I think this really is it

We finished watching From Hell today. It was a really good movie! It gives an interesting explanation and suspect for the Jack Ripper murders that apparently has little basis in reality... but it's still an intriguing and engrossing tale and movie. The latter two-thirds of the movie have much less gore than the first third. If you enjoy suspense or thriller movies, this one's for you.

Of course, being the weekend, we did go to a couple of open houses. There was nothing we wanted to see yesterday but we saw two places today. One was totally wrong: it was in Breslau near the local airport and didn't have a basement. We were actually really lucky to get there when we did because there was an airshow going on this weekend and traffic was really backed up headed that way right after we got there.

We love love love love the second house we saw. It's down by Chicopee hill, near Fairview Mall, which is the other big mall in the city. There's a huge, fantastic park area right nearby with lots of trails and areas to explore. There's a grocery store (and the local Fabricland!) about a ten-minute walk away, too. After exploring this area a bit, we've decided that we love it so if this place doesn't work out, we'll keep looking in that area.

The house we love is a two-year-old, 1800sq ft bungalow with lots of room and a finished basement with eight or nine foot high ceilings. It has everything we want with living areas separate from sleeping areas, a big kitchen, and a place to put a big entertainment area (the basement). The house is kind of a "reverse" walkout with the backyard sloping more towards the front yard. In fact, the backyard has a big slope going up behind the house; the slope continues up to the top of the hill and there are houses up there. There are no houses directly behind this one, though. It's a hilly area, being kind of one side of Chicopee.

Our biggest concerns about the house are the drainage in the backyard with that slope (we don't want a swamp there during the spring runoff season) and the steps in front. There are quite a few steps in the front and currently there's no handrail. I think it's possible to build a ramp there and I'm sure that putting handrails won't be a problem. We can always enter through the cathedral-ceiling garage if we have to - there's a railing there. :)

We're going to see the place again with our realtor tomorrow at lunch to make sure we still like it and that we're not crazy wanting to put an offer on it. There's apparently an offer on the house that's contingent on the offerees selling their own place, which hasn't happened yet. I guess that puts us in a multiple offer situation because I assume that if we put in an offer, the people with the current offer will have a chance to modify or remove their offer and it's possible that we could get into a bidding war.

What's funny (or sad) is that this house has been on the market for quite a while and I've been watching it and liking the idea of it - the pictures do not do this house justice - since it showed up. It's just that we haven't been looking at that area of the city so we didn't know how much we'd love this house or this area.

So here's hoping that things go well tomorrow: that we still love the house and that the offer process goes well.