further adventures in house-hunting
Jul. 29th, 2005 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabI don't understand it. If we had left our house in the condition some of these people seem to be living in, Winona would have slapped us silly. Our house in Austin is in better shape overall than ANY of these. The main difference is that most of these have newer kitchens; the kitchen in Austin was last updated in the 1970's. It's in good shape, everything works, but it's not new counters, not stainless steel fridge and glass cooktop and stainless steel dishwasher and all that. But it's much larger than any of these kitchens, too. So it should even out, right? If people are bidding competitively on these houses, they should be bidding on ours!! Hmph.
Meanwhile. We looked at half a dozen houses here. One, in Pikesville, wasn't that strange itself - but the family was not only still living in it, they were hanging around, sitting and watching TV, getting in the way of us seeing stuff. And they had clearly lived there too long - the basement had years of piled up clutter in it. Couldn't get very close to the circuit box - too much stuff piled there. Only one bathroom, and that on the second floor, although there is a spot on the first floor where it would be quite easy to build in a powder room. Huge fireplace smack in middle of long wall in living room, with a window on each side of it, so that would mean no bookshelves whatsoever could go on that wall. So, even though it's a large living room, it would not have room for our stuff - not for all our bookshelves. Add to that that this family didn't look like it would be ready to budge any time soon - no signs of packing, despite the amount of stuff in the house - and it just didn't seem likely.
Much odder was a house in Reisterstown that rivaled that one in Halethorpe for oddness. Although a simple description would make it sound perfect, the details are just strange. For example: yes, it has both a washer and a dryer. The washer is in the kitchen. The dryer is in the furnace closet, a couple of rooms away. The central air conditioning is not part of the central heating - the a/c goes to the same ducts, but from a separate unit, in a different closet from the furnace. None of the light switches work. The lights all work - if you pull on the pull cord - but the switches have nothing to do with it. There's only one bathroom - and it's newly refurbished, but it's not convenient to ANY of the bedrooms. The largest bedroom has 2 baseboard heating units - one of them in a closet, the other in the only possible place to put a bed and still be able to open the closets. Oh, and the floor in that bedroom is vinyl tile - which does not line up with ANY of the walls - it's on a diagonal to all of them, and it's a slightly different diagonal to each, because the room is not exactly a rectangle. That bedroom and the huge family room are not on the central heat and air. There are two storage sheds, both huge, both with built-in workbenches and shelves and wired for electricity - and with exposed wires where the light switches should be. All together, just a little too strange, despite the nice living room and kitchen, the 3-car driveway, and the small back yard that wouldn't need much mowing.
One house seems likely. It's in Pikesville, a nice area that's mostly Orthodox Jewish. Lots o' bagel places on the main road! It's semi-detached, which is to say half a duplex, which is not what we were thinking of, but this one overcame our objections. For one thing, the amount of wall space shared with the neighbors is quite small. For another thing, it's a very spacious split-level place, so that even though it's half a duplex, it's as big as any of the single homes we've seen. It's on a small court, so no through traffic, but at the same time only a couple blocks from a main street with all the necessities of city living. It's got spaces where we can exactly see how our bookshelves would go, and our pets, and our stereo, etc. It's got a gen-u-wine separate master bathroom!!! Two full baths! And it would be quite easy to add a powder room to the family room in the "basement" (which, because it's a split-level, is only a few steps down, and really part of the first floor. The kitchen is tiny, and needs a new stove-top, but that's not difficult. It's got a shed at the end of the driveway that would be perfect for the bikes. And last but not least, when we walked around to see the approach to the back yard from the driveway, there was a cottontail rabbit browsing in the back yard. And when we walked around front again - there was another one!
So of course that clinched it - tomorrow we'll be submitting an offer, for the full price of the house.
Bunny rabbits!!!
Meanwhile. We looked at half a dozen houses here. One, in Pikesville, wasn't that strange itself - but the family was not only still living in it, they were hanging around, sitting and watching TV, getting in the way of us seeing stuff. And they had clearly lived there too long - the basement had years of piled up clutter in it. Couldn't get very close to the circuit box - too much stuff piled there. Only one bathroom, and that on the second floor, although there is a spot on the first floor where it would be quite easy to build in a powder room. Huge fireplace smack in middle of long wall in living room, with a window on each side of it, so that would mean no bookshelves whatsoever could go on that wall. So, even though it's a large living room, it would not have room for our stuff - not for all our bookshelves. Add to that that this family didn't look like it would be ready to budge any time soon - no signs of packing, despite the amount of stuff in the house - and it just didn't seem likely.
Much odder was a house in Reisterstown that rivaled that one in Halethorpe for oddness. Although a simple description would make it sound perfect, the details are just strange. For example: yes, it has both a washer and a dryer. The washer is in the kitchen. The dryer is in the furnace closet, a couple of rooms away. The central air conditioning is not part of the central heating - the a/c goes to the same ducts, but from a separate unit, in a different closet from the furnace. None of the light switches work. The lights all work - if you pull on the pull cord - but the switches have nothing to do with it. There's only one bathroom - and it's newly refurbished, but it's not convenient to ANY of the bedrooms. The largest bedroom has 2 baseboard heating units - one of them in a closet, the other in the only possible place to put a bed and still be able to open the closets. Oh, and the floor in that bedroom is vinyl tile - which does not line up with ANY of the walls - it's on a diagonal to all of them, and it's a slightly different diagonal to each, because the room is not exactly a rectangle. That bedroom and the huge family room are not on the central heat and air. There are two storage sheds, both huge, both with built-in workbenches and shelves and wired for electricity - and with exposed wires where the light switches should be. All together, just a little too strange, despite the nice living room and kitchen, the 3-car driveway, and the small back yard that wouldn't need much mowing.
One house seems likely. It's in Pikesville, a nice area that's mostly Orthodox Jewish. Lots o' bagel places on the main road! It's semi-detached, which is to say half a duplex, which is not what we were thinking of, but this one overcame our objections. For one thing, the amount of wall space shared with the neighbors is quite small. For another thing, it's a very spacious split-level place, so that even though it's half a duplex, it's as big as any of the single homes we've seen. It's on a small court, so no through traffic, but at the same time only a couple blocks from a main street with all the necessities of city living. It's got spaces where we can exactly see how our bookshelves would go, and our pets, and our stereo, etc. It's got a gen-u-wine separate master bathroom!!! Two full baths! And it would be quite easy to add a powder room to the family room in the "basement" (which, because it's a split-level, is only a few steps down, and really part of the first floor. The kitchen is tiny, and needs a new stove-top, but that's not difficult. It's got a shed at the end of the driveway that would be perfect for the bikes. And last but not least, when we walked around to see the approach to the back yard from the driveway, there was a cottontail rabbit browsing in the back yard. And when we walked around front again - there was another one!
So of course that clinched it - tomorrow we'll be submitting an offer, for the full price of the house.
Bunny rabbits!!!
