House #15

This was the last one for our trip last week....it had potential, but something in my gut said that there was more wrong with this house than we could see, plus it was further away than I cared to be.


This definitely would've been a fixer, but at over 1400 sq ft, it's the biggest one we've looked at in our price bracket:

The porch needed to be fixed:


but the living room was nice and sunny!


The kitchen was ok...needed some updating...


There was also a good sized family room (which had some LOVELY huntin' themed wall border!


Basically, when you walked in and to the right, there was the dining/kitchen area and then the family room behind that:


The bathroom was a little weird:


The windows needed to be replaced:


The yard was one giant weed, I swear.


...and the property backed to a big open field, with a church/private school to the right:


Overall...just too much work. Did I also mentioned that it smelled musty? We decided that they probably cleaned the carpet in a hurry and didn't let it dry properly.


Neeeext!

House #14:

I actually liked this house quite a bit.


No question why they were moving...they had 6 people living in a little 1100 sq ft house! It was cute though...they even had music softly playing when we got there. hehehe

Living room:


Kitchen:


Cute bedrooms:




And look at the cute headboard on this bed...I love it! :)


There was a nice little backyard:





So why did we not pick this house, you ask?
Let's look from the street....to the left of the house:


Aaaaand to the right:




Did you hear that sound? *thud* Yeah...that was the property value. Oh well...

More houses....

House #13:


Why yes! That IS a peach/salmon colored house! *gag*
It was, however, on a nice corner lot...

~It had the tiniest kitchen. I could foresee my butt hitting the cabinets behind me if I tried to bend down and get something from the opposite side:


~Bonus: skylights!!


~Downside: really weird layout and our favorite: BRAIN CARPET!

House hunt: Day 4

Slowly but surely, I'm getting around to posting this...these are from last week:

I didn't get pictures at the first few because there were people there and I feel awkward taking pictures while they're home:

House #11:


This one was cute. Nice layout, cute fireplace, pristine yard. Apparently it was a little old man who had lived there. I don't know if he'd passed away or if he was moved to a nursing home or what.

Drawbacks:
-the kitchen layout was a little weird. It was like they tried to cram as many cabinets as they could into one tiny area...and you couldn't open all of them. Pointless.

-"close to shopping!!" Umm...yeah. The backyard overlooked the back of Kmart and a strip mall. Noooo thank you. Don't care how many trees you plant back there, it's still backing a Kmart.

House #12:


This one was a big fat no. Let's go over why:
-shingles missing. At one spot in the roof, there were shingles mounded up around a pipe. Innnnnteresting.

-smelled like dog. Wet, stinky dog. Especially in the master. Gross.

-super dusty/dirty.

-there were cracks running up the wall and across the ceiling.

-there was not only ugly brain carpet in this house, but some weird plaid indoor/outdoor stuff in the kitchen and bathrooms.

-wall border on some of the cabinets? It would take so much more work to fix that than to just take it off of a wall...

-the back porch was n BAD shape and there was dog poo EVERYWHERE.



I took more pictures after this, so I'm going to split my posts.

You've got to be kidding me.

I now interrupt my house hunting posts to bring you....SNOW. Yes, you read that right. On Wednesday (I'm late with posting), it SNOWED. Only about 1/2", but still...

Did someone forget to tell the weatherman that it's APRIL???


Bleh.


Bleh.


Bleh.


Thankfully...it has warmed up since then. It supposed to be in the 70s this weekend. Wheeee!!! We haven't seen 70s since...um....early fall?

Top house picks: House B

Here's the second house (I split the post since it was picture heavy). Bonus: both houses are within 2 minutes of our close friends here, so Jeff would be able to commute with her since she works in the courthouse too!

House B:

-home is already finished, so we could potentially negotiate a lower price, plus it's ready to move in quickly
-we really like the layout
-more private (small) backyard, with no neighbors behind us
-HOA fees are a little higher, and public space is much smaller than the first neighborhood (no playground, pool, basketball court or park)....but with the privacy of the back yard....hmmm...

Top house picks:

On Saturday, we walked around the neighborhoods of the two houses we like the most right now.

House A (this is an unfinished house):


Here's what it looks like painted (not that I'm in love with these colors, but it gives a better idea)







I like how this house looks...and wouldn't it be PERFECT for my Halloween decorations??
Bonuses:
-nice and sunny
-bigger sq footage
-flow from garage to utility room to kitchen would make carrying in groceries easier
-neighborhood is AMAZING. There are also bigger, more expensive houses in this neighborhood and is a very nice little family neighborhood
-although the yard is smaller and less private, there's a HUGE park in the center of the subdivision with a basketball court, playground and they're supposed to be putting in a pool too
-since this one is unfinished, we could choose flooring, counters, finishes, etc
-HOA fees are lower, from what I've found

House hunting: day 4!

We went out again on Wednesday. Of course, Jeff didn't get out of court on time (isn't that how it always goes when you have some place to be?), so we were a little late and I was still feeling scattered and brainless after being in a couple of houses that made my allergies less than happy...so I apparently forgot to take pictures after the first house. Oops!

Onward....

House #6: This was a simple row house style, relatively close to where we are now. It's about 3-3.5 miles from downtown and it would be less than a mile to work for me, once the family I nanny for builds their new house.

Here's the front:


I like the style, it just doesn't have much storage, which is a big problem for me.

The lower level was nice enough:


It had 2 master bedrooms upstairs (or they were the exact same size at least, but one had a bathroom attached and there was another bath in the hallway between the two). The view from the back bedroom was actually pretty decent, considering the area of town this was in:


Problems though: No garage (nor a place to really put one), only 2 bedrooms, not a lot of storage.

Entertaining point: It was quite the bachelor pad! I have never seen so many pictures of one person before. It was weird. Big collage frames...all pictures of him. There was ONE picture downstairs and ONE picture upstairs that had other people in them.

Even better, he actually had this poster framed and hanging instead of actual art:


House 7: This one was overwhelming with the airfresheners. When you walked into the master (which was the only room she was staying in), it was obvious why. *cough, hack, sneeze* She was a big time smoker. That's a deal breaker. I can't live with the smoke. It's a shame too, because it was a nice enough size and all. It needed some remodeling, but nothing too major.

"House" 8: I didn't notice that this one was a townhouse in the listing. It was small and cramped and overpriced. It also didn't have any showerheads? Weird.

Definite dealbreakers:
~While we were waiting to get in, 2 fighter jets flew over and I felt my eardrums vibrate! LOL...

~Also, a neighbor came home....in a low-rider truck with a neon-airbrushed paint job and the stereo thumping. He just seemed like the type of neighbor who comes home with that blaring at 2 am, and especially when you're talking townhouses...I'm not interested, thanks. I'm old and cranky these days.

Houses 9 &10: These 2 are still our favorites by far. They're new construction near our friends, Kim and Jesse. There are some minor drawbacks, but both of those are on the top of our list at this point. I've walked through #9 twice now and #10 3 times....and yet I never think to take pictures! Oops!


So...that's this week. We've got 3 more houses to see on Monday. I'm glad to have a little break!