Thursday, August 20, 2009

House Hunt

We are officially looking to buy a house. We enter into this search humbly, yet with boldness in hopes of finding a great home for less than $100,000. 'Is this possible?', you ask. 'Hope so,' we answer. We certainly hope so.*
*We also are not officially pre-approved for a loan so we also hope this story won't be followed with another post saying we are looking for a house for under $50,000 because, while it be a nice challenge, it isn't one we want to take on.

Today was the first day out combing the town with our fabulous realtor. Drew had to work, but I got to visit 10 houses this morning. We were locked out of one of the houses so we really only saw nine.

How did day one go? Well, most were decent options, but I ended the day with a clear favorite, another I also liked a lot, and one that was so awful it made me feel physically ill. Oh, and I brought my camera.

First the good. I didn't take many photos, but it was a three bedroom house with an eat-in kitchen, nice fenced yard perfect for a dog to roam and vegetables to be planted, and had good floors. It is on a quiet street not too far from friends, our church, and close enough to Drew's work. It is also just under $100k. Score!
I won't say the address or post a photo for privacy reasons and let's be honest, I don't want anyone else to know about this house because I want it.

Hard to see, but left photo shows a built in cabinet in the house's mud room which could hold things like china & crystal or linens or big manly tools. The photo on the right shows the laundry room behind the door from the previous picture. The laundry hook-ups are on the right with shelving above and on the left are shelves perfect Drew's jar collection.. yeah, it's for holding nails and things. Next to Drew's jar space is a big peg board where Drew could keep his many screwdrivers and hammers.

Now onto the ugly. After looking at it my realtor and I agreed it needed to be gutted from the bottom up. It is in our reject pile. It looked nice on the outside with a good yard and cute brick planters on the front of the house. But when you began to walk around inside it was like a train wreck; horrible, yet hard to look away.

I froze for a minute when I entered into the living room, which was by far the best looking part of the house. It was full of so many things to look at that my eyes were confused. I wasn't sure if I was in someones grandmother's home for tea time or if I was at an estate sale and told to look at everything including the two fancy doll houses in the living room. There was also classical music coming from a back bedroom which made me feel like a voyeur disturbing someones morning. Alas, the mystery owner was not around leaving some questions unanswered.


The kitchen was where the bad things started. It was very dated and the green laminate floor was coming up and a few roaches were easily spotted.

The kitchen led out to a screened-in porch with a view of the above ground pool filled with green slime. It and the decking around it looked expensive to destroy. There was a laundry room too. My notes just say, NI (needs improvement) and noted that there was water damage and mold on the ceiling.
I ventured to look at the shed in the back but was greeted by a large brown dog who did not seem happy to see me in his yard. Not knowing what was in the shed or wanting to see the dog's teeth I retreated back inside.


In the wood-paneled, wood-floored den I again found lots of things for the eye. The dated furniture was cool and there were lots of books. Some of the books were a bit odd. Two titles stick out to me, one was titled Idol Worship, the other had a scantily-clad male on the cover and was titled Hung. The other books showed people like Marilyn Monroe and others and made me curious about the grandmother I pictured occupying the home.

On to the bedrooms. One was rather stately and grandmotherly with a poster bed. The other room had a computer and clutter and posters of women on the walls. I didn't photograph this room, but if memory serves me it was again women like Marilyn Monroe and not the bikini-wearing leaning on a Porsche type.

Finally, the one bathroom was awful. A second shower curtain was used to cover the walls around the shower/tub. This was hiding missing tiles, mold and more mold. I must be allergic to mold because I got a sudden headache just being in that room. Other rooms of the home had distinctive smells, which probably didn't help.


Our realtor ranked this as perhaps the worst homes he had ever seen. I agree. The price tag for this wreck? $90,000. This one was not a foreclosure and in my opinion it isn't really worth demolishing. It had some cool features like sliding doors separating some rooms, but it will hopefully be the worst home I visit in our search. Even part of the door fell off on our way out!


K

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