We are really making some progress, we have narrowed it down to four places, #3, #4, #5 and #16. So we asked our realtor for revisits today on 2 and a peek at one in the same neighborhood as one of the two.
House #3 – I still like this one, but Donna is still not liking it. She is right though, there is no real view. The outside of the house is inviting and now after a second look, I have to admit it should be better inside for the price they are asking. Cross it off the list.
House #21 – This is a split level and like one of the other 20 places we looked at, I can’t remember which, when you open the front door you have a 3′ deep landing and a staircase down (and up). At least the door was hinged correctly this time. Here was another one where the photographer was worth what they spent on him or her. It looked really nice in the photos online, but seeing it in person it was a big letdown and it wasn’t just because it was empty of furniture. There was no interest from either of us for this houses.
House #4 – This was a revisit of a place we both sort of picked apart the first time, but this was a Hail Mary on finding Brian a completely one story house. The pass was intercepted by the lack of A/C and the broken odd stove. It was an electric that was 40″ wide. Yikes, they are rare and expensive. Forget about it.
Over lunch Brian finally folded his last hand, House #16 as being to much money with the stuff we needed to do to it and then there was the $300 HOA fee on top of every thing. So we were discussing what we would offer on the winner, House #5, when a new house popped up on the market.
One last one story try for Brian, called Realtor and asked if we could see this place. It looked empty in the photos, so we thought we might be able to see it today. She called back and said could you meet me there at 2:00 PM. Why yes we could.
House #22 – The front view wasn’t dazzling, but not ugly by a long shot. It was the back view looking away that was the grabber, you were high enough up that you looked over town and some of the surrounding hills and mountains. Including Donna’s spirit mountain, Shasta. it was jam up with carpet though. I thought that the view would in fact trump the carpet, I was sure she would like it. Once again a quick look at twenty some odds photos, crash head first into reality. The house from the outside was good, the view was great, but the insides failed. The kitchen had a too large a refrigerator, the cabinets were ugly and the counter tops were outdated. The bathrooms were just as unappealing in person as the kitchen. The carpet was brand new. How did I know that they were new besides the smell. Well, when you first walk in the front door you are greeted by a handmade sign that said, “Please remove all shoes.” So to make this place workable we would have to spend, at least three grand on a new refrigerator and a new washer/dryer as there was none. Not to mention how much it would cost for those updates we would like. And for a while we considered offering on the house in spite of its issues, that’s how powerful that Shasta view was. But we came to our senses while traveling the best route to all the shopping and stores and businesses as it included several lights and was very busy.
Looks like House #5 is the winner. We’ll probably make an offer tomorrow.