Henry and I just got back from our appointment with the builder. Adrienne's assesment of him was correct-very nice but seems like he could be a little flakey. Someone who would be in serious trouble if anything happened to his wife. Henry fell asleep in the car for long enough that he is boycotting a proper nap. He is splashing around in the tub-don't worry, I can see him from here, I know babies can drown in an inch of water, etc., etc.

We sat in the builder's office for a while and talked about the different houses that would be available in the next 6 months or so. There was one coming up in March that sounded perfect. A little Cape Cod, 3br, 2ba, 1400 sq.' on a .5 acre lot. The only problem is that it was outside the city limits, but only a few miles. So he said. We piled into the car and went to look at it. It took us a good 25 minutes to get there. Pth. The lot was indeed .5 acres, unfortunately, the spot the house was on was the only part that was usable. The rest was a steep hill on 2 sides of the house. There was no usable yard at all. Double pth. So I asked what else he could show me. We went to another development outside the city limits where they were building some ranches. About halfway there it turned into Whitetrashville, USA. Um...no thanks. The road the houses were on was a disintigrated paved road covered in gravel and the development was 4 fugly prefab ranches all in a row. Yuck. At this point I was feeling a little let down. Then he told me about one house they have in a "challenged neighborhood" in West Asheville (basically where we live now, lol). A ranch that was about 98% completed. It was the cutest house I've seen thus far within a 75k radius of our price range. It was a cute little ranch (more of a square than one of those long, skinny, trailer looking affairs) on a cute little end of the street lot. Nice little front (with some cute landscaping) and back yard, both with porches. 3br, 2ba, big living room attached to a big dining room attached to a nice big kitchen with a bar to pull up stools to. They almost never do hardwood flooring, but this house was meant for a family whose child had severe allergies and couldn't have carpeting. They had a family emergency and had to leave the state or something. So it has all hardwood floors. Nice light maple cabinets and granite-esque countertops-dishwasher and disposal, stove and fridge, all brand new. There is a utility room off the kitchen for a washer and dryer (which it doesn't come with). Down the hall-2 smaller bedrooms to the left, one with a walk in closet. In the hallway ceiling, a pull down ladder to 500 square feet of floored attic space for storage. On the right, a full bathroom, then further down to the right, the master bedroom with a walk in closet and another full bathroom. All nickel (plated?) fixtures. All energy efficient. The only bad part is that, if you stand in the side yard in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees, you can see the strip malls of Patton Ave. No big. The reason it's a "challenged neighborhood" -mom, stop reading now- is that there is a house that drugs are being dealt out of down the way around the corner. Now, now, now, I know drugs are bad. BUT. If the builder hadn't pointed the house out to me I would have never given it a second thought. It just looks like a normal house. You can't even see it from the house we want to buy. They are *thisclose* to being kicked out. If real estate patterns continue like they are going now, this neighborhood will be filled with young families like us in no time. All of the formerly "challenged neighborhoods" are now places we can't afford to live in, so good things should happen. If I thought it was dangerous I wouldn't even consider bringing Henry there. Actually, I just looked up the records for 2004 and the whole year on that street there was 1 incident, a stolen car. I then looked up the street we live on now and there was also 1 incident, a residential burglary-so they are pretty comaprable. Then, I got curious, so I started looking up neighborhoods. The whole neighborhood (Burton St. area) this new house is in had 27 incidents in 2004. The neighborhood we lived in last year (Biltmore Heights) also had 27. The neighborhood we're in right now (Horney Heights, snicker, snicker) had 41!!! I guess we'd better get the heck outta here! I will have to take Kyle to see it. Then we will SNATCH it up and move in. Soon. And lo, there will be closet space.