Mark and I actually went house hunting the last week in April and boy was it an adventure in itself. Day 1 included looking in the city of Seattle for homes. After looking at about 20 homes we had it narrowed down to 2 - one I loved and Mark hated and one he loved and I hated. Hmmm...how did we end up married. Needless to say, we had disagreements throughout the day and by the end we weren't talking. At least I got to watch the finale of Big Brother in peace.
Day 2 proved more fruitful (borrowing a word from my Aunt Chelle) and we both agreed that we loved the suburb of Edmonds, WA. Of course, it ended with me loving one house and Mark loving another. At least this time we didn't end up hating the other one's favorite. We were feeling better about life and celebrated the day with a visit to Rory's bar in Edmonds so we could get a feel for the locals. We ended up meeting 4 wonderful people who raved about the area and all it had to offer. We we're feeling confident that we had made the right decision.
Day 3 was our day to narrow down the homes. We were going to revisit the 2 in the city, but before we could, the house I loved went "Subject to Inspection" meaning the sellers had accepted an offer and it was subject to passing the inspection. So, it went off the list and I immediately told Mark that it was because the house I liked was so much better than his. I did give his house a second chance, but we both decided it was too expensive and still needed a new kitchen. On to Edmonds.... We revisited the 2 homes in Edmonds and after conceeding, we made an offer on the "grey" house.
Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. To celebrate our offer, we decided to go down to a restaurant on the waterfront and have a drink. This is when doubt began to creep in to my mind. We walked in and we were the youngest patrons of the restaurant with the average age being 65 and only because two youngsters (us) walked in to lower it from 75. I know I'm exagerating, but we then started to learn that Edmonds has an older population.
To make a long story short, the grey house went subject to inspection and did not pass. Two major things were wrong and the sellers would not fix them or come down on the price. Mark and I decided to walk away.... back to square 1. House Hunting - Part 2
For any of those who know me (Angela) you know I'm not really an outdoor person. You also know that Mark and I had quite the fight on our first day of our honeymoon because of a hike. I was convinced he was trying to kill me because he knew I had already changed my life insurance beneficiary. Due to this hiking experience in Hawaii we came up with Angela's hiking scale. I would like to say it ranges from 0-10 with 10 being the most difficult. I would say that the Hawaii hike was a 12 - it ended in me crying and telling off some tourist who asked how it was. I do apologize to that random hiker who I told it just wasn't worth it. I still stick by my guns that it wasn't worth the trecherous hike which could have ended with me plummeting to my death from a cliff. And for your reference I would say a gravel trail on flat land would be about a 2 (a sidewalk is honestly probably a 1). 
The reason for all the background is to tell you all how proud I am that Mark is out in Seattle getting his hiking out of the way. Honestly he was trying to scout out some hikes we could do when I get there. He said he's 0 for 2 in finding hikes I would consent to. He called me this evening to tell me he was going on a hike and if he hadn't called me by midnight CDT to call the authorities. (That really gives you a warm fuzzy feeling). The picture on top shown is from his hike today and as I'm typing he's on his way down the trail which he said would have been around a 12 on my scale. The second pictures is from his hike on Saturday where he said "When I hit the snow, it was like climbing up a black-diamond ski hill in tennis shoes". I think I'll stick to my hikes which involve city streets on the way to the Nordstrom flag ship store.
