House Hunters: Cummings Edition

For about a year, Chuck and I have been talking about buying a house. When we moved back to Louisville 2 years ago, we weren't ready to think about buying a house yet. There was a lot of change happening all at once and we wanted to get established in a routine again before thinking about settling down in a house. Last summer, we decided to renew our lease for another year. We weren't prepared to make all the decisions that come with home buying and also well, we REALLY love our apartment. It was brand new when we moved into it 2 years ago and because the complex let us pick our layout and then personalize it with paint and light fixtures, it really feels like a home and not a standard, cookie cutter apartment. It has granite counter tops and (faux) wood floors and really soft carpet! We don't have to cut grass or pull weeds, and best of all when the fancy light bulbs in our track lighting go out, we call someone to come replace them! We are so spoiled here.

So once again we are faced with the "lease renewal" decision and we've decided that we're ready to leave apartment life behind and find a house. I'm extremely excited to start this process but also pretty stressed about it already. You see, while Chuck and I have very similar taste in most everything and agree on what we do and do not want in a house, we have very different approaches when making big purchases.

When it comes to buying a car or a couch or a headboard for our bed or a TV or anything that comes with a significant cost, on the first day we go shopping for the thing, this is me:

...except in a slightly less bratty, rude, selfish way. I'm a very impatient shopper. I look around and weigh the options some, but typically when I look at something I know right away if I want to own it or not.

When Chuck goes looking for the same item, this is him:

....except he's not an old grandma. But man does that dude love to do some research! He always has an idea of what he wants but he needs time to process, do some research, look at every possible alternative, and make sure he's getting the best deal.

I think we can all agree that while my way of shopping is way more fun, Chuck's way is way more sensible. The good thing is we know this about each other and are able to compromise. We don't make any impulse buys, but we also don't take 6 months to buy a couch. (Just about 2 months...)

But you can see where I'm going with this. The two of us house hunting together is probably going to look a lot like me wanting to buy every house right away and Chuck wanting to buy none. We look for the first time this weekend, so I'll report back soon... Wish us luck!