House hunting

We went and looked at a trailer yesterday, and it was disastrous. The pictures that were posted online were at least 5 years old. They made the place look like a mansion compared to what we were met with. There were SO many things wrong with it.

1. The owners cut a hole in the wall and made a mounting bracket for a window air conditioner. It's "cover" was nothing more than a piece of plywood nailed to a 2"x4".

2. It smelled like cat urine. It had obviously been vacant quite a while and STILL had the stench.

3. The kitchen counters were molding where they met the wall; which means that it wouldn't be long until it started seeping into the walls.

4. There was a huge indentation in the one bedroom; that was "repaired" with plaster or caulking or something, and then painted over.

5. There was a dead bird in a closet.

6. There was writing all over the walls and door in the above mentioned bedroom.

7. It smelled like cat urine.

8. It's heating source was oil.. which wouldn't have been too terribly bad; except for the fact that the oil tanks were buried underground; with a "tap" for filling.

9. Did I mention the dead bird and the stench of cat urine?

I got TOO excited over it.. I should have known that they would post the best pictures they had. Trying to find a house/apartment/trailer/cave to live in is extremely time consuming and stressful. We are NOT city people; so we prefer to stay out of town. Obviously we have a price range that we can afford. And we don't want to be close to the road. Living in the proverbial sticks all of our lives, we just don't know how to become accustomed to living close to traffic. I could handle light traffic, but hearing the engine brake on a semi truck, or blaring music or loud pipes at 3 am; while having 2 young kids is just not something we can deal with. Really, our "needs" aren't too specific.. nothing like it HAS to be a certain square footage or anything like that. In fact, I don't really want anything too large; because that's more that I have to take care of lol... which in all honestly turns into a bigger mortgage or rent bill.

I have spent countless hours in the last week looking for somewhere to live (as we currently live with DH's parents) and it's sickening to me.. I'm getting depressed looking at the places we would LOVE to have; but just can't afford. I just have to be persistent in looking and try to convince DH we do NOT have to buy right this minute. We can rent and be extremely frugal and save every penny we can and maybe within a year's time; we will have a nice chunk of change to put down on the house of our dreams.