I'm sitting here watching my neighbor wash his outside windows and hoping he doesn't fall and break his neck. I must admit, it has never occurred to me to wash my windows. In the 6 years I've lived here, I've never done it. Now, I'm wondering if everyone else is looking down their nose at me - "Tsk! That's the neighbor with the filthy windows!" I figure as long as I can see through them, they're fine. They're relatively clean anyway. Besides, there's no way I'm getting up on a ladder like that.

One of the things my realtor said to me when I told him I was thinking of selling my place and buying a house was that I should look around and see if there are even houses I'd want to buy in my price range if everything fell into place. I've looked around on the internet and thought I'd seen things buyable in that range, but it's hard to know for sure until you've actually gone to look at them. I searched for open houses in my parameters today and found three. The first one was only $349k. I immediately saw where I would have to put the other $100k - it needed to be completely gutted. The second one was in a nice area and absolutely beautiful at $459K. Unfortunately, it was only a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom, and while it had amazing outdoor living space, it had zero yard and no garage. The third place was in a so-so neighborhood. It had been completely remodeled and was a 3 bed/1 bath for $473k. It was actually really nice inside and the only drawback was the tiny closets and the single bathroom. However, it had a great yard, and if the circumstances were right, I'd actually consider putting an offer on it...if it weren't almost $50k out of my price range. So, the verdict is still out on whether this is the right time for me to buy or not. I guess I'll keep looking to see what else is out there.