Well, now that the orders have come, we can officially start house hunting. It got me thinking what do I want or need in a house. Leo and I don't have extravagant tastes. We really don't need a lot in a house. We actually would take less house more land. I would like to have two bathrooms since I grew up in a house with one bathroom and seven people. We also want three or four bedrooms. We want a yard that at least part of it can be fenced in without looking stupid, so the dogs can run around. Other than that we don't have many true qualifications other than the foundation being in good shape. I like houses with a little character. There are two houses on our list that fall into that class. There are two renovated farmhouses that kept many of the charms of their eras. One seems to be a little more modernized in looks than the other, but they both still have the charms that one would like if you are into older homes. I am not much into newer homes. I think they lose some of the appeal that you can get with an older home. I like the idea that there is history in the house. You wonder what the walls would say if they can talk. That's the type of place that I like. The house above is not on our list. It isn't for sale. It is my sister's new house. Even though it is new and I don't normally care for those type of places, great detail was put inside the house to have some older style features put into it. I also wouldn't mind having land like they have cleared where the house is. I really don't want all 14 acres they have, but a couple acres would be nice. The more I got thinking about it. I think I am more of an outskirts kind of a person. I lived close to town and had the nosy neighbor next door. I am not sure if I want that type of a thing again. If you are close enough to town to enjoy what it has to offer, but yet far enough away you can have some privacy, I think that is the way to go. It will be interesting this week to see what the houses we ahve picked have to offer. I have my leading canidate. I hope it has to offer what I think it does. I also know that with the list that we have one of the houses is sure to be the one. It should be an interesting adventure.
3 comments:
Your sisters house is really nice looking!
Good luck house hunting!
Living in a house with one bathroom is not my ideal either, although our current house was home to a mother, father and five girls and one bathroom. Two of us live here with an occasional guest or two or three and we get by, but an extra bathroom would be nice. We have four bedrooms and a sewing room for the two of us. More than we need? Probably, but you kind of expand into the space that you have. If you have kids, four bedrooms won't seem like a lot, but more than that would depend on the house. If the Grandparents visit, they'll have to sleep on the floor in the living room, or they'll have to buy a motor home to park by the barn.
I like older homes too. Ours is an older home, almost 100 years, with a history, although you may not want some of the history that this house has. An acre or two is nice also, but the price that you pay for that is additional maintenance and time to do it. Our house is also located in an area that I would compare to a residential area of a large city. We live on a busy street. We can walk to the bank, drug store, church, liquor store and across the street to get a bus into NYC and are about a mile from the train station where we can get a train to the airport or into the city. The only problem there is that the taxi service is not very reliable, especially in the wee hours of the morning. We have utilized these services, but not that often. We also live about one half hour from the ocean, but in the summertime, traffic can be a real pain. There is a lot of congestion and taxes are high too, so it's all a great big balancing act.
It sounds to me like you have your sights set in the right direction, but my advice to you (the best thing about advice is that you don't have to take it) is to take your time. I know you don't have a lot of that, but try not to make a snap decision the first time you look at a place. Things look different when you see it a second or third time. Don't rely on what an owner or Realtor tells you. They are trying to sell you something. I'm not saying they would be dishonest, they may be well intentioned, but you have to do your own investigation of everything. That's all I have to say about that, for now.
Dad
We aren't going to make a snap decision. We plan on at least two trips if not more to make our choice. We wouldn't make you sleep on the floor. We can put an air matress in the barn. You could consider it camping. Actually, since we want two kids of same sex they can share a room and still leave us with a guest bedroom. I like some of the features in your house, and my two frontrunners have some of those features. I would rather have more land less house. I am one of those people who actually like mowing, and am more than happy to spend a day doing it, or if we get the place with the barn, I can just get some goats. They do a good job at lawn work.
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