oh god here we go
Mar. 6th, 2022 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeWe saw two houses on Friday. They were fine but not compelling in any way.
Saturday was figuring out which houses we wanted to see on Sunday and we settled on 6. I worked on sidejob stuff as well and relaxed.
Today we went and saw six houses and I rode with F. One house we didn't expect to like so much but after serious extended debate about it, we decided against it because the back of the property was maybe 200 feet from the local community college's football field. We actually like the house the most, but the neighborhood and the football field were the major downsides. There was also four window AC units in their attic storage so we suspect the house gets warm in the summer. But it was a nice house, with basically zero work needed, it had, no joke, a root/wine celler built into their basement/garage which was also very nicely finished because they ran a brewing business out of their basement.
The other property we are interested in is an older house (1910) and has over an acre, is in the middle of nowhere on a very quiet road with nothing but farm fields on either side through some trees. There are some neighbors catty corner but they seem fine enough. The house is level with the road and the barn (very nice, had solar panels installed in 2019!) and then down the (steep) hill, the property butts up to a pond. It was quiet, we stood down by the pond for ten minutes talking and heard nothing but the birds and the wind. The kitchen is huge, bigger than it looked in the pictures. There's a porch that they enclosed that we've been calling the sun room because it has two huge windows that face west and towards the pond. The bedrooms are huge with one taking up most of the top floor and the second on the first floor. It was so big we thought it was a second living room.
It does need a little work, mostly with the windows which are original and along with that, the heating of it. The caretaker said oil bill ran about $600 per month. After the tour, we headed up to F's sister's place to ask them about living in an old house because they live in a house from the early 1800s and would know all about oil bills. They agreed that their oil bill was $600 per month but only for 4 months or so.
F took me back to my truck and we debated back and forth but decided to go for the old house because it was so much of what we wanted, it checked every box except having a fenced yard for the dog, and that's a workable thing. There are definitely things that will need work. But we like it a lot.
So we're submitting an offer. We got all the paperwork stuff done on calls with the realtor as we were driving home and so we will see what happens. We know there's already one offer that the seller has but we put in our limit and we'll see if we get it. If not, we'll keep looking.
I'm exhausted but I had a good time riding around with F today, which bodes well.
Saturday was figuring out which houses we wanted to see on Sunday and we settled on 6. I worked on sidejob stuff as well and relaxed.
Today we went and saw six houses and I rode with F. One house we didn't expect to like so much but after serious extended debate about it, we decided against it because the back of the property was maybe 200 feet from the local community college's football field. We actually like the house the most, but the neighborhood and the football field were the major downsides. There was also four window AC units in their attic storage so we suspect the house gets warm in the summer. But it was a nice house, with basically zero work needed, it had, no joke, a root/wine celler built into their basement/garage which was also very nicely finished because they ran a brewing business out of their basement.
The other property we are interested in is an older house (1910) and has over an acre, is in the middle of nowhere on a very quiet road with nothing but farm fields on either side through some trees. There are some neighbors catty corner but they seem fine enough. The house is level with the road and the barn (very nice, had solar panels installed in 2019!) and then down the (steep) hill, the property butts up to a pond. It was quiet, we stood down by the pond for ten minutes talking and heard nothing but the birds and the wind. The kitchen is huge, bigger than it looked in the pictures. There's a porch that they enclosed that we've been calling the sun room because it has two huge windows that face west and towards the pond. The bedrooms are huge with one taking up most of the top floor and the second on the first floor. It was so big we thought it was a second living room.
It does need a little work, mostly with the windows which are original and along with that, the heating of it. The caretaker said oil bill ran about $600 per month. After the tour, we headed up to F's sister's place to ask them about living in an old house because they live in a house from the early 1800s and would know all about oil bills. They agreed that their oil bill was $600 per month but only for 4 months or so.
F took me back to my truck and we debated back and forth but decided to go for the old house because it was so much of what we wanted, it checked every box except having a fenced yard for the dog, and that's a workable thing. There are definitely things that will need work. But we like it a lot.
So we're submitting an offer. We got all the paperwork stuff done on calls with the realtor as we were driving home and so we will see what happens. We know there's already one offer that the seller has but we put in our limit and we'll see if we get it. If not, we'll keep looking.
I'm exhausted but I had a good time riding around with F today, which bodes well.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-07 12:25 am (UTC)Yay!
(Completely hear you about the football field.)
It's customary -- at least hereabouts -- to try to get the morgage to go over, sometimes as much as 10% over (though probably not with the way house prices have gone, 10% is from the days of buying respectable houses for 350k) the asking price, so you've got cash on hand to have the windows replaced or similar. Might be something to look at?
May no ill thing arise!
no subject
Date: 2022-03-07 01:22 am (UTC)We'll see what happens.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-07 02:12 am (UTC)"Wait a little bit" seems like an entirely sensible plan from this quarter!
Hurrah!
That's fun you want someone else to have.
Which reminds me, and I figure you already know this, but just in case -- in an old house, you have to measure every window in all three dimensions if you're having new ones made. Windows that look the same can be significantly off from each other, and then you've got this awful problem of the hole in the wall being either too large or too small.
Hopefully not a thing in this house, come the day, but I remember this from the farmhouse when I was a kid.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-07 12:27 pm (UTC)Given the timing of things, it would be almost May before we close, so it'll pretty warm then and we can re-assess.
If we get it.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-07 12:28 pm (UTC)There is always that "if", yes.
May you get something entirely suitable and actively lovely!
no subject
Date: 2022-03-08 07:49 pm (UTC)