On Monday we gave our Realtor a list of 6 more homes and a revisit to look at. So we met at the first house at 1:00 PM today.
House #15 – This was new construction and they are not even finished inside. There was one guy on a Bobcat leveling the front yard and there were two or three other sub-contractors inside doing plumbing and wiring and stuff. The house has a lot of high points, small lake view, all on one floor, 4 bedrooms and two baths in 1800 sq. ft., the finishes, the floor plan, the lighting and bath fixtures and the stainless steel appliances. But in our opinion the low points out weighed the high points. It is located on a short gravel road which may or may not ever get paved. They are putting carpet in the bedrooms which we will want to take right back out. There are open lots on either side of the house which probably means that once they get our money on this one, they will start building right next door.
House #16 – This one is right down the street from House #2 which, so far, is the only place we both can agree on. It is another one that is near our upper limit and is on the list at my request even though Donna isn’t too thrilled by it from the pictures (lots of carpet), but is my version of House #6 which she wanted to see even though it was destined to be a no. Another reason she thought it wouldn’t work is because it is in a long line of homes that look identical and it might be confusing as to which place was ours. The Realtor verified that concern when she stopped in front of the neighboring house first before moving up one house to the right one. It wasn’t as bad as Donna thought, but it wasn’t as great as I thought. But remains as one of 4 finalists for now, because it is technically a condo, we need a look at the covenants and decide whether it is worth an extra $300 a month in HOA fees.
House #5 – This was a revisit of Donna’s lead pick. Brian was not too thrilled the first visit and while he didn’t want anything to do with it before, after seeing nearly a dozen other places in town in between, he was ready to admit that maybe he could live there.
House #17 – This one was near one of our two preferred neighborhoods and had some potential in the photos, but crashed on our visit. It had an older kitchen that neither Donna and I had a problem with. There was wood flooring through out the first floor and even a nice screened porch in the back. But it was just a one car garage (which looked like in a pinch, we could squeeze both of our small cars in), the only way to get into the garage was by going outside and the killer was the carpeted master bedroom was in the basement.
House #18 – Loved the Craftsman style look of the front and the wood floored living and dining rooms. The kitchen was a little narrow, but plenty of counter space and stainless steel appliances with a bonus of a gas range. But just like the previous house, the master bedroom was downstairs, it had a one car garage and it had no air conditioning.
House #19 – Here was another house that looked good in photos, but crumbled on visiting. It did have it strong points, a nice view of Mount Shasta, large kitchen, beautiful windows, wood flooring on the first floor and a retro bathroom that is actually cool. The downsides were many, the two bedrooms upstairs were carpeted and felt like they were in the roof (kind of because they were), the downstairs had a bedroom and no bathroom and a large open space that used to be the basement and one car garage. The only parking was a two car long carport. It was on a steep street with a steep driveway up to the carport. Plus is was at 2800 sq ft, a bit too large.
House #20 – This house was an interesting option, it is literally next door to the previous one. It looks small but it is actually has 1,800 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and 1-1/2 baths. It has a hobbit-like one car garage out front (it is dug into the hill out front and has a door in the back that leads to the basement.) Either way we didn’t get into it today. The owner has some strict visiting times and needed more warning than one day. It has no A/C and we would have to build a two car garage on the adjoining empty lot.