Monster House: Intro

Short version: I'm in Ithaca now.  I put down an offer on a house. It was accepted.  This is what it looks like. The end. 
Long Version: I did everything I said I wouldn't do, except for one thing.  Buy a foreclosure house-check.  Buy something a little bit further out instead of something close to campus- check.  Buy a big house - check. Buy a newish house - check.  Buy a house that my real estate agent was listing - check.  Buy a house up on a hill so I will have to clear snow off my driveway -well, that one wasn't on my list but I added it for good measure.  Go outside my price range - well, that was actually the one thing I didn't do, but that part comes later in the story..
I'll spare you all of the play by play on the houses I didn't like, which were many.  Big ones, small ones, new ones, old ones.  The ones with a nice yard looked weird inside, and the cute older homes backed up to a really busy road or were in poor condition. The purple house next to campus was just weird.  The other purple house had floors that sagged badly and, I kid you not, a bathroom that was 6 inches higher than the rest of the hall.(There was a step). Clearly, my price range was a bit too low to get me something with more pluses than minuses near campus.  There were two that I did like - a cute remodeled house near campus, and the monster house.  The cute remodeled older house had only two problems - the bathtub sucked, and it was already in contract, which means a 3 day free for all where competing offers can still be presented.  The monster house had problems, but they were all related to my preconceived notions of what I wanted, rather than the house itself.  The house itself is great.  I have this image of myself as preferring small, older houses in convenient locations, because that's what I had in CA.  But I have a not-so-secret fondness for modern luxuries such as fancy kitchens and bathrooms. After I looked at the house the first time, I spent a sleepless night fretting about what to do.  I looked at it again the next day, along with a lot of other houses.  I still liked it the best.  The real estate agent had called the bank and they told her they would give a fast response to any offer.  I put in an offer that was $35k lower than the asking price, and $10k lower than one the bank turned down a few months ago. They accepted it within a few hours.  I can't believe it.  I'm not sure, but my real estate agent may've twisted a few arms on my behalf, and, of course on her own behalf. The inspection was today.  The city had turned off the water, but the bank thought it was on, so the inspector couldn't check that today.  He'll do it next week.  He found a few really minor things but nothing big.
So anyway, I'm getting a house on a hill that backs up onto a forest.  How f^%$ng cool is that?!?!