Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Search Continues







As I continue to scower Realtor.com for my dream home I am slowly coming to the realization that it may not exist. We were hoping to find a beautiful, newly built home on about 2-5 acres, not in town, but not too far out of town and live happily ever after. What I am finding are homes built way before I was born, a bazillion miles out of town, and they are still asking an arm and a leg for them. I mean I'm sure you are proud of the house your Grandpa built, but people, give me a freakin' break. It's 50 years old and has ugly paneling in the living room and a sagging porch roof out back. It's almost as if these people do not realize that the housing slump has hit and the market crashed several years ago and we still haven't recovered.








We've placed an offer on two houses. The first one was a disaster. We all loved the house, even though it was built in 1962 and they still wanted $180,000 for it. It was just cool. And even though it only had .8 acres to go with it, the house was just cool. Did I mention it was cool? And damp and a great reservoir for MOLD!!!! Yes, it was a moldy old house. So when the mold was found everywhere and we discovered that in order to get rid of the mold you would have to basically tear it down and build a new one we decided, a big fat NO THANK YOU!!!








On to house number two. It's a newer home. Built in 2001 and it sits on 1 acre. I liked it. It had great color schemes and I wouldn't have to paint a single wall. I was willing to accept it as it was. It had 3 bedrooms which we were thinking was plenty big enough, room for a pool and a hot tub and the dogs. So we made an offer on it. That same night my husband called me from work. "Look at MLS # xxxxxx," he says. So I do. It looks like a freakin' castle. It has 4 bedrooms, 200 sq. ft. bigger, and they are asking $10,000 less for it than the one we placed an offer on. The kids think the pictures are awesome. So naturally, I have to call my real estate lady and tell her we want to look at it. We go. It's in a nice country setting, but still in a subdivision. It's on the outskirts of a small town with a great school system and only about 15 minutes from my work. The house is beautiful. Granite counter tops, nice paint, nice fixtures. Then I look at the back yard. It's small. Big enough for a pool and hot tub, but not much else, and no trees. But it's too late. The kids have fallen in love with it. Forrest yells out, "It's two stories, Mom!" Then Nathan hollers, "Oh cool, Forrest come look at this!" In one of the bedrooms there is a small door that leads to an aclove in the attic. It could be fixed up as a little indoor club house if we are ever so inclined, which I"m sure we will be. Yep the boys fell in love with it. My husband fell in love with it because like I said before, It looked like a freakin' castle. So I guess we are gonna have to buy it. I suppose I can always plant my own trees and watch them grow. After all I have always wanted a flowering tulip tree.

12 comments:

Megan said...

My mother took me to look at a house exactly one time. Because of course I loved it and was so sad when we didn't get it! So after that it was, "Oh, look kids! Here's our new house!"

Good luck, Cece. I really hope you find something. Get those home inspections. Be picky. It is a BUYER'S market, and don't let those realtors forget it!

Cece said...

I looked at one today that was built back in 1977. It was a huge OLD house. Lots of character, but old. The boys LOVED IT. But it was OLD. I just don't think I can sink over $200,000 into an OLD house.

Leah said...

Man, you know what 180 grand would get you in Brooklyn? Exactly nothing. I don't think there's even a studio apartment to be had for under 200k. We're talking like maybe 200 square feet...

The concept of buyer's market hasn't really hit the big apple.

Sometimes I wonder why we do it. But I guess if you grow up in a place...

Anyway, your house hunt sounds sort of exciting actually! Have fin and good luck!

Joyful Jo said...

Wow cece 180,000 sounds really cheap even when i adjusted it to aus dollars. Where we live houses are selling at between 500,000 to 1 million plus. Our suburb was cheap when we moved in 28 years and people had never heard of it. The money suburb is the next suburb and those who can't quite make it there are knocking down houses here and building mansions every square inch is used.

Cece said...

Well Arkansas is a poor state. What is middle class in Arkansas is probably considered poverty level everywhere else. So when I say something is selling for $225K here, it would probably be about a half a mil in other places.

Suzanne said...

That's a beautiful tree. If you'd also like a tree that grows fast, buy a multi-trunk white birch. They're so lovely. However, they do rain down a bit of sap in the summer months, but make up for it by being gorgeous and attracting finches in the winter months because of their seed pods. Your house hunt sounds like fun! ;) Good luck. Take pics as soon as possible please. Oh, one more thing, a pink pussywillow is amazing. Grows to over 20 feet within 2 years. I know because I have two. The wonderful thing about a pussy willow is they don't mind being trimmed, so once your tulip tree has grown to provide shade and privacy, you can simply cut the pussywillow to hedge size. It's a wonderful hedge/shrub. I love you darling. XOXOXOXOXOXO

Suzanne said...

Hi Megs
Hi Leah
Hi Jo

:)

Cece said...

Well, we found the perfect house for us, and it's not already under contract! So we put in an offer and now we are crossing our fingers and praying they accept. But if they counter offer we will accept their terms.

Anonymous said...

Cece,
it's lovely seeing you back here - we've both been away for a bit.
I hope this perfect house comes through for you. Fingers crossed x

Mr. Shife said...

I thought I saw on Facebook that you finally found something so I hope that is the case and everything is moving forward in a positive fashion.

heart said...

these are some beautiful pictures you posted.

if you're interested in design take a look at my blog: http://bold-print.blogspot.com

Rigid Box said...

Amazing !! Thanks for Sharing this article. I loved it