So, househunting

It continues, I've seen about 18 houses so far, and haven't found "the one" yet. I do have a much better idea of which neighborhoods, and which parts of those neighborhoods I want to be in.
The best of the bunch is one in a great neighborhood, with a nice layout, but backs onto a large road. So even with the 2 large walls, you can still hear the traffic noise. And we know that you can't change the location, so that one is off the list.

I will go out Monday to see another house with the Realtor, we had originally passed it over because of a large pool in the backyard (um, I thought I left Southern California!) but if it can be removed it is something we would consider. I'm a little worried about what it would do to the value of the home to remove the pool, but we can't be the only ones who don't want a pool in this city where it snowed last year in 11 months! It also would need new floors and some other updates, so we are going to see what the realtor thinks in terms of if it would be worth putting the money into it. On the plus side the house is on the lower side of our budget so we could do the work right away. Of course maybe it will be gone by Monday, or maybe I won't like it, but I'm still enjoying playing out the scenarios of each house in my head.