I'm convinced that home buying is a lot like an intricate dance. I see myself (ethereally, not actually) drifting all over the county, sidling around for a closer look at first one place, then another ... one catches my eye and I embrace it wholeheartedly, claiming it as my own, a partnership of sheltered and shelter ... then I take a step back and the clock has struck midnight, the glass slipper's off, and the reality of the place - warts and all - gives me pause, I step back a little further ... and begin the circuit again, looking for a new dance partner.
Yeah, whatever. Me waxing poetic isn't necessarily a good thing.
House hunting SUCKS. Let's see, where did we leave off? Oh yes - beauty and the beast. Beauty was the gorgeous little ranch with the living room with a cathedral ceiling, knotty pine walls, and a big gorgeous fireplace, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on a wonderful little backyard. I became obsessed with that place for quite awhile after our last post, desperately wanting to buy it. But there was one insurmountable problem (besides the yard being small and not so private, which wasn't actually insurmountable) - parking. There was a 2 car garage, but we must have 3 vehicles (the Dread Reverend can't use his work vehicle for personal use, so must have a mundane vehicle as well) and the driveway just wasn't going to be accommodating to housing a third vehicle, without it constantly being in the way - something we desperately want to avoid, because we are sick of dealing with that problem here. And there was no room to widen it due to the property and house layout. It took me over a week (maybe closer to two), but I finally let that place go and moved on. Sigh.
The beast was the farmhouse with the 8 acres, but the house was atrocious.
Since then we've looked at varying degrees of silliness. Tiny houses with no room on little lots that they want $130,000 for. Huge houses on tiny lots that they want $100,000 for. Big, gorgeous treed lots with houses that need almost total renovation for $85,000. (We're not in the mood for that much work).
One remains in our potential list. It's this crazy cape cod with an upstairs apartment. The downstairs has a kitchen, dining room, 3 bedrooms, living room (with fireplace!), and bath. Then the upstairs is a whole 'nother apartment, with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and another full bath. How cool! The basement is gorgeous, with a big huge bar with another stone fireplace (and another half bath). The one thing that held us back on this place was the yard isn't great. But we haven't ruled it out.
There's one I want to go see this week. It's a big ranch (we used to hate ranches, till we discovered they had the best big-ass basements) with nice fireplaces in both the living room and the basement (do you see the trend here? I've grown to love fireplaces in the basement, we plan to make an official Irish pub in whatever house we get, in the basement by the fireplace). It has a very nice, large lot, bordered in the back with trees (the trees don't go with the property, but they're there, instead of just someone else's backyard). Huge long double-wide driveway, so no parking issues. The only downside of this place is it's only 3 bedrooms ... if we can't carve a niche out of the place somewhere for my 'personal room' then it's going to be a bummer. (Need the 3rd bedroom for a guest room).
I actually like the ranch better than the cape cod with the apartment, but it's also more expensive. So we'll see ... and I'll know more by the weekend, hopefully.
By the way, Rhys - living next to you wouldn't be the problem ... then again, maybe I'm wrong. It might be. ;o)
No comments:
Post a Comment