House Hunt

I'm feeling absolutely overwhelmed at the moment.  Not completely overwhelmed, actually, but at least when it comes to our housing plans.  We're looking into purchasing our first house (even though our lease isn't up for almost another year) and I seem to have just gotten myself into a pickle thinking about the nearly infinite scenarios regarding when and where we should move.

There's always staying in our apartment for another 2-3 years.  It would be nice to save up money to by a house big enough for Dinobaby and any brothers or sisters who might come along (after we get the heck out of this apartment.  Two babies under two in 1092 sq. ft?  NO SIR.).  The only thing is, little Dino is already so close to walking that I'm afraid this place won't be able to hold him too much longer.

A couple of weeks ago, an idea popped into my head about an older property that a friend of ours is trying to sell.  It was built in the late 1970s and it smells like nicotine from the chain smoker who lived there over 5 years ago.  At the same time, it has four big bedrooms, a playroom big enough for our huge baby, and a backyard that's probably big enough to graze a cow.  Plus it has a big stone griffin in the backyard, smiling out from under some vegetation like he's waiting for the right time to fly away.  A griffin, people!

Because of the smoke smell we would likely need to 1.) rip out and replace the carpet, 2.) paint all of the walls to seal in the smell & the nicotine -- I can just imagine Dinobaby licking the walls now -- or, 3.) replace the carpets AND paint in the entire house.  It's making me freak out a little bit.  Who knew that prefinished flooring was $4 per square foot?!  I certainly didn't.  I'm ignorant about a lot of things, but dang.  Why is everything so expensive? 

The house is cheap compared to almost all of the other houses in the area, but is the huge backyard worth all of the money it will take to make it a really nice house?  We weren't planning on getting a fixer-upper, but that's definitely what this house would be.  There aren't any huge problems that we know of (minus the smell), so there's nothing inherently wrong with it.  I just don't know if it's the right house for us, or if it just seems like the answer to my desperate oh-my-gosh-I-want-a-house-but-we-don't-have-tons-of-money train of thought.

Advice?  St. Joseph, pray for us! :)