Trying to buy a house

So we've been here in Moses Lake for a year now.  Part of me can hardly believe that it's already been a year and then again part of me can certainly believe it and thinks, "It's only been a year?".  The kids just completed another year of school.  I will soon have a 5th grader, a 2nd grader, and a preschooler!  Lincoln is 3 months old and such a joy!  Work is going well for Tony, now that he has a new supervisor.  I'm feeling great not being pregnant anymore.  I've lost all my pregnancy weight plus some and don't mind being so tired all the time because I feel so "light".

The plan was always to buy a house after we'd been here for a year.  We wanted to learn the town and decide where we wanted to be.  We also wanted to have a good grip on what our financial situation would be.  About 6 weeks ago we started our search.  We got pre-approved, and set our house budget.  I don't know how the bank thinks we could afford what they're willing to lend to us.  We don't want to be "house poor".  We found an excellent realtor and started our search.  After a couple weeks we felt like we had finally found the one.  It was really close to us.  The kids would go to the same school.  We'd be in another ward, but close enough to the friends we've made.  It was pretty much everything we wanted in a house.  It was on the higher end of our budget, but thought we could make it work.  So we put in an offer.  They countered and we accepted.  Then we had the inspection.  We found some things that we weren't thrilled about, but as long as the seller was willing to fix everything we'd be ok.  Well, the seller wasn't willing to fix what we asked and wouldn't make allowances for us to fix them.  So, we walked away.

We started searching again.  We found a house that was even closer to where we are now and it's in our ward.  It was an older home (it reminded me of the home I grew up in) and needed some updating and work, but it was a much more comfortable price for us.  Then we found out it had a wood foundation, and that the bank won't finance it because wood foundations aren't typical for Moses Lake.  The fact that the foundation was sound had nothing to do with it.  (So Stupid!)

Now we are in a situation where we've looked at all 4 bedroom, 2 car garage houses in our preferred locations and in our budget in Moses Lake.  We're trying to be patient and watching the real estate websites for anything new to come on the market.  Which there isn't.  I wanted to move during the kids summer break so in case they switch schools it's not during the school year.  But that's starting to look less likely to happen.

I keep asking myself, "Are we being too picky?"  Not really, and I don't want to buy a house I'm not happy with.  "Could we raise our house budget?"  Sure, but forget about that new family car, any new furniture for said house, any trips or fun activities with the kids, and anything extra at all!

Now what, you ask?  We keep looking praying that the right home for us is here somewhere.  We are fortunate that we aren't on any real time line because our lease is now on a month to month basis.  So we can be patient (as hard as it is) until the right one comes along, and when it does we'll be glad we waited.