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.
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| 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.
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| Waiting patiently to go check out the upstairs! |
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| 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?
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