It's quite intense and very expensive and it hopefully won't last very long. Ryan was into it. So was Clancy. Michele almost had multiple strokes doing it. Yup, I'm talking about home buying.

On Friday we got our preapproved mortgage and the House Lady came over the very same night so we could surf for houses. We identified a short dozen that we liked and House Lady and Lovely Wife planned on looking at them the next day. In a couple hours. Can you say "stressful shopping"?

Fortunately we managed to eliminate half of them so the tour de houses was actually possible in the time frame allowed on Saturday. Four of the houses visited were eliminated. That left two. On Sunday the boys and I joined Lovely Wife and the House Lady to see those two and two others that sort of surfaced while we were out. Both of the ones that popped up were quickly eliminated. Both of the ones that Lovely Wife had pre-scoped for us were very cool.

They each had their advantages. The one was closer to Dopple-G (important for commuting). The other had a workshop (important for manly beer drinking while using power tools). The one had a fenced back yard (we've got two dogs and three kids) and a sun room. The other had a mostly fenced back yard and a den. The one had a nicely sized eat-in kitchen. The other had a bedroom right off of the kitchen. What's up with that? The one had a big two-car sized carport. The other still had that workshop, and a nice dry crawlspace under the house. The one had a magnificent magnolia tree. The other...um...hardwood floors! Yeah, that's it. The one had landscaping and was on a cul-de-sac. The other was right on a major road and had lots and lots of things to mow around.

We put in an offer on the one house. We'll hear back by 8 o'clock tonight.

Keep your fingers crossed.