But first, let me catch you up on the house hunt.
- Two weeks ago we went and looked at a house - 2 bedrooms, eat-in kitchen AND dining room, laundry room, 1 bath, mud room, awesome deck, enclosed porch, detached 2 car garage with an indoor/outdoor dog run. But it also had - a huge (apparently) attic that you could only reach from a tiny little hole that was located in the top of the tiny little closet in the second bedroom, those odd/old cabinet "closets" on the wall in the master bedroom (I have no idea what these are actually called) where you could hang your clothes in a three foot box, a tiiiiny sink in the bathroom that didn't even come close to waist level and was crammed in between the wall and the front of the tub, a laundry room that slants - yes slants, I walked into the room and immediately noticed that the floor wanted to throw me into the opposite wall (anyone seen the episode of Mad About You where they flashback to buying their apartment and Jamie keeps saying that the floor slants and doing the slide with her foot? that was me).
But with all that we were still considering it (some of us more than others).
- Then last week we went to see a three bedroom I had been looking at online for a while. Oh my gosh you guys, I cannot explain this house to you well enough so I'm not even going to try. Let's just say: fridge wedged under the stairs, tiiiiiny kitchen, decent bathroom, no central air and it would be really expensive to put in, and let's just say you could really tell that they had cats. This did not make the list.
But.... when we saw the 3 bedroom house the realtor (not ours, she had something come up and someone else filled in) showed us a paper for a house that had literally been listed that morning that she said our realtor thought we would love. So we figured, why not go look.
So we went and looked at it. Two bedrooms - but these are nice and big, a huge living room, a huge eat-in kitchen, detached garage, nice backyard - almost totally fenced in, just needs a gate by the garage, nice front porch, and so many closets! Closets every where! It's in really nice shape, the owner had lived there for a really long time and had recently gone to a nursing home. So we looked around and checked everything out and then went home and talked about it.
We liked it - a lot. It's a great price, incredibly great neighborhood, way better than that other two bedroom. So we decided to make an appointment to go see it again the next day.
So, we went again - this time with both of Doug's parents, my mom (my dad was at work), and 3 of the kids my mom watches (including my bff's 2). Doug's dad had been with us the day before but his mom had skipped, so she and my mom were checking everything out and they really loved it, they couldn't believe the closets either, lol. And having the kids there was actually pretty helpful, we got to see what it was like with a toddler running around (not bad, you knew where she was but yet you weren't right on top of her) and she loved the porch and the yard (although she asked where all the "stuff" was in the backyard, silly girl).
Our realtor told us that she knew we wouldn't like the 3 bedroom but that she thought of us as soon as she walked through this one she thought of us. She also informed us that there was another showing of the house right after ours and another right after that! And that they seemed pretty interested.
So Doug and I looked at each other (we'd already pretty much decided the night before) and said "let's go make an offer." So we did. We played it off real cool when leaving because the next showing was already there and we didn't want them getting wind of our impending offer. So we went up to the office, made our offer, gave them a check for earnest money, and then left to go wait it out.
We went home and sat around for a while waiting for Doug's cell to ring..... finally about 8pm we gave up on it. But around 9pm it rang.... it was our realtor saying that she had called the son of the owner who has Power of Attorney and given him the offer and he had verbally said yes but they had to fax him the papers. So Friday morning Doug called me at work to say that the papers had been signed and it was official!
So Monday we had our inspection and it went really well. Just a couple of really small issues, mainly just things where code has changed from when the current owners bought the house. And the inspector said we were getting a really great house. And then last night I saw on our bank account where the earnest money had gone through, so I guess it's official!
So, prepare for lots of posts about packing and moving (this will be only the second time I've ever had to move! So expect lots of complaining!!) And then lots of posts about getting the house in shape - mainly painting and organizing. And if anyone has any packing, moving, or unpacking/organizing tips I'd love to hear them!
Showing posts with label house hunt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house hunt. Show all posts
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
House Hunt Update
Does anyone want to live in an 830 some square foot 3 bedroom house right next to (darn near on top of) a railroad track?
What about a house that had pretty much every room completly gutted and then.... nothing?You'd pretty much pay the same as you would for a move-in ready house but you'd have to put this one back together.
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
::crickets::
Yeah, us either. So this is my way of telling you that there hasn't been anything new with the house hunt for a while. Everything that's come on the market in our price range has been really tiny, or really old with a lot of problems, or really tiny & really old with a lot of problems.
So the hunt continues.
What about a house that had pretty much every room completly gutted and then.... nothing?You'd pretty much pay the same as you would for a move-in ready house but you'd have to put this one back together.
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
::crickets::
Yeah, us either. So this is my way of telling you that there hasn't been anything new with the house hunt for a while. Everything that's come on the market in our price range has been really tiny, or really old with a lot of problems, or really tiny & really old with a lot of problems.
So the hunt continues.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The House Hunt
So one of the main reasons I started this second blog was to have a place where I could write about our experience looking for our first home. I wanted this place for a couple reasons. One was so that we could have a place to quickly look over all the places we've looked at to remind ourselves of what we've seen, why we marked a place off the list, or why we kept one on. Two I wanted to have one place where I could put everything and then send people to/copy and paste from. I've already learned that it can be pretty tiring to have to type up the same stories for all the people who want to know how the hunt is going. And three because some of these stories are just too funny not to tell. I mean, when the floor of one room in the very.first.house you look at could almost double as a trampoline (at least in my mind), you know you just have to share. So expect lots of posts about house hunting, bad houses, and (hopefully) great houses while we go on this lovely journey they call house hunting.
We actually don't have any viewings lined up this week so, in the meantime, let me catch you up on what we've seen so far.
House #1. This is the house with the bouncy floor. It had an addition that the owner had started on himself. The addition was actually a great idea, it was supposed to be a "mother-in-law room" and was a huge bedroom that was going to have a bathroom and a huge closet. Only problem was that he didn't finish it. After you stepped through the glass sliding door off the family room you felt the floor give a bit under your feet. This happened all throughout the room. The "bathroom" was never finished either. It was basically a big closet with a bathtub sitting in it, no plumbing ran to the tub (or room) though. The actual closet didn't have finished walls yet or anything to hang clothes on. This room had a sliding door to the back yard. It had a giant step down to the ground and no stairs, oh and the railing was so low you had to bend over to try to use it. This place also had small bedrooms, a slightly outdated bathroom (which could have been usable), and the laundry hookups on the outside wall of the garage (kinda strange for this area, since it gets so cold in the winter). The kitchen had great cabinets and didn't seem too small at the time, but once we started thinking about putting the fridge, some sort of shelf or pantry, and other things in it quickly became apparent that the room would be pretty tight. So this one's off the list. We could make do with pretty much everything, except the problems in the addition. We were worried about what problems were hiding just under the surface (electrical, insulation levels, how the floor was being supported, etc). So it's off.
We saw these next 4 on the same day:
House #2:Was ok. We kinda liked it. Kitchen and LR were kinda small but not too bad. Although it's an eat-in kitchen so with a table it would be very small. Backyard was small and had a small hill down and opened right up to house behind and wasn't fenced. But overall it was the nicest one we've looked at. But they had an offer made on it the night before. And the biggest downside is that the street opens right up to the elementary school so trying to get out in the am and pm would suck, and Doug usually has to be at work at 8, which is prime kid-dropping-off time. But this one is still on the maybe list, pending another look.
House #3. Um, this one kinda smelled.... no, actually it really smelled. It's a rental right now and they didn't know we were coming so we had to stand outside for a minute before we could go in (where we noticed the crappy condition of the siding). Our realtor hadn't seen it but had been warned it was bad... well bad is an understatement! The second you walked in you got hit by this wall of hot air that stunk of pets, trash, dirt, and Doug thought a little something else too maybe. The kitchen needed a new floor, the walls were horrible (what you could see of them behind the stuff everywhere), the bathroom was tiny. We walked in the door, down the hall, looked in one bedroom and decided we were done. We got outside and all took huge breaths (fresh air!!) and our realtor goes "you are not buying this one!" So it's off the list for sure.
House #4. Was tiny. It was just a 2 bedroom. The LR was huge, bathroom was nice, bedrooms were small, backyard was awesome. But the deal killer was the kitchen. It was also an "eat in" kitchen but our table would not have fit, at.all. Plus the kitchen was the spot for the table, the fridge, and a row of cabinets with the sink. You had to step down and around a step into the utility closet to get to where the oven was. Yep, your oven was in a different room, across from the washer and dryer and on the wall with your garage. The baker in me totally freaked out at this. So that one was done. Plus one of the closets had some water damage that looked new. Off the list.
House #5. Was TINY! The kitchen was older but would have worked (eat-in too), the living room was tiny, the bathroom was smaller than what we have now, the 2nd bedroom was ok, but our bed would have barely fit into the room and there would have been no room otherwise. The only pluses to this one were it came with a washer & dryer and was really cute on the outside. It turns out it's across the street from one of Doug's assistant managers, not sure if that would be a plus or minus though, lol.
And then the next day we saw this one:
House #6. I had high hopes for this one. It was listed as a three bedroom but you had to walk through one bedroom (that literally was only big enough to hold their bed) to get to the other one. And 2 of them didn't have closets. The living room was small, like tiny. The bathroom looked ok, a tad small but not bad. I actually kinda liked the kitchen. It was another eat-in but bigger than the others and had a decent amount of counter space (although it's not hard to beat what I have now!). But the house had a really old heating system, the unfenced backyard faced the local offices of the power company and their yard of power polls, and the entire yard had the scent of the stuff they put on the polls (ick!). But it did have a nice deck. Overall it was decided that this one was a little too small for the price and it got knocked off the list.
So, that's where we're at now. I'll be sure to update you when we look at more!
We actually don't have any viewings lined up this week so, in the meantime, let me catch you up on what we've seen so far.
House #1. This is the house with the bouncy floor. It had an addition that the owner had started on himself. The addition was actually a great idea, it was supposed to be a "mother-in-law room" and was a huge bedroom that was going to have a bathroom and a huge closet. Only problem was that he didn't finish it. After you stepped through the glass sliding door off the family room you felt the floor give a bit under your feet. This happened all throughout the room. The "bathroom" was never finished either. It was basically a big closet with a bathtub sitting in it, no plumbing ran to the tub (or room) though. The actual closet didn't have finished walls yet or anything to hang clothes on. This room had a sliding door to the back yard. It had a giant step down to the ground and no stairs, oh and the railing was so low you had to bend over to try to use it. This place also had small bedrooms, a slightly outdated bathroom (which could have been usable), and the laundry hookups on the outside wall of the garage (kinda strange for this area, since it gets so cold in the winter). The kitchen had great cabinets and didn't seem too small at the time, but once we started thinking about putting the fridge, some sort of shelf or pantry, and other things in it quickly became apparent that the room would be pretty tight. So this one's off the list. We could make do with pretty much everything, except the problems in the addition. We were worried about what problems were hiding just under the surface (electrical, insulation levels, how the floor was being supported, etc). So it's off.
We saw these next 4 on the same day:
House #2:Was ok. We kinda liked it. Kitchen and LR were kinda small but not too bad. Although it's an eat-in kitchen so with a table it would be very small. Backyard was small and had a small hill down and opened right up to house behind and wasn't fenced. But overall it was the nicest one we've looked at. But they had an offer made on it the night before. And the biggest downside is that the street opens right up to the elementary school so trying to get out in the am and pm would suck, and Doug usually has to be at work at 8, which is prime kid-dropping-off time. But this one is still on the maybe list, pending another look.
House #3. Um, this one kinda smelled.... no, actually it really smelled. It's a rental right now and they didn't know we were coming so we had to stand outside for a minute before we could go in (where we noticed the crappy condition of the siding). Our realtor hadn't seen it but had been warned it was bad... well bad is an understatement! The second you walked in you got hit by this wall of hot air that stunk of pets, trash, dirt, and Doug thought a little something else too maybe. The kitchen needed a new floor, the walls were horrible (what you could see of them behind the stuff everywhere), the bathroom was tiny. We walked in the door, down the hall, looked in one bedroom and decided we were done. We got outside and all took huge breaths (fresh air!!) and our realtor goes "you are not buying this one!" So it's off the list for sure.
House #4. Was tiny. It was just a 2 bedroom. The LR was huge, bathroom was nice, bedrooms were small, backyard was awesome. But the deal killer was the kitchen. It was also an "eat in" kitchen but our table would not have fit, at.all. Plus the kitchen was the spot for the table, the fridge, and a row of cabinets with the sink. You had to step down and around a step into the utility closet to get to where the oven was. Yep, your oven was in a different room, across from the washer and dryer and on the wall with your garage. The baker in me totally freaked out at this. So that one was done. Plus one of the closets had some water damage that looked new. Off the list.
House #5. Was TINY! The kitchen was older but would have worked (eat-in too), the living room was tiny, the bathroom was smaller than what we have now, the 2nd bedroom was ok, but our bed would have barely fit into the room and there would have been no room otherwise. The only pluses to this one were it came with a washer & dryer and was really cute on the outside. It turns out it's across the street from one of Doug's assistant managers, not sure if that would be a plus or minus though, lol.
And then the next day we saw this one:
House #6. I had high hopes for this one. It was listed as a three bedroom but you had to walk through one bedroom (that literally was only big enough to hold their bed) to get to the other one. And 2 of them didn't have closets. The living room was small, like tiny. The bathroom looked ok, a tad small but not bad. I actually kinda liked the kitchen. It was another eat-in but bigger than the others and had a decent amount of counter space (although it's not hard to beat what I have now!). But the house had a really old heating system, the unfenced backyard faced the local offices of the power company and their yard of power polls, and the entire yard had the scent of the stuff they put on the polls (ick!). But it did have a nice deck. Overall it was decided that this one was a little too small for the price and it got knocked off the list.
So, that's where we're at now. I'll be sure to update you when we look at more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)