Why??

Why is it that the good houses are in the undesired parts of town, and the dingy, not-so-great houses are in the desirable parts?

*sigh*

We've been looking, casually, for a new place to live since May or June. Our house is cold. Too cold. The yard is simply awful. None of us want to be out there, not even the kids. And the part of town we're in is somewhat dodgy. Oh, and the ants. We are so overrun by ants, they're going to drive me insane one of these days. Landlords in this country (or at least ours, which is managed by a property management company) don't deal with "pests".

So we look. And look. And look. And the houses that look great (renovated, warm, clean, tidy) are too far from Colin's school, or also in dodgy areas. And the areas we want? The houses are old, dingy, just not exactly what we're wanting or needing.

We looked at a house today that was in a perfect street, a cul-de-sac in one of the nicer areas of town. I could tell the landlord was even a little surprised at how the house looked inside. They bought it 4 years ago and have had the same tenants the entire time. It needs work desperately. The carpets need to be pulled out, it needs paint, the whole kitchen could use gutting. I wanted to like it. I wanted to find some redeeming qualities. And I couldn't. And I was sad. Because of the location.

I don't know. I'm trying to keep my hopes up. We don't HAVE to move, and our place isn't terrible. In fact, it has many good qualities. But the bad ones are overriding the good ones these days. Like the cold. Yeah, we're getting into warmer weather, but yes, THAT is when the ants come back. Cold or ants? Ants or cold? Those are our choices here.

Where is our perfect house??