Our House in the Middle of our Street?

As of today, we have been in our apartment for exactly four years. It's been a great home for us, but we decided in May to start looking into buying a house, enticed by the promise of $8000 from the government when we closed.
It's been quite a journey and we decided to start blogging, because that's what all the cool kids do these days, right? The blog will cover the end of this part of the home buying and then we will use this to record the process as we update a house that is structually quite sound but is a little behind in the times when it comes to decor.
As of right now we're under contract on house number two. Number one fell horribly to pieces (only figuratively at this point but I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually falls to pieces.) The current owner had "updated" a lot of things, like the plumbing and roofing, but he didn't do what one would call a "good job." So after sinking $800 into inspections we walked away with the piece of mind that we wouldn't be sinking several thousand dollars into the house when everything went to pot.
But sometimes they say things happen for a reason, and after that we found what will hopefully end up as our home. It is a lovely home which has been owned by an older couple for 42 years. They had taken great care of it, but haven't updated anything since shortly after they moved in. Now we're going through all of the fun of negotiating. The stuff they don't show you on all those home buying shows, but we're getting closer. Hopefully as of this week everything will be squared away. I hope.
-Elena