House Hunting

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I think if you are walking through a person's house, you can maybe judge them a little bit.

We've been house hunting for the past two months, and there are some very strange people in the world.  That, or they just have very strange house-selling tactics.  Some observations:

1. If you're taking time to vacuum your room for house-sale pictures, at least take the vacuum out of your picture.
2. It's probably a good idea to not only take down your framed Cosmopolitan magazine covers, but also to remove them from sight.
3. Smells cannot be unsmelled.
4. Maybe I'm the most un-fun mom there is, but...I think I'm right that most paint colors should never be sold.
5. Some street names are almost deal-breakers to me: Loch Awe Avenue???  Let's get the grid system back.  Brigham Young knew about this.
6. If you're thinking of adding a water feature to your yard, stop.
7. If you get lost in someone's basement, you can conclude the layout is sub-par.

Anyway, this process has been very time-consuming and I feel like it's the tooth-ache of life experiences.  The constant nagging feeling that you are not where you need to be and you have no idea when you'll get there?  Blech.  All 3 members of this household are excited to be done with this someday...and then we can stop discussing MLS, contracts, due diligence, and that random for-sale-by-owner guy named Regie.

On the plus side, our realtor this time around is nothing like our old nemesis realtor from our last home selling/buying sojourn.  The absence of pure evil is noted.  Also noted is the fact that we're under contract and we can count the number of days until this is all over!