission, however, and my impatience is getting the better of me. I tend to get grandiose ideas on a place (like already starting to decorate it) before we have even seen the place. Like yesterday, I did a drive by on a place in an area we hadn't originally thought about renting in and loved the neighborhood and the house from the outside. It was well within our budget and the perfect size and so I was ecstatic to call this morning and go and see the place only to find out it rented... YESTERDAY! And here is the kicker... it has been on the market for a month. If only we had expanded our search earlier. I had already moved us in there in my head so it is a bit of a let down, but as Jess says (always my voice of reason), it just means that something better is out there waiting for us. So the search continues. I will find a home for my family that is just right for us... I have to believe that.