Um...yeah, that's not water damage. It's dog urine.

Not only am I out to prove to Allison that I'm actually kind of excited to contribute to our new blog, but I also have a funny story (funny-interesting...not funny-ha ha).  So we've been looking for a house since neither of us wants to continue living with our current roommates after we get married.  With the state of the current real estate market in the Phoenix area we thought we'd try our hand at the short-sale/foreclosure market.  Along the way we've run into some interesting situations.  Houses left with refrigerators full of food, ceiling fans ripped out, appliances missing, holes in walls, etc.

After looking at 20+ houses, the beaut pictured above caught my eye in the listing so I went by to take a look.  I spent about 10 minutes in the house, called my my friend, Preston, who is our realtor, and told him to make an offer.  He submitted and the next morning the bank holding the lien accepted our offer.  The rest of the day at work I spent dreaming about where I'd finally be able to hang all of my Pokemon posters and the case that holds my genuine Captain Kirk, Star Trek suite I won on ebay.  

Preston called and suggested that he go check out the house with me since he hadn't seen it yet.  Since he used to work in the construction industry I thought that would be a good idea since I didn't spend much time in the house.  Within the first minute of being in the house he found, at least what appeared to be, water damage in about 5-6 spots around the house.  I started to get pretty down, knowing what he was about to tell me.  Water damage = potential mold = don't buy this house.  About this same time, Allison arrived to the house from work.  We were both pretty frustrated at that point, considering we'd already looked at so many houses and are getting married in less than 6 weeks.

So Preston calls the listing agent and asks what the deal is.  The agent says, "Um...yeah, that's not water damage.  It's dog urine."  Now, call me crazy but hearing those words actually made me feel a little better.  We can replace drywall, replace all of the flooring, and paint the entire house to get rid of the smell.  But if it's legitimate water damage and mold we're not so certain we want to get into that.  Anyways...we're having a mold contractor go out to assess the damages and see if we can't talk the bank down.

My point in telling this story isn't so much to update you all on the status of our house hunting, although it is a great by-product, as it is to make a point.  I'm not against having pets in a house, as long as it's not a cat since I'm severely allergic (sorry, Allison).  The moral of the story is to house-train your pets and clean up their "accidents" when they happen.  One would think that this goes without saying, but...

And now you know...and knowing is half the battle.