The mortgage payment posted to my account. Last month's balance was $22,053.10. This month's balance is $21778.32. Our payments are now over 2/3 to principle and less than 1/3 to interest. I like being at this end of the mortgage where progress is made so visibly with each payment. I just wish it were going to a new house and not the old one.

We should be able to finish up the last few loads of stuff and move the piano out of the old house when DH comes home this time. Then we can get it cleaned from top to bottom. There's a lot that needs to be done. The carpets have to come out and be replaced by something. The walls need to be painted. The toilets need to be replaced. The shower needs to finish being put together in the master bathroom. Four bedroom/bathroom doors need to be replaced, including new frames.

The yard needs to be cleaned up and a few loads hauled to the dump. When the weather is warm enough there are a few spots that need paint touch ups on the outside of the house and the trim needs to be painted. We need to replace part of the guttering and bring in a new load of gravel for the driveway. We might even need to put a new front porch on.

After that, the house will be sold "as is." I'm not going to put anymore effort into it than that. We will be happy if we get enough to finish paying off the mortgage, $50,000 for a downpayment on a new house, and enough to cover closing costs. Yes, I'd love it to be more, but we only paid $65,000 for it and though it is supposedly worth $110,000 now according to the tax assessors, I don't really care. We are just so tired of it all and $75,000 would cover our needs. We will likely price it at $100,000 and then will entertain any offers.

It's a big, single floor house, 1800 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, great room, huge kitchen, laundry room. It's got a large side yard with a garden, and large backyard that is fenced and has fruit trees, a tiny front yard, a shed and a carport. If it weren't for the location we would have likely stayed in it forever, but I hated being so far from the city and I needed to be closer to my mother after she fell.

We are not going to be like the idiots in the neighborhood who are still trying to get the prices they were told it was worth at the height of the bubble (which were much higher than when we moved there, and they were honestly never worth that much, but people refinanced anyway.) There are houses that have sat there for years trying to get prices that you would have trouble getting in town right now. I just want it gone.

I have been driving by this beautiful old house about once a week on the way to the chiropractor. It's been completely remodeled and rewired and it has everything we could want in a house. The kitchen (according to the flyers and website virtual tour) is gorgeous. It makes me covetous. For me a kitchen will make or break a house when it is time for us to actually start looking.

It's way overpriced for the neighborhood. They're asking $419,000 (and this is a new price, not their original asking price). The median house price for that neighborhood is $250,000. This house is bigger, but not by too much, is on a corner lot, and has a smaller yard than other houses on the block. We don't want a big yard to maintain. I think it will have to come down in price before it will sell and I kind of hope it sits on the market for a year until we are ready to start looking. It would need to come down $75,000 to even put it in the top of the price range we are willing to pay.

It's in our school district and about six or seven blocks from my mother's house. It's on a bus route. It's five blocks from the hospital. It would be perfect if we were ready now. We're not and we won't even go look insdie because of that. We don't want to get caught up in some frenzy to buy before we are ready and have BoA paid off, but it's nice to dream. And I know that when we are ready there will be a perfect house for us out there somewhere.