Thursday, March 19, 2009

Still looking: the review

I saw three houses today.

I described the first one in the entry below. It has a very large foyer/dining room/living room/curved staircase entry. It is very grand, but not a very practical use of space. The kitchen is impressive and worthy of the house. I wish it had a deck. Everything upstairs is good, to include the incredible master closets. The basement seems to have had a small flood, probably due to the entry well door having a bunch of leaves blocking the drain. There's a slight mildewy odor, but I don't think it is terminal. Much of the basement is dark, but that suits it being a media room very well. Under the whole front half of the house is a huge unfinished storage area. There was a lot of junk/clothes left around, so it was messy and not pristine, but that doesn't really matter.

The second house was much smaller, had a dining room, but no living room. It had two masters, but neither had more than a single small walk in closet. The basement was finished and well lit with a bedroom, but they only left about the size of a walk in closet unfinished for storage. It also almost backed to a busier road.

The third house was not in the neighborhood I wanted, but the realtor, who was very cool, wanted to see it for herself. It was grand and beautiful and on a very large lot backing to woods. The kitchen was spacious, but not huge or particularly open. It has a library, which would probably be the studio, and a large solarium, in addition to the family room.

It had five bedrooms upstairs and the master had double doors with two steps leading to them. There were two closets, but they were regular walk in size vs. the three large, successive closets in the first one. The master and sitting rooms were smaller, too, but still substantial. One bedroom smelled of smoke, as if it were the smoking room, but size-wise it would have to be for one of the boys, although it would have to use the nearby hall bath. One bedroom was a small throw away one, guess that would be the nursery if it weren't so far from the master. Another had its own bath and would have been great for one boy.

Downstairs painted the picture of why it is in foreclosure. It reeked of mold with a longstanding water problem; the carpeting was stained, but there didn't appear to be a water line on the wall. It is unfortunate. It had a great rec area and bar, a bedroom, and a study, which had a large 20x20 unfinished area off if it. There were also two other unfinished areas, each about 14x14.

This home was incredible and Bea would probably pay the preforeclosed price. Shoot, the thing was also on a cul de sac. Guess it was too perfect. Now the realtor is checking on the selling status of the first one and Bea is ready to do a home inspection on the first and last ones. It wouldn't cost much to figure out their problems.

Houses for sale are very difficult to come by in these parts.

Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate you hanging around. I seem to be only able to update one blog at a time; haven't done my art one in a month, although I do have some paintings and such to show.

Tomorrow is career day at school. I am the Resident Artist. Then I drive several hours to spend the weekend with Bea, then I drive back to pick up J on Sunday and drive a couple hours the other way to get a painting I left for a show three states away. Glad they're small states. So I won't be back home until Monday. Guess I need to get packing.

10 comments:

laura b. said...

What a wonderful dilemma, choosing the perfect home :-)
I know you will be busy for blogging, but I really hope to hear moving stories.

Cricket said...

Laura,
Since I was about 15, I was a house plan buff. I love to look and dream about homes, really always wanting to build one myself - Bea asked me about that, but I don't want to wait over a year for that process.

I've played with houseplans for over 30 years, yet I do it without expectation. It's just cool stuff.

Now, it's cool that it could be my stuff, but I am not rushing into spending money just because it is there. I also want a house that would resell easily, so I am looking for features that others would like (grand kitchen, for example) which don't matter so much to me.

You're right. It's such a tough situation to be in! It's wonderful to think of building a life this way - rather than the scrounging and resentment I've felt in the past.

Monica Cassani said...

sounds fun cricket!

we bought my dream house in august...it is by no means grand but it is all I've ever wanted and all I would want even if I had tons more money...

I hope you too get to find your dream house, it's incredibly satisfying and I didn't believe it could ever happen.

Anonymous said...

Have a great weekend! I am so glad that you are so very excited and skipping.

Anonymous said...

By "skipping", I meant "skipping in life" - it read weird the first time!

Much love,

Val said...

Again, just WOW! I am happy happy HAPPY for ya, babe... Hopefully you will post occasional updates for us bcz of course we want to stay "in the loop" ;-)

Julianna said...

You must be busy! Miss you!

Pamela said...

god, I've read this like 3 times adn never commented! whew... sorry. Hoping it's all going well.

Julianna said...

I hope you are well. Thinking of you,

orodemniades said...

Hi Cricket! It occured to me today that I hadn't read a blog post in ages...I hope everything is going super well.