House Hunting FAQ

We've been getting a lot of questions about all the house hunting and selling process, so I figured I'd do a FAQ post!

New House:

Where are you moving to? Will you still be attending the same church?

York! Just twenty minutes away. And yes, as long as God allows, we will still be attending the same church.

Why are you moving?

To be closer to the kid's school. We transferred the kids last year, and it was doable, but with Paige able to participate in modified sports, both boys participating in Odyssey of the Mind, and Pete hoping to coach swim again, it just made sense for us to move. Our family does not function well if we're not home a lot, and just being on the road all the time was going to cause too much stress for us.

How many beds and baths is it?

It has 3 bedrooms (with the ability to be turned into 4) and 1 1/2 baths.

Is it going to be big enough for all of your wants needs? Does the new house have everything you want?

Yes!!! We had very specific things that we needed in a house: I needed an office, the bedrooms couldn't be considered glorified closets, and we needed a space for the kids to play and hang out with friends. I also needed room for a garden and we wanted a yard for the kids to play. I'm getting my office, the bedrooms are great sizes, the kids will eventually have space in the basement to play, and I will have an office in the basement as well. The yard is amazing, and I already know where my garden is going to be. We're also getting a mudroom and a sunroom! Score!

I think the only thing that it doesn't have that we really were hoping for is a 2 car garage. It does have one garage bay, which is definitely better than what we have now!

This house looks like it's in a village? Are you guys ok with that?

It's definitely going to be a change. While it's technically not a village, it is village-like. But the street is so quiet, I think we'll find it quieter than our country road we're on now. God was also showing us through the house searching process that He wants us close to the school, meaning that we have to be close to neighbors. We did hit the jackpot though, and will be next door to some pretty amazing people!

When are you moving?

No confirmed date yet. Possibly September?

How close will you be to school?

Well, we're at about 18 minutes away now. One of the last times I was at the house, I timed how long it took to get to school. With waiting for 7 vehicles to pass by over the course of my drive, it took 3 minutes.

We're going to be so spoiled.

How are you feeling about all of this?

Oh man. I don't know. I'm all jumbled up, and can go from laughing and being happy about all of this to crying within seconds. I'm really excited about my new home and getting to make memories there and make it a beautiful place for us...but I'm really sad about leaving my current home, all the memories here and our neighbors. It's our first house, it's the only home Ryan has ever known. We've put down roots here, and we're all really sad to be leaving it. But there is so much calling to us in the new neighborhood, we have so many friends in that area and we're getting established there, that I'm hoping and praying the transition will be an easy one.

I thought you wanted more land?

Our original wish list had a lot of things: 2 full baths, 4 bedrooms, a few acres, no neighbors, etc. But we realized we didn't need all of those things to be happy:

- We could be fine in a 1 1/2 bathroom house.
- The boys are ok sharing a room as long as the room is big enough.
- We have .8 acres right now, and even that can feel like too much to take care of (note to self: less flower beds at the new house!).
- It felt like God was calling us to be close to school, which means having neighbors.

So I guess my answer is yes, when we started looking we wanted more land, but as time went on we realized we didn't need it and would be happier with less.

A fixer upper? Really?

She's probably more of an "updater" than a "fixer upper" as it's mostly cosmetic work that she needs. We really liked the idea of building, but that was going to be at the top (if not above) our budget to get all the space we really wanted, and the timeline just wasn't going to work with our wants and needs. This way we get to move in before the snow flies (no more driving back and forth every day over the snow covered hills!!!!), and still get the benefits of making the house how we want in the areas that are most important to us (aka the kitchen!). So while it may not be ideal, we really and truly are getting the best of both worlds!

It sounds like you guys have a lot of plans for this house! What project are you tackling first?

Ummm.....we're not sure yet. We need to sit down and really figure out what is most important to us as well as what our budget allows right now. To see what all we have planned for the house, you can check out the blog posts here.

How quickly are you going to try and get all the projects done?

It depends on how big the projects really are and what our budget allows; we will be contacting contractors for estimates after we move in and get settled. We feel very strongly about paying in cash for all of our updates, so that really plays a big part in our timeline. We would love to have everything done in three year's time, but realistically will be more like five to ten (or so we hope; some projects didn't get done in the almost nine years we were here until it was moving time....). It will probably feel a lot faster than that in a lot of the house as paint will make such a massive difference.


Current house:

Do you know the buyers?

Nope. We know their names and that they just got married a couple months ago. That's about it!

How many showings did you have? How much are they buying it for? How many offers did you get?

We are unable to give out a lot of this information due to confidentiality concerns and because it still is fairly early in the process. Anything can go wrong at any time, and we'd hate for it to happen because we said too much. We appreciate everyone's excitement for us, and we will share as much as we are able to! Thank you for understanding!!!


Did I miss any questions? Let me know in the comments below!

Secret Keeping: A House Hunting Update

Guys.

We found a house.

And we've been under contract for about two weeks.

There were some things we had to get through before I could share the news, and we've crossed all of those hurdles, so now we can share! Yay!

So what house did we choose? Was it House #5, Yellow? Or House #6, Ranch?????

Before I tell you, here's the backstory:

We saw both of these houses on a Monday. I had a feeling that one of them was "The One" that day.

Pete....not so much.

He was willing to take a second look at it, which we did on that Friday. After the second showing, I was ready to put in an offer.

Pete....not so much.

So we prayed and talked and did pros and cons and prayed and talked some more. For five days.

And then, I don't know what happened, but Pete woke up one day and decided to put in an offer! After a couple days of negotiating, we came to an agreement and signed contracts. The house passed inspection, and here we are, waiting for our house to sell so we can move in and make it ours! Woo hooooo!!!!!

Yeah, I love my new house. Like A LOT.

So here she is, the new Apps Abode:

Yes, to the surprise of many we chose The Yellow House! Before announcing we found a house on Facebook, only ONE person guessed that we chose this one! Everyone else guessed the Ranch. But, after we told Facebook we found a house, the overwhelming response was that we had chosen Yellow!

We have a lot of paint to buy, carpet, paneling and drop ceiling to rip out, rooms to update or move around, as well as "fun" projects, like siding and a porch to add on. You know, just a short little list of improvements ;) She is a fixer upper, but we are so anxious to get started!

So thank you for being on this journey with us! Our house is on the market, and we're waiting for the perfect person or family to come buy her so we can move along with Yellow. I won't be able to share much more for awhile due to confidentiality requests, but I'll be doing some posts of what we'd like to do with the house if there's any interest!

House #6

This is the house that has broken the "Shawna is refusing to look at any other house" problem.

Honestly, the main reason we went to go look at it is to check it off our list and say we looked and can move on. We love the 4 bedroom, 2 car attached garage, fenced in backyard aspect.

We really didn't like that it's only slightly bigger than what we have now, meaning the bedrooms or living areas are probably smaller than what we have now.

Also, it's a ranch. We have a ranch now, and there are definitely perks to it. But if we could choose, we'd probably choose a 2 story house. I did go on Pinterest and look up some ideas to make it have some curb appeal, and I loooove these porch ideas!

I love porches on houses!

But it's still a ranch...and we went and looked anyway.

We weren't there very long; we knew another group of people were coming in right after us, so we didn't want to be in the way or interfere with their viewing.

We walked into the breezeway, and it had plenty of space for us to put in a bench, lockers/closets for our coats, bags, and shoes, and it also had a door to the fenced in backyard.

The breezeway led up into the living room with the dining room on the right. Right away we could tell that it was going to be the living spaces that were smaller; the kitchen was also on the smaller side as well.

All four bedrooms were on the main level, and they were all a really really good size! We were shocked by that, and could make all of them work for us all. The boys loved the idea of having their own rooms! The master bedroom had the half bath, and in the hall was the full bathroom. It was small, but useable.

We went to the basement, and oh man, it's the basement of our DREAMS. It had a big space for the kids to play with two smaller rooms right off of it. One would be my office, and the other could be a guest room, exercise room, or even take the wall down for a bigger space for the kiddos. On the other side of the stairs was more storage, a walk out area, and the laundry.

The backyard could be accessed from the breezeway, basement, dining room, and it had a gate in the fence from next to the garage. When you walked out the dining room door, it was a big deck with a smaller deck that led to the pool. We were a little leery about they yard as it was only half of an acre, but the fenced in area seemed huge! It had a shed in a corner, the pool, a small swing set, an elevated playhouse for the kids, and a concrete patio that had a basketball hoop. We loved that Mason could run around loose with us, there was room for playing and a garden, and really have a space to enjoy the outdoors.

One of our favorite parts of the house was the view:

Just amazing.

We also checked out the two car attached garage, and there was definitely enough room for the vehicles, a work bench, and other things we have. The driveway was also big enough for vehicles to park (even with company) and not have to park in the garage as well.

There were so many things we loved about this house. But the thing we're really worried about is how small the kitchen, dining room and living room areas are. We could blow out a wall and redo the kitchen and dining room, but it's still small. We could have a small sitting area and have it mostly be kitchen and dining room upstairs, and then in the kid's area have that be the main living room space. But, then we run into the problem for reselling later and the cost of such a big remodel.

We're not completely against this house. It has so many of the things we are looking for, but that big project to make the living space work more for us has us not really excited about the house either, if that makes sense. We're continuing to think about it and keep it as an option.

Would you prefer a ranch house or two story?

House #5

Oh how we've put off looking at this house for such a long time!

Well, part of that was because it actually went under contract with a buyer, but somehow the deal fell through. We also didn't really have time in June to look at houses, either. When we'd talk about this house, we thought it might be big enough for us, but we just are not big fans of raised ranch style houses. Okay, we know it's a colonial according to online listings, but honestly, it looks more like a raised ranch:

This just so happens to be the house of Ryan's first grade teacher's aunt, so we've talked to Ry's teacher  (Sandy) about it, but were still on the fence. As you may have read in my house hunting problem blog post, we've been dragging our feet about seeing any houses, but getting impatient about not finding one. It's hard to find a house when you're not looking, though!

Logic is not my strong suit.

Anyway, we were at Sandy's son's grad party, and people were asking how the house hunting was going. We had an appointment lined up for House #6, and a lot of people were mixed on it being a good fit for us. Then they'd mention we should look at Sandy's aunt's house, and one of the families even mentioned it's right next to their house! I asked Sandy if she knew if there was hardwood under the carpeting in the bedrooms; the floor downstairs was all hardwood, but upstairs seemed to be mostly carpet. She asked her aunt, and yes, it's all hardwood under the carpet! I immediately texted our realtor, and within an hour we had an appointment for right before seeing House #6.

We were still dragging our feet a little about seeing it due to the color and style of the house, so that night I turned to Pinterest for some ideas on what we could do to make it more "us" if we loved the house.

And Pinterest didn't disappoint!

Can't you imagine the house in this color?

With a front porch (one of the top things on our wish list) like this????

Hello, gorgeous!

Now these, of course, wouldn't be things we'd do right away, but just knowing that there was a way to fix it up and that we could save for it would be pretty awesome.

I also started daydreaming about the three season/sun room in the back...

Daydreaming is probably not the best thing to do; I don't want to get my hopes up, but I also like going into houses having an idea of how I'd use the space.

And let me just tell you, this house was not what I was expecting at all. The space is a lot more flexible for layouts or even uses for rooms than I was thinking!

We walked in the front door that used to be the second car garage. I was expecting it to be the family room space, but it was actually a mudroom! It had space for some lockers/closets for our coats and shoes and a bench. To the left was the garage, and we would probably use it as a workshop for Pete, as well as storage for things like my festival tent, cooler, and our kayak.

I'm sorry it's blurry!!!!

We then went into the house into the family room space. It was a little smaller than I was thinking, but it would be a great hangout space for the kids, or even a computer room, music room, or library!

Behind this room was the entrance to the sun room. It was bigger than I was expecting, and did have a heater in it, so we might be able to use it (or upgrade it) to a four season room. It walked out to the backyard, too.

The kitchen and dining room were right off of the family room space as well. We knew that the kitchen was small, but the dining room was a really great size. We could definitely fit our table and chairs in there, even fully extended, and then have a couple nice cupboards for extra kitchen storage and our coffee bar along the side of the room with no problem.

The living room. Oh how we loved this room! It is HUGE!!!!! There's so much flexibility for how we could arrange our furniture, and even possibly get another love seat or couch and still have space for kids to play in there.

The half bathroom was downstairs, and it was a really nice size. I would probably rearrange the room a little and move the sink across from the toilet, but it was definitely a workable space as it was.

The basement, although dark, was a really nice space, too! I already picked out where my office would go! And the best part? It has a Harry Potter cupboard!!!!!

But the office space was plenty big for all of my things, and I could have office AND studio space all together with no problem!

There was also a nice sized space for the kids to have a bigger space for playing or hanging out with friends.

There was also a laundry room/storage space as well.

The upstairs had three bedrooms, a full bath, and a closet space. The master bedroom would actually be the boy's room. It was HUGE! It was probably bigger than our current living room. It also had three closets in it; the boys would each get a closet for their clothes and dresser, and the third smaller closet had shelves in it for books or toys.

Waiting patiently to go check
out the upstairs!

Closet of awesomeness!

The other two bedrooms were smaller but manageable in size. I liked the closet at the end of the hall; I'd use it for the kid's extra clothing instead of having it two floors down in the basement, as well as for extra or off season linens.

We really liked the backyard as well. It's a blank slate: no gardens, no pool, nothing that told us how to use the space (with the exception of the clotheslines!). But there was plenty of space for us to put in a pool and deck, a big garden, a volleyball net, etc. The kids loved that we'd have so much space for playing soccer or baseball, and the kid's swing set could come with us, too!

The neighborhood is wonderful. We've heard great things about the street, and it's really close to the school. We'd only have neighbors on one side, but the neighbors are a complete deal breaker. Okay, not really, we're friends with them and would enjoy living next to them ;)

We're not completely set on this being the house for us, but it's also not a definite no. I can definitely see us living here and enjoying the house. There is a lot we'd have to do to make it "ours," but it's things we could do and do it over time. We just have to sit and really think about our priorities and what we're willing to compromise on or work with to make it what we'd like.

What are your must haves or deal breakers when looking for a house?

House Hunting Problems

It's been awhile since I've posted about our house search...and nothing has changed since the last update.

I'm feeling pretty frustrated, not because there's nothing out there or because I want to be done already (well, both are frustrating, but not the main cause of frustration). I really really really thought House #4 was going to be it for us. And because it's not, I'm feeling let down, bummed, sad...frustrated.

I thought you'd be The One!

I'll be honest: house hunting for our second house is MUCH harder than the first time. Last time had the usual house hunting requirements: this many bedrooms and bathrooms, under this price, etc. This time it's those requirements PLUS we have something to compare it to. And that just makes life harder.

We absolutely love the house we're in now. We really and truly do. The bedrooms are big enough, it feels open and bigger than it really is, the kids have a play room, I have an office and studio, there is so much storage space, it's a quiet neighborhood....the list goes on and on of how awesome this house is. The only problem with it is that it's in the wrong school district. Finding something just as amazing as this house within our budget is near impossible right now.

There are quite a few houses on the market where we're looking. Most of them are really nice houses or have the potential to be a really nice house for us. Some may need work or even a full addition to make it what we're looking for or need, which we don't mind doing...except they're already at the price where it doesn't make sense for our budget to do that. Other houses would be perfect, but we really like food and lights that work, and in order to get the houses, there would be empty bellies and lots of candles lighting our home because we'd be way above budget.

We have considered building. We've spoken to one contractor and hope to talk to another, but building a house plus getting the land is going to probably put us either at our budget limit or above it. We've thought about buying a run down house and just fixing it up as time and our budget allows, but they're either on waaaay too small of a lot or an online auction buying it sight unseen. Ummm....no, thank you.

But I want to see what your inside looks like!!!!

At this point we're still hopeful that we'll find something this year and are still finishing getting our house ready. There are a couple people who have expressed interest in our house, which is wonderful, and having our house sold would make the process a lot faster for us to buy...but we have no place to stay while we search, and on the off chance we don't find something until next year, us staying here without selling first just makes life easier all around.

So that is where we stand right now. We just keep plugging along on getting our house ready while we patiently wait for The One to come on the market!

What are some things you'd be looking for in a house?

House #4

Yesterday we went and looked at another house!

It was one that we've been looking at online for months now. We loved the interior, liked the exterior, but hated the location. Open houses came and went, and we didn't go. We were afraid to fall in love with the house, but be miserable with the yard and street. So we didn't go.

A couple weeks ago I was praying about the house search, praying things like "Oh God, give me a house with no neighbors....with 4 bedrooms....and a nice office area..." etc. etc. etc. And God, he has a funny sense of humor. I heard him answer "Umm...do you really want to be praying like I'm a genie in a lamp?"

Yeah, not really, God.

So I changed up my prayer, praying that God would show us a house where HE wanted us to be, a place where we can have a welcoming home for school kids and neighbors, a place of peace in the neighborhood.

And then the house with the less than desirable location popped into my head.

And I said no to God.

Fast forward to that Saturday, a few days after God showed me that house and had been showing me that house all week long. Pete comes home from teacher meetings where a coworker of his (and dear friend of the family) and he had been talking about the house hunting process. And she mentioned we should go look at this house, so kids could come over after school. It was basically everything I had been praying and just confirming that we should go look at that house.

We debated about scheduling something, but were still hesitant.

On Sunday, we mentioned it to a couple of people, and they were also confirming that we should go look at it. But we were still hesitant.

We go home, I get online, and boom. The house dropped in price by $7,000. Um, okay, I guess we need to go look at the house! So I texted our realtor trying to set something up for Friday afternoon, and on Monday she let me know that we had an appointment for Friday at 2.

All week I felt off. I was really excited about going to look at the house, but very apprehensive as well. What if we loved the house but the road was too busy? What if it was quiet in the house, but really noisy outside? What if everything was absolutely wonderful and we decided we loved it? Our house isn't finished getting ready yet! That would be so stressful! The week was a whirlwind of emotions, and I felt like I needed a Bible verse to cling to in order to help me get through the rest of the week and then the house visit. I chose this one:

It really helped me focus on what is really important for the house (a peaceful place for my family and friends, a secure structure, and a place of quiet and rest), and then I knew I'd be able to let God handle the rest.

Finally Friday came. The kids had a half day, so Pete took a half day as well. Everyone came home, we packed the kids up, and then drove them to Pete's parent's for their monthly sleep over. And then, it was house time.

When we arrived, our realtor, Deb, and the seller's realtor, Alan, were both there already. Pete and I checked out the back yard quick, and the realtors came out to meet us. We got a tour of the house, and the house was bigger in areas than we originally thought they were. For an older house, there was a lot more storage than we expected, as well as updates. We loved the hardwood floors throughout the house, and it was much quieter inside than we expected.

Recessed lighting! We loved it!

We went out and fully toured the backyard as well, which is below the house and front yard. It felt really private and wasn't as noisy as we expected, either. The house backs up to a wooded area, and apparently who owns the land there has trails cut through for people to walk or ride four wheelers through, which was a really nice addition.

Looking from backyard up to house and garage

Fire pit area with another walk down spot

We spent about 40 minutes at the house, which was a lot longer than I had anticipated us being there. We knew we'd have a lot to discuss, so when we left, we got right to it.

The Pros:
- Hardwood/laminate/tile floors throughout. No carpeting to rip up or deal with allergens because of it! Woo hoo!

- Private and quiet back yard. It was so much bigger and quieter than we had imagined. There was room for the kid's swing set, a garden, fire pit, and pool with deck!

- A lot of storage space. Even though we've downsized a lot, we have a lot of stuff. I think all of our things would have fit in the house!

Loved this built in at the bottom of the stairs!

One of the bedroom closets

- Four bedrooms. The boys really want to have their own separate rooms, so this is something we are looking for. They do know and understand it may not happen, but we're hopeful we can make it work for them to not have to share.

One of the upstairs bedrooms

- Two full bathrooms. We've really noticed lately how much we really need to have two showers! It works out really well to have this option.

- Big kitchen with lots of counters and cupboards. We love to cook and bake, and this would have had just as many (if not more) cupboards as our current kitchen! These pictures don't show the wall of cupboards and counters with the sink, stove, and dish washer, but they're there!

- Garage! It was only a one car detached garage, but it's better than nothing. There was also room to make it a two car garage down the road if we wanted.

- Quiet. It was surprisingly quiet in the house. We hardly heard the traffic, even when we were really listening for it. Now, we didn't open the windows at all, which would have made it louder, but we deal with tractor trailers and tractors on our road now, so we're used to some big noise already.

- Easy commute for Pete/pick up for kids. The house is across the street from the school, part of the reason why we were hesitant about the location. But while we were there, we were loving the location!

- Bay windows. I have always loved bay windows, and it had TWO of them!!!!

- Bonus room. Off of the living room was a bonus room through a set of beautiful french doors. It also had a huge closet in there. Having a space for the kids to hang out with friends, use their foosball table, and just have a place to play is really important to us.

The Cons:

- The layout. We knew going into the house that three of the bedrooms were upstairs, the master bedroom was downstairs, and both bathrooms were downstairs. We thought that it wouldn't be a big issue, but at least one of our kids is prone to stomach bugs. They'd have to go down the stairs and either through the whole living room or through the living room, kitchen and laundry room to get to a bathroom. The master bedroom would also have to go down the hall and through the living room to use a bathroom. It's not a complete deal breaker, but a frustrating aspect.

Kitchen looking into washroom.
Bathroom is across from closet by back door.

- One bedroom didn't have a closet. Again, not a deal breaker. We could definitely get a wardrobe for hanging clothes, but having a bed, dresser and wardrobe in the room with baseboard heat, it doesn't leave a lot of space for anything else and layout options are limited. An option would be to use the bonus room as a bedroom as it had a closet and then use the upstairs bedroom as the bonus room. But, we want to be able to check on the kids as needed when they're playing, and having it be out of the way isn't ideal (but workable).

- It might be cramped. We were surprised that even though the rooms felt bigger than we imagined, how cramped we might be. The living room is smaller than what we have now, and the kitchen/dining room is smaller as well. We could see us feeling claustrophobic there as the kids grew up and had friends over, and that would be a major issue.

- Office space. One thing we definitely need is an office space for me. In order for me to get it in this house, the boys would have to share a room. However, the upstairs bedrooms weren't really big enough for them to share. I could have the bonus room, but then the kids wouldn't have the hang out space. There was a partial basement, but it wasn't big enough for office/studio space plus storage space. The basement was also damp (but this has been a very very wet spring), and although a dehumidifier would help greatly, I don't know if I'd be willing to risk having my canvases and products be down there.

- Resale. Now, we're not planning on moving again ever (haha!), but when we do, we want to be able to sell as quickly and easily as possible. This house has already been on the market for six months. A lot of people probably refuse to look at it for the same reasons we wouldn't (busy road, across from school), and that's something just floating around in our heads. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but just something we thought about.

It was such a weird experience. We went in expecting to love the house and hate the yard and location, but came away loving the yard and location but not liking the house. One of the things we went in expecting was for God to either say that yes, this is the house for us, or no, this isn't the house, but be willing to look at houses even if you are unsure about the yard/location. And we really feel like maybe having houses close to us may not be as horrible as we're imagining, or being on a busy road might not be the worst thing ever. We learned that we really need to keep an open mind, something I thought we had learned when buying this house...but I guess we didn't.

At this point, we're saying no to this house. We're going to keep working like crazy on this house to get it ready, and keep looking. We really want to be in the school district, but maybe we need to reconsider looking on the edge of the district. Who knows! Either way, we will continue to keep you all updated!

House Hunting Update

Many of you have been asking how the house hunt is going, so I figured I'd give a little update:

It's at a standstill.

There isn't much on the market right now in the area we're looking, so we're waiting and attempting patience as we hope and pray that the housing market picks up soon.

In the meantime, it gives us time to work on our ever growing to do list. I swear, every time I cross something off of our list, three more things get added.

We can see the progress, though!

Walls are getting patched and paint touch ups...

...our new front door was installed...

...new counter tops are being planned and hopefully supplies are being purchased soon...

...bathrooms are getting repainted (even though they weren't supposed to *sigh*)...

...closets are getting cleaned out...

...and the house is getting a much needed deep cleaning.

I was really bummed out yesterday. The weather was GORGEOUS and I was going to work on painting the front porch and having the kiddos paint the fence. However, my body thought it would be a GREAT day for a migraine, so I was at home on the couch for most of the day. I apparently needed the rest as I feel so much better, but I did make some super yummy soup for dinner last night!

A few of the rooms are almost finished in the house, so I hope to have some "selling ready" reveals soon :) I'll keep you updated here and on Facebook with house hunting progress, I promise :)

Have you been working on any house projects lately?

Houses 2 and 3...and Where They Should Go

Yesterday we went and looked at two more houses in between yard work and errands....and we fell in love.

Both of the houses we looked at are at a modular/manufactured business, so basically we either get the particular house we tour or we get to design one similar, and then have it moved to whatever land we have purchased and they will install or build it for us.

House #2

We've been crushing on this house for about a year now, but finally just got to go tour her yesterday. And she did not disappoint!

The Good:

Curb appeal. She's gorgeous! We live in a plain ranch house, so we love the variety in her exterior. And the color really suits our tastes, too.

The master bedroom closet. Okay, so we don't need this much space, but a small walk in closet? Amazing.

The master bathroom. That tub! I have been wanting a deeper tub since we moved into our house, and this tub was perfect! It would be like having my own personal spa!

It also had double sinks, which isn't completely necessary, but it would make mornings easier when Ry and I have our teeth brushing parties ;)

The open floor plan. I love how the living room is so open to the dining room and kitchen! It felt so spacious and bright and welcoming.

The kitchen. So gorgeous!

It's a 2 story. We live in a ranch, and although we're not completely opposed to having one again, we'd really like a 2 story this time.

The second story would come unfinished, but it's almost 1000 square feet, perfect for an office space, play/hang out space, or an additional bedroom...or any combination of the three!

The mudroom/utility room. Seriously? This is the room where all the dirty things get cleaned up in? I'd be afraid to mess it up! But it's soooo pretty!

The Bad:

Bedrooms 2&3. They were kind of small, probably comparable to the ones at House #1. However, we could fit the loft or bunk beds and dressers into them, but that would be about it. Having the flexible second story and possible basement would make up for that small space, so their size isn't a complete deal breaker.

No place for a porch. We would love a big front porch, but there's really no place for one that wouldn't mess up the aesthetics. We could definitely do a deck behind her, so again this isn't a complete deal breaker.

The Ugly:

Um...nothing?


House #3

We weren't planning on looking at this house, but the salesman had said all of the houses were open and to go look at any one we wanted...and the kids wanted to do this one. And I'm really glad we listened!

The Good:

The kitchen. Again, so beautiful! And plenty of space for working and storage.

The open floor plan. I absolutely love how the kitchen looks into the living room. That's one thing I really wanted when we were house shopping the first time; I want to be able to watch movies on Fridays with the kids, but I'm usually cooking dinner, or just keep an eye on the kids as they play or visit with guests while we entertain.

The second and third bedrooms. These were the largest ones we've seen so far! They could definitely accommodate most if not all of the kid's current bedroom furniture and toys.

Fancy bathrooms. I loved the counter in the master bathroom! It only has one sink, which is fine, but it just felt really pretty in there. The second bathroom (which would be the main one and the kids would use it) was also gorgeous, and had a linen tower in there so the kids could easily get new towels or extra soaps, rather than have to leave the room as they have to do with their current bathroom.

Flexibility for extra space. We would definitely need a basement for this house, as I would need an office, the kids need a play/hang out space, and we need storage. We were saying that this house would basically be like upgrading our current house!

The Bad:

The master bathroom shower. Don't get me wrong, the walk in shower is drop dead gorgeous. However, this momma loves relaxing in a bath once in awhile, and I can't do that in a shower ;) The sales man did say that anything can be changed in the homes, and the walk in shower was definitely an upgrade. If we decided to get this house, I would definitely ask for a tub/shower combo!

The curb appeal. We loooove the blue and the peaks, however the white in the big triangle is a little distracting and just feels off to us. It might be something we'd want to upgrade to a window or figure something out with that space.

It's a ranch. While not being a complete deal breaker, we really were hoping for a 2 story.

The Ugly:

Again, nothing! Woo hoo!

Final thoughts:

The prices for the houses are actually pretty amazing. If the houses were already on land for those prices, I think we probably would be trying to figure out which house we'd be writing an offer on! However, the prices right now are just for the house, not the land, construction, basement, well/septic, etc. And that makes us a little nervous about going this route.

The blue house would probably be the house we'd go with right now if we were to choose between the two of them; the price would fit so much better with our budget, and really, is having a ranch that horrible of a thought? However, we do love the space of the green house, but I don't think we could make the price work for our budget.

And for those of you wondering about land, there is a plot that we found for sale that I drove past today. It is really really nice! It's about 4 1/2 acres, nice and flat, and ready to be built on.

And the view is pretty awesome too! Makes me want to sit and paint it all day!

However, to buy the land, buy the house, and then get it built and finished will be pretty expensive...so this option is on the back burner for now.

Which house do you like better, the green one or the blue?