In Which We Make An Easy Decision

We received an interesting phone call yesterday.

It was the people from the first house, the one with the huge yard and the roll-in shower. They offered to make us a good deal-- provided we cut out our real estate agent.

Um, no.

First of all the real estate agent has already done all of this work for us, which they would now not get paid for. Not only do I find that really unethical, but I'm not even entirely sure that's legal. Second of all, we know enough now about the home buying process to have figured out that we never, ever want to try and buy a house without a real estate agent. Offers? Contracts? Escrow companies? We have no clue how to draw up or find any of that stuff, and I don't really think that in the middle of buying a house is the best time to learn. So the one good thing that's come out of that phone call is that it made our house decision pretty darn easy.

So we've got an offer in on the other house: the house that will need some renovation. We've already received a counter offer, and we're in the counter/counter offer stage right now, but I'm thinking that it's pretty likely we're going to end up buying this house.

I am ridiculously excited about the idea of getting to design a bathroom.

It will probably be mostly me designing the bathroom-- Jer is not so big on interior decorating. The man would be perfectly happy living in a white box, so long as it had a bed, a toilet, an espresso machine, and Internet access. Also right now a ramp. At any rate it will be me making most of the design decisions, which is just fine as I live for this stuff.

So right now I am spending every second of my free time scouring the Internet for design ideas and the addresses of local architectural salvage places, which are pretty much the thrift stores of the home renovation world. I'm hoping we'll be able to scrounge up some really cool finds in the way of counter top, tile, etc (perhaps left over from someone else's project) so it won't look like a wheelchair accessible shower but rather more like one of those luxury Universal Design showers. Universal Design is apparently the new politically correct phrase for handicap accessible. My theory on this is that all of the baby boomers are getting up there in age and starting to need this sort of thing but none of them want to be reminded that they're getting old, so interior designers came up with a new phrase and coached it as luxury design. That way not only do they continue to have happily in-denial clients, but they can charge more for it.

At any rate I've never been a huge fan of adaptive equipment (especially for kids) that makes no effort to not look like something straight out of a hospital, so we're going to try and make something beautiful and functional. Hence the Universal Design. On a tight budget. Wish us luck.

We're going to have an interesting time balancing all of Connor's needs in regards to the house, too. Take the floors, for instance. Now, in terms of his wheelchair use, the harder the better. Hardwood, ceramic tile, stone, laminate-- all of these are good options. But for his hearing loss? Carpet all the way. All of those hard options bounce sound around the room like nobody's business, and that living room has a cathedral ceiling and huge windows on either side of the fireplace, which isn't going to help. Rugs help absorb sound but are really bad once again for wheelchairs. So we're going to have to find a balance that will allow Connor (who is still totally covered in hives, by the way) and Jeremy to maneuver around but won't bounce sound everywhere. Upholstery, curtains, and fabric covered surfaces will all help. We'll see what we come up with.

At any rate hopefully by Monday or Tuesday we'll be one step closer to buying a house!

~Jess