Home is Where the Heart is...If Someone Will Actually Sell Us Their Home!

We've been searching for a home for the past four months. We've made two offers, one was accepted, but it was a short sale and there were inherent problems with the listing. The second offer (remember this one), for a home that we both adore, we believe was never even presented to the sellers by the agent. We were not even given a counteroffer and the agent was so brazen about the whole thing that she actually wrote an e-mail insulting me and my husband personally, not just our offer.
I spend at least one hour a day looking for homes online. I think that I've looked at 30 houses to date. I know every home in a mile radius of our target neighborhood. I feel like I'm moonlighting as a realtor and after our interactions with most of them I am fairly confident that I'm more knowledgeable than most of them. I'm exhausted and frustrated and we haven't even had the stress of getting to the closing table. After touring three houses this weekend, we actually liked one of the homes we saw and before we had a chance to mull it over, we saw that the home had gone under contract five hours later. Let me repeat, we saw this house at 12pm. We went back to look at it online at 9pm and it was under contract. This is the biggest purchase of our lives and we are just innocent bystanders in the process. Anyone who knows me should know I have a hard time waiting in the sidelines.

I'm not sure if it was the hysteria of house hunting gone awry yesterday, but my husband and I decided to take matters into our own hands. We wrote a letter (HINT: on beautiful stationary with a matching envelope) to the owners who unfortunately had to relocate out of state, which is what prompted them to put their home on the market. It was a well written letter, I believe, and being that we've thought about this house for three months we figured what did we have to lose? For the first time in four months of this arduous process I feel like I've actually done something. We will hopefully receive something back from them and if/when we do all of you will be the first to know. Please keep all your fingers crossed for us.

Simple Pleasures - A Made Bed

One of my first chores growing up was making my bed each morning. My grandma taught me that a made bed increased your productivity during the day and discouraged you from being lazy and napping. The adage is very true, I rarely nap and this chore is a constant in my life and very rarely is there a day when my bed is not made.
When my husband and I first started living together he'd make fun of me for being so neurotic about having the need, not want, to do this mundane activity each and every day. I wake up very early and usually have to wait until he's finished sleeping to do this morning ritual. The moment he wakes I'm back in the bedroom making the bed. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to have a made bed, particularly when you live in a small apartment and the bedroom is 1/3 of your living space, there is the simple pleasure of getting into a made bed each night. There is no better feeling after a long day of work than getting into a bed where the sheets are crisp and the pillows are fluffed nicely.
I've actually gotten to the point where the act of making the bed is just as gratifying as the feeling I have when I get into a made bed each night. While some of you might think that enjoying the act of bed making is strange, I challenge you to try making your bed each morning for one week. See if you notice a difference in how well and easily you can fall asleep when the item you sleep on is organized, not disheveled and tangled up. If you already make your bed everyday what I've just talked about will not surprise you, but if you don't...give it a shot it might change your life. Who's up for the challenge? Let me know how it goes.