If only we could move there now....

I mentioned in a previous post that The Husband and I have been looking for a house w/ some acreage in Southwest Washington State (just north of Portland, Oregon).  Our intention is to get into the property market when prices and interest rates make the location affordable.

At more than one point in the process, I've felt like I'm in a bad HGTV episode:

•  First, we looked at houses, but didn't find anything that we really liked. 
• In late September a listing came up that seemed a good deal, so we sent my parents out to look at the house.  
• We put a bid on that house.  The house was a short sale.  Our offer wasn't accepted, but we were "second in line."
• In December we still  hadn't heard anything on the first house, so continued to look at houses.  
• We fell in love with another property.
• We tried to put in an offer on that property (another short sale), but the bank pulled it off the market on that same day.  
• We still loved the second property, and found out that it was headed into foreclosure - scheduled to be auctioned (back to the bank, most likely) next week.
• We were waiting to see if the second property was a possibility (as it was our first choice).
• Then a few days ago we heard back on the first property that the first in line offer pulled out - so we were in the #1 slot.
• The bank wanted to know by the next day if we still wanted the property.  (It's funny to me that the bank takes 5 months, but we're expected to decide in a day...)
• We stall that bank for another day, and send my dad back out to look at the property.
• We said yes!  

If all goes well w/ the house inspection, here's our property:

The dogs would like to point out some highlights:

• SHEEP live on the property next door - southwest side
• COWS live on the property next door - southeast side
• The NW corner of the property has a seasonal creek (MUD!)
• Yard to the N of the house is large enough for an agility field
• Small barn to the N of the house is big enough for obedience practice 
• 5+ acres means The Humans can have horses and/or alpacas (poop to eat!)

The Humans would like to point out some additional highlights:

• Great location!  Just 20 minutes from the Portland airport, 24 minutes to Jantzen Beach, 20 minutes to my parents' house, 20 minutes to my brother's house....
• Space in the yard for a garden
• Enough room to add some more trees and make our own "forest"

After closing we'll have some work to do on the house, then we'll rent it while we try to figure out when/how we can make the move.  Whew.  What a week.