Month: October 2019

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.

On Monday we gave our Realtor a list of 6 more homes and a revisit to look at. So we met at the first house at 1:00 PM today.

House #15 – This was new construction and they are not even finished inside. There was one guy on a Bobcat leveling the front yard and there were two or three other sub-contractors inside doing plumbing and wiring and stuff. The house has a lot of high points, small lake view, all on one floor, 4 bedrooms and two baths in 1800 sq. ft., the finishes, the floor plan, the lighting and bath fixtures and the stainless steel appliances. But in our opinion the low points out weighed the high points. It is located on a short gravel road which may or may not ever get paved. They are putting carpet in the bedrooms which we will want to take right back out. There are open lots on either side of the house which probably means that once they get our money on this one, they will start building right next door.

House #16 – This one is right down the street from House #2 which, so far, is the only place we both can agree on. It is another one that is near our upper limit and is on the list at my request even though Donna isn’t too thrilled by it from the pictures (lots of carpet), but is my version of House #6 which she wanted to see even though it was destined to be a no. Another reason she thought it wouldn’t work is because it is in a long line of homes that look identical and it might be confusing as to which place was ours. The Realtor verified that concern when she stopped in front of the neighboring house first before moving up one house to the right one. It wasn’t as bad as Donna thought, but it wasn’t as great as I thought. But remains as one of 4 finalists for now, because it is technically a condo, we need a look at the covenants and decide whether it is worth an extra $300 a month in HOA fees.

House #5 – This was a revisit of Donna’s lead pick. Brian was not too thrilled the first visit and while he didn’t want anything to do with it before, after seeing nearly a dozen other places in town in between, he was ready to admit that maybe he could live there.

House #17 – This one was near one of our two preferred neighborhoods and had some potential in the photos, but crashed on our visit. It had an older kitchen that neither Donna and I had a problem with. There was wood flooring through out the first floor and even a nice screened porch in the back. But it was just a one car garage (which looked like in a pinch, we could squeeze both of our small cars in), the only way to get into the garage was by going outside and the killer was the carpeted master bedroom was in the basement.

House #18 – Loved the Craftsman style look of the front and the wood floored living and dining rooms. The kitchen was a little narrow, but plenty of counter space and stainless steel appliances with a bonus of a gas range. But just like the previous house, the master bedroom was downstairs, it had a one car garage and it had no air conditioning.

House #19 – Here was another house that looked good in photos, but crumbled on visiting. It did have it strong points, a nice view of Mount Shasta, large kitchen, beautiful windows, wood flooring on the first floor and a retro bathroom that is actually cool. The downsides were many, the two bedrooms upstairs were carpeted and felt like they were in the roof (kind of because they were), the downstairs had a bedroom and no bathroom and a large open space that used to be the basement and one car garage. The only parking was a two car long carport. It was on a steep street with a steep driveway up to the carport. Plus is was at 2800 sq ft, a bit too large.

House #20 – This house was an interesting option, it is literally next door to the previous one. It looks small but it is actually has 1,800 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and 1-1/2 baths. It has a hobbit-like one car garage out front (it is dug into the hill out front and has a door in the back that leads to the basement.) Either way we didn’t get into it today. The owner has some strict visiting times and needed more warning than one day. It has no A/C and we would have to build a two car garage on the adjoining empty lot.

Slow day on the house hunt today, all we had new was yesterday’s late addition. And we had high hopes for this house. It was located in a section of town that we have searched before and it was located about halfway between our number one and two picks from the past dozen houses. It had plenty of parking because of a nice front deck that stuck out and created a two-car carport that lead right into a two-car garage. But we also had low expectations too, it had been on the market for over six months.

House #14 – We arrived about 15 minutes early, as usual, and used the time walking around the outside peeking in windows. After circumnavigating the place we almost called the realtor to tell her forget it. The windows were probably as old as the house itself, around 40-years old! But we did wait, figuring she probably already on the way. And she was right on time. Upon opening the front door the first thing you notice is the flight of stairs right there on the left. Kind of surprising. Probably would have been better if the door had been hinged on the left side so that the potential for sudden death by falling down a flight stairs was reduced. There was then one step up into an awkwardly shaped area that served no noticeable purpose and the only ones I could come with was a foosball table or perhaps a half-size ping pong table. To the left, around the stairs was a step down into the living room, which was probably the nicest room in the house. It led into the front deck which was sunny and had a mediocre view towards the south.

The pictures of the kitchen made it seem nice and at first glance it was just that, but if you look closely to the microwave/stove set you notice they are a period correct for the late 70’s… And from the looks of the bathroom fixtures they were of the same vintage. By this time we were ready to call it quits, but when the realtor and I checked out the garage, even was the first to say out loud what we both noticed, a distinct damp smell. Nothing looked wet, but who wants to take the chance. To add to the whole miserable experience there didn’t seem to be any direct sun entering the home, it was oriented all wrong. Oh, did I mention that the backyard was mostly just dirt and the hot tub (more than likely from the 70’s as well) was full of dirty water because someone had left the top off.

I could go on, but by now you can guess where this house ranks on the list, that’s right, not on it.