Today we agreed to meet at 2:00 PM in front of House #5, but of course we can’t stand still that long, so after breakfast we made a shredder run to Staples, took a short walk along the OC & E Trail and drove by House #8 to see if we would be able to get later in the day. The roofers were working but no big forklift blocking the entrance.
After lunch back in the AirBnB we left early so we could drive by a couple other of our prospective homes. We first cruised by House #3, first in one direction and then in another, looking for the “view” mentioned in the write-up. This was Donna’s biggest complaint about the house and I couldn’t remember anything about a view, I liked the inside well enough so any view would be a bonus. The only view this house has is if you walk to the end of the driveway and look left you see part of the hills surrounding the town.
After a quick return to the AirBnB to retrieve a forgotten object, this left us just enough time to head over to our 2 PM meeting place. Were were about 15 minutes early, but it was perfect as our realtor was just pulling into the driveway.
House #5 – This place quickly jumped to the top of both our lists. Two-car garage, a nice front porch with a view, it is in a nice neighborhood with tree lined streets and it has a good looking recent re-model of the kitchen. The main floor was also very nice with 2 bedrooms, one a master, and a second bath along with access to a nice little deck and pretty back yard. It started to fall apart on the lower level. It was an interconnected warren of a hallway, another bedroom, another bathroom which also served as the laundry room and another random separate small room. If you beamed down someone from the Starship Enterprise to the lower level it might take them 20 minutes to find their way to the main level. After the visit it ended up down some, but still in the top half.
House #8 – We both love the curb appeal of this house, with its look of the green color against the dark stone filled front yard. The insides left us as unimpressed as did House #9 two doors down the street. The third bedroom had a shelf with a monitor showing eight or so views from inside and outside the home, very creepy. The backyard was as low maintenance of the front, but instead of stone, they went with bare dirt! The straw that broke this house’s back was in the back there is a bike/walking trail that runs along a canal, the back gate in the fence which leads to the trail was open and near there was an empty shopping cart on laid on its side.
House #13 – When our realtor called the selling realtor about not getting in the front door, her response was, “I’ve been having the same problem, I go go in the backdoor.” The backyard faces the east boundary hill of town and will always have that nature view. The no carpet, even in the bedrooms, was nice, but it couldn’t overcome the fact that the kitchen and both bathrooms were very dated and needing updating. Plus the exterior would be needing painting within the next couple of years. Crossing this one off the list.
Long after the days House Hunting was over, while we were watching Thursday Afternoon Football on Fox an alert popped up with a nice looking contender for the next House of Bogardi. So we emailed the realtor to see if we can get in to see House #14 tomorrow. It is kind if at the top of the budget range, but we are becoming a little less concerned with that at this point. If means burning a little more of our IRA nest egg to buy a nice nest to live in, let’s do it.