A House Hunting We Will Go...

I received news from our real estate agent in Denver that our house is soon to have a "SOLD" sign on it...the couple accepted our counter to their inspection resolution, and we should have it in writing today.

As he said "They're over there measuring rooms for furniture, so they're committed."

All we have to do now is wait til January 18 for the closing, and then we're free to buy our own house!

I didn't mean to get rolling with looking so much, but I figure this is a GREAT time to be making an offer on a house if we find something, being that the holidays are here and it's a buyer's market town we're shopping in...so off I went again yesterday.

I saw these 5 houses (If you click on the titles you can go to the listing), and one more I don't have the link to, but for you shoppers out there, I thought you'd enjoy reading my house-hunting review...

The Blue House
First, we stopped at this house...it looked good on the outside and had a double bonus of 2 disc golf cages outside where DH could practice his putt at disc golf. At first I thought that was "a sign". It's a rental, but they recently remodeled the whole inside, and did a nice job in the kitchen. Its major problem was that there was no fence at all to the yard, and the next door neighbor's house looked like no one had cared for their house in 50 YEARS. I have a think about that...I just think they might also come out of their house and shoot their guns off on New Years too, kwim?

The Brady House
This "peach" house is what I called "The Brady House" It had a very 1970s feel and was in need of some major updates/paint, but the house itself had good space, a great 2-car garage, and a wonderful fenced back yard with a deck. I don't think the furnace worked. Other than that it was a great prospect...a little suburban for us, but a nice older, well-kept neighborhood.

Orange House in The Hood
This house was pretty ok -- except the absolute crappy neighborhood around it. If you were blind and wanted a nice house, this would be ok. It needs more kitchen space, but otherwise the house was awesome, and had a big fenced back yard. But if you can see past your own yard, you see a neighborhood in serious disrepair, with lots of white trash porches that need to be torn down, bad fencing. I picture a LOT of people owning dogs due to the crime rate, and never getting any sleep because of their barking.


Psycho House
Now this house was a PIECE OF WORK! It was built in the '40s, had GREAT room to roam, but several people who didn't know WHAT they wanted (including colors and sources of heat), got ahold of this house and just worked it over.
The "master" bedroom had two different kinds of wallpaper on opposing walls. With a naked wood "bookshelfy" thing that might have housed a waterbed in front of it. There was NO heat source in the two bedroms in the attic. EVERY floor had a different kind of carpet or lino or something. My mouth hung open for much of this visit, and I ran around the thing laughing with the agent laughing at me. I didn't want to leave this house because it was so messed up I just wanted to try and figure it out! PLUS: A bonus: It's RIGHT NEAR THE STATE MENTAL HOSPITAL!!! YEAHHH!!!



Soulless White House
And finally, the "Soulless White House Next To Gram's Church".
We came around the back side of a church, where I saw the sign "Holy Cross Lutheran" and I realized we were right behind my Gram's church where she faithfully went each Sunday for 60 years or so, and where I figeted in the pews and was fed pink mints to keep me quiet. Turns out this was the most soulless neighborhood in the history of medium-sized towns. It seems as if Salem has plenty of crappy neighborhoods, and this is one of them. It has no sidewalks, and while the houses are better cared for, this house had so little charisma, I almost didn't go inside. White plastic siding, every room needed paint (every room painted stark white like 20 years ago), and they put tile down in the living room. While I see this as a benefit with a messy toddler years to come...I don't really get it as a permanent living arrangement. It's cold. It's hard. It doesn't match the style of the house. Did I mention it's cold?


As I was driving home last night, a bit depressed over seeing so much and so little at the same time, I think I found a good prospect!

I call it "The house I want to buy" even though I haven't seen it yet (I have an appointment tomorrow). I happened to turn off of Center Street because I liked the neighborhood A LOT, it's VERY central to downtown, and I saw the sign "House for Sale That-a-Way" I took the flyer and ogled the house. While it only has 2 BR, it does have a family room, and the square footage is the same as our house in Denver. We don't need a lot of room, but 1100 square feet and a nice yard for my kid to play in are required. It has that much.

On we go!