Our House.

I owe you details, I know. But I'm a little afraid to jinx this whole thing by saying too much too soon.

And on April Fool's Day no less.

But here goes: Mark and I had been informally house hunting for the past few months. The wedding is in June and we figured we'd start looking in earnest in July.

Our search had been little more than a casual interest in seeing what the dollar buys these days. We didn't bother getting pre-approved and hadn't yet called my realtor friend. We didn't want to waste his time.

Then Mark finds a little gem online. It's 5 bedrooms, 2 and a 1/2 baths and is located on the edge of a park. When I saw the listing, I shrugged. It looked okay. But when we walked in the front door, I just felt... home.

Mark felt the same way and, after crunching some numbers told me,

I think we can do it.

We had a lot of questions on the pros and cons of buying now vs. waiting until after the wedding. We called my mortgage broker and, after running several scenarios, decided that Mark could purchase the house in his name before the wedding. Doing so, we'd reap the full benefit of a veterans home loan and would still qualify for the first-time home owner tax credit. And just though my name wouldn't be on the title, because of state law, when we marry, the house will automatically become half mine.

So, we're this close to making an offer. At the last open house, we'd heard the listing agent say the seller's offering to pick up closing costs - but our realtor hadn't heard anything about it. We want to get the details before we make our move.

In the meantime, we wait.

So, if this deal really does go through, it's possible we could have a house before June. And, if that's the case, our wedding reception venue will change from a cool, funky old restaurant to our house.

Don't you just love the sound of that?

Our House.