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Downsides of today... I'm sick (my annual all-spring-long case of allergic bronchitis, with bonus head cold), and I just got back from looking at houses w/ my agent and none of them were anything that made me jump up and down wanting to make an offer.
Upsides of today... it's an absolutely gorgeous bright sunny day, and I hung my lovely copper and beach glass wind chimes on the corner of the front porch, where they get just the right amount of breeze. Windows are open, airing out the house. Cats are snuggly. Dogs are silly. Salad from Moe's was just spicy enough that I could actually taste it (yay for something tasting reasonably normal through the stuffy head).
Now... the houses... today we were checking out Carmel, which has the benefit of being a really nice area with a lot of older established neighborhoods. The first house was a stone ranch that Hariette (my agent) had spotted earlier in the week... it's on a really pretty lot, but the house sits fairly far back from the street, so much of the yard is out front rather than in back (where it could be fenced and be useful for hanging out with the dogs). Very dry unfinished basement (concrete floor, concrete block walls) that could be pretty easily turned into extra living space. Laundry is downstairs, which is sub-optimal. The house could use a lot of updating, and some of the updating that's been done wasn't what I would have chosen... for instance, they turned one end of the house into a master suite, but in making room for the bathroom, they sacrificed a lot of space in the bedroom, so it's now really small for a master bedroom (on the plus side, it does have its own sliding glass doors out to the backyard). It's still on the list as a possibility, but I'm not overly thrilled.
Next, we went to see the fixer-upper that was on the list solely because it's a fascinating piece of property and we were going to be in the neighborhood. Turns out that "needs extensive renovation" really translates to "needs to be completely gutted". Structurally, it's a very cool house... log cabin, with an inground pool (which has been covered for so long that there's two-foot-tall swampgrass growing _on top_ of the pool cover), a multi-car detached garage and another outbuilding that could possibly be converted to in-law quarters (better use would be as an office or studio space). A little over 3.5 acres that backs up to horse farms and is bounded by a creek. My theory is that the guy who lived there either died or got thrown in jail, because nobody has made _any_ effort to get the house ready to sell. He (and I say "he" because the clothes in the closet were men's clothes, and there were deer heads and mounted fish and stuff on the walls) had started gutting and renovating the kitchen, and appliances were all shoved into the den to get them out of the way. The house was full of empty liquor bottles as "decorations" on top of cabinets, and I'd guess it's been years since anybody had ever actually, you know, dusted. Really really cool piece of property and the house has great bones, but they want way too much for it given that you really would have to gut the house and start over. *sigh* It's a shame, 'cause it could be such a cool place. But I need a house... not another hobby.
So, on we went to the third house. The listing agent for that one had never called my agent back, but we drove by anyway. It's in a really pretty neighborhood, and had a lockbox on the door (it's vacant), but the keys weren't in the lockbox, so all we could do was look in the windows. Based on the pictures and what we could see, it's in move-in condition, and the three-season sunroom added on the back is a really nice room. It's kind of an ivory color, which is obviously not original, because there are spots where the paint has worn away from what was very orange brick underneath. Another great wooded lot with an unfortunately large front yard and small backyard. It stays on the list as a "maybe".
This week, we'll go see the inside of a house that's very near several friends (and my veterinarian's office!) and has a huge already-fenced backyard, and we'll try yet again to go see inside the cool-looking farmhouse out from Lapel.
Upsides of today... it's an absolutely gorgeous bright sunny day, and I hung my lovely copper and beach glass wind chimes on the corner of the front porch, where they get just the right amount of breeze. Windows are open, airing out the house. Cats are snuggly. Dogs are silly. Salad from Moe's was just spicy enough that I could actually taste it (yay for something tasting reasonably normal through the stuffy head).
Now... the houses... today we were checking out Carmel, which has the benefit of being a really nice area with a lot of older established neighborhoods. The first house was a stone ranch that Hariette (my agent) had spotted earlier in the week... it's on a really pretty lot, but the house sits fairly far back from the street, so much of the yard is out front rather than in back (where it could be fenced and be useful for hanging out with the dogs). Very dry unfinished basement (concrete floor, concrete block walls) that could be pretty easily turned into extra living space. Laundry is downstairs, which is sub-optimal. The house could use a lot of updating, and some of the updating that's been done wasn't what I would have chosen... for instance, they turned one end of the house into a master suite, but in making room for the bathroom, they sacrificed a lot of space in the bedroom, so it's now really small for a master bedroom (on the plus side, it does have its own sliding glass doors out to the backyard). It's still on the list as a possibility, but I'm not overly thrilled.
Next, we went to see the fixer-upper that was on the list solely because it's a fascinating piece of property and we were going to be in the neighborhood. Turns out that "needs extensive renovation" really translates to "needs to be completely gutted". Structurally, it's a very cool house... log cabin, with an inground pool (which has been covered for so long that there's two-foot-tall swampgrass growing _on top_ of the pool cover), a multi-car detached garage and another outbuilding that could possibly be converted to in-law quarters (better use would be as an office or studio space). A little over 3.5 acres that backs up to horse farms and is bounded by a creek. My theory is that the guy who lived there either died or got thrown in jail, because nobody has made _any_ effort to get the house ready to sell. He (and I say "he" because the clothes in the closet were men's clothes, and there were deer heads and mounted fish and stuff on the walls) had started gutting and renovating the kitchen, and appliances were all shoved into the den to get them out of the way. The house was full of empty liquor bottles as "decorations" on top of cabinets, and I'd guess it's been years since anybody had ever actually, you know, dusted. Really really cool piece of property and the house has great bones, but they want way too much for it given that you really would have to gut the house and start over. *sigh* It's a shame, 'cause it could be such a cool place. But I need a house... not another hobby.
So, on we went to the third house. The listing agent for that one had never called my agent back, but we drove by anyway. It's in a really pretty neighborhood, and had a lockbox on the door (it's vacant), but the keys weren't in the lockbox, so all we could do was look in the windows. Based on the pictures and what we could see, it's in move-in condition, and the three-season sunroom added on the back is a really nice room. It's kind of an ivory color, which is obviously not original, because there are spots where the paint has worn away from what was very orange brick underneath. Another great wooded lot with an unfortunately large front yard and small backyard. It stays on the list as a "maybe".
This week, we'll go see the inside of a house that's very near several friends (and my veterinarian's office!) and has a huge already-fenced backyard, and we'll try yet again to go see inside the cool-looking farmhouse out from Lapel.
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Date: 2008-04-27 01:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 11:09 pm (UTC)Finally decided that the low-grade fever meant this wasn't my normal allergy, so I went to the local doc-in-a-box and now I'm on Z-Pack. Hopefully that'll knock it down in a hurry!