Big Decisions

So, in the spirit of believing our house sale is going to go through this time, we went house hunting this weekend. We are just so ready to move on with the next phase of our lives and tired of the waiting, we needed to start. Saturday, we went to look at four houses. The first was in a wonderful neighborhood, had a phenomenal yard and came with a sun room and a hot tub. I still like it, but when we sat down to really discuss it later, we realized the layout of the place just would not work for our needs. It's a shame, because the neighborhood was so wonderful. There was also a little work to be done and I don't want another project house.

The second house we looked at was wonderful. It was so beautifully finished inside there would be very little to do to it. The kitchen was beautiful, the three living spaces (yes, three!) were plenty of room for everything, but the down side was there was only one full bathroom and the other half bath was way in the back of the house. The bedrooms seemed a little small to me, and the back yard wasn't fenced in. There also was no basement, which I really want because we living in tornado alley. It did have a great deck, though, and the garage was nice.





Our third stop was a house the realtor had heard wonderful things about and once we visited, we could not understand why. It was awful. I guess some people were dazzled by the fact that it had a pool out back, but the house itself was awful. The worst feature was an ugly, old pink tub that was installed into the floor in such a way that the top edge of the tub was at floor level. Ugh! Why!?

Our fourth stop was the red house I've been in love with since our first visit last November.



I know, I know, they say not to get emotionally attached to a house before you buy it, but I'm not sure I would want to buy a house I didn't feel some sort of attachment to. Why else would I want to live there? I just can't walk in that place without it calling my name. I love the history, the charm, the old feel to it. It comes from another era and doesn't resemble these horrible cookie cutter houses that are plaguing the suburbs. I'm sure we'd run into projects and issues with it, but I just love that house. Down sides? Only a one car, detached garage and John would have to go up and down stairs to the basement in order to get to his train area and woodworking shop. I'm not sure how many more years John will be able to maneuver stairs, so that's a big consideration. It's going to be quite the decision in the next few months, and we're just getting started.