![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yesterday, as the snow blew in (and occasionally made the road disappear) and the temperatures dropped, Hariette and I made the rounds to look at four more houses.
The first one was a small farmhouse with almost 10 acres. The house was cute from the outside, way outdated inside, rooms were much too small, and the land was boring. If the land had been interesting, it might have been worth living in the little house while building elsewhere on the property, but it was just flat and boring. Away it went.
The next one was in Pendleton and came off the list pretty quickly too. The layout was weird, which would have led to a lot of unused/wasted space, and the house was just creepy feeling. Strangest thing... couldn't really put my finger on what made it feel so strange, but Hariette felt it too.
Next up was a house with a pony. Honestly. The listing says they'll let the pony go with the house. Who does that kind of thing???? Anyway, nice house, and nice acreage, but the house layout is a little formal for my taste, it would need a good bit of updating of walls and kitchen, and nothing about it made me go "Ooh! This is the one!" It's still tentatively on the list. $5k under the "baseline" house in Westfield in my previous post, 25.7 miles/35 minutes from work, 2668 square feet, 2.33 acres.
The last one was our surprise entry for the day. I had spotted the listing and pointed it out to Hariette, and we went to see it solely on the strength of the location (two acres on a bluff overlooking the White River). It's corporate owned and being sold as-is (we're guessing, in the absence of actual facts, that it's probably a probate sale... it doesn't have the abused look that foreclosed houses usually get). Built in 1963, and with minimal updating since then, but it's a cool layout for your basic 60s ranch, the view is stunning, and the house is structurally (and mechanically, from what we could tell) in great shape. It needs all the walls painted and pretty much all the flooring replaced, but it's listed almost $40k under the rest of the houses currently under consideration, and I could get a lot of updating done for that $40k. So it's on the list too, and Hariette has a list of questions to try to get answered (especially finding out exactly where the property lines are, 'cause there's probably less than half an acre inside the backyard fence, so where's the rest? If it's off to the side, that would rock, 'cause that would take it out to the best river view. If it's out the back, then there's an acre in the gully, and that's not terribly useful.). $40k under baseline, 25.6 miles/36 minutes from work, 2000 square feet, 2 acres.
Scorecard... seven houses seen in person, three ruled out (along with two ruled out on drive-bys without needing to see the inside), so four houses still on the list, with the Frankton house with the pool and the fixer-upper on the river being the leading candidates at the moment. There are four more on our "schedule a time to go see these" list, but I expect that only one of them will end up staying on the list, so the pool is narrowing.
The first one was a small farmhouse with almost 10 acres. The house was cute from the outside, way outdated inside, rooms were much too small, and the land was boring. If the land had been interesting, it might have been worth living in the little house while building elsewhere on the property, but it was just flat and boring. Away it went.
The next one was in Pendleton and came off the list pretty quickly too. The layout was weird, which would have led to a lot of unused/wasted space, and the house was just creepy feeling. Strangest thing... couldn't really put my finger on what made it feel so strange, but Hariette felt it too.
Next up was a house with a pony. Honestly. The listing says they'll let the pony go with the house. Who does that kind of thing???? Anyway, nice house, and nice acreage, but the house layout is a little formal for my taste, it would need a good bit of updating of walls and kitchen, and nothing about it made me go "Ooh! This is the one!" It's still tentatively on the list. $5k under the "baseline" house in Westfield in my previous post, 25.7 miles/35 minutes from work, 2668 square feet, 2.33 acres.
The last one was our surprise entry for the day. I had spotted the listing and pointed it out to Hariette, and we went to see it solely on the strength of the location (two acres on a bluff overlooking the White River). It's corporate owned and being sold as-is (we're guessing, in the absence of actual facts, that it's probably a probate sale... it doesn't have the abused look that foreclosed houses usually get). Built in 1963, and with minimal updating since then, but it's a cool layout for your basic 60s ranch, the view is stunning, and the house is structurally (and mechanically, from what we could tell) in great shape. It needs all the walls painted and pretty much all the flooring replaced, but it's listed almost $40k under the rest of the houses currently under consideration, and I could get a lot of updating done for that $40k. So it's on the list too, and Hariette has a list of questions to try to get answered (especially finding out exactly where the property lines are, 'cause there's probably less than half an acre inside the backyard fence, so where's the rest? If it's off to the side, that would rock, 'cause that would take it out to the best river view. If it's out the back, then there's an acre in the gully, and that's not terribly useful.). $40k under baseline, 25.6 miles/36 minutes from work, 2000 square feet, 2 acres.
Scorecard... seven houses seen in person, three ruled out (along with two ruled out on drive-bys without needing to see the inside), so four houses still on the list, with the Frankton house with the pool and the fixer-upper on the river being the leading candidates at the moment. There are four more on our "schedule a time to go see these" list, but I expect that only one of them will end up staying on the list, so the pool is narrowing.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-03 11:37 am (UTC)It may still be 2-wire, which is not happy with having a lot of 21st century electronics plugged into it. Been there / done that.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-04 12:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-03 04:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-04 01:05 am (UTC)House hunting (or condo hunting) is fun, 'cause there are so many options. I feel for my poor real estate agent, 'cause the houses on my list have ranged from ranch to tri-level, 1400 sq ft to almost 3000 sq ft, 1 acre to 10 acres, etc. She has my "if I could find the perfect house, this is what it would include" list, but for me it's all about the fit... is the floor plan one that would be useable and not leave a lot of wasted space... is it big enough... do cabinet doors and closet doors hang straight and open and close easily... does it feel like it could be home and not just a house. Does it have a yard for the dogs? A porch for the cats? It's one of those "I'll know it when I see it" things, and the house on the river is really starting to say "You know you want to fix me up, really... you do! C'mon... buy me... you'll love me!" The one in Frankton with the pool could be very cool too, but it's toward the top of my price range, so there won't be much money to decorate and make it "mine". I could afford to completely re-do the interior of the river house and it would be really mine, right from the start, and I think that would be lots of fun. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-04 11:55 pm (UTC)-Ryan
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-05 04:37 am (UTC)And yeah, I'm getting interesting "this house was waiting for me" vibes from it too! Kinda fun. :-)