House hunting: The showings

Here's the first house hunting post.  Start at the beginning, it's more fun that way.


We arrived in Reading Wednesday afternoon and we had a full day of showings Thursday and Friday.  Sofia was an absolute champ the entire time.  Seriously, the kid is amazing.  We ended up seeing eight houses on Thursday and she didn't melt down at all!  There were a couple of times it was a little touch and go, but she's such an awesome kid and she hung in there until the end!


But I'm sure you want to see the houses right?  

I'm blurring my pictures because YHL blurred theirs.  No other reason.

We were super excited about this house.  It was super charming online with lots of cool details that you only find in old houses.  The kitchen floor was amazing and it was updated with the latest and greatest appliances so it seemed like the best of both worlds.  The neighborhood was so cute and the hills and windy streets reminded me of San Francisco.

However, there was some carpet that would need to go, there was only one bathroom for the three bedrooms upstairs and the yard was not at all baby friendly.  The backyard had a really steep slope and the front yard had a pretty serious drop to the sidewalk below.  Not to mention it had basement laundry, and it was one of those dark and scary basements too.  Plus, I looked at those stairs and the thought of going up and down every day with the stroller, the dog, groceries or all three just about did me in.

This is the other reason the bathroom would need to be gutted, immediately.

I know the swastika was originally a symbol for balance and peace, but it

has some pretty serious negative connotations too and I don't need

that kind of energy in my new house.

As much hope as we had for the first house on our list, it wasn't a match made in heaven.  On to the next one!

What you can't see all that well is a decently sized Colonial with tons of potential.  Immediately, my DIY mind started daydreaming before and after pictures.  We'd trim the hell out of those trees so you could actually see the house.  We'd get rid of the giant white fence and put in something less in-your-face.  Inside the fence, the yard was amazing but overgrown.  It would be nothing for Drew to get to weeding and making it beautiful.  


Inside the house, the stairs were right inside the entry, which was another thing I didn't like.  If I had to have stairs, I didn't want them smacking me in the face right when I come in the front door.  However, I was willing to overlook that because the layout was decent and there were hardwood floors on the entire first floor.  Plus, the sellers left us a sweet note!

It was such a sweet touch!

They had kids and I totally sympathized with them having to go through the showing process.  It's so weird to be on the other side and I wrote them back, thanking them for letting us see their house.

This house had ah-MAY-zing bedrooms and I fell in love with them.  They had tons of natural light and they were huge!  There was even a built-in baby gate at the top of the stairs!

I loved this detail!

This house was the cheapest of all the ones we saw, but it was the farthest away from Drew's work at twenty minutes with no traffic.  It also wasn't in one of the top three school districts, which is a major deal in Reading.  School districts rule all up here and we were concerned about that from a resale standpoint.  I certainly didn't want to have trouble selling the house, especially knowing it wasn't our forever home.

Plus, the kitchen would have to be gutted and it had basement laundry.  There was room to move it upstairs but that would be lots o' money and we didn't want to shell it out for a house we both weren't in love with.

The next house was in the right neighborhood, good school district and had a decent yard.  The inside was decent as well.  It had a mix of hardwoods and some carpet, the bedrooms were decent and the basement was finished.  However, there was nothing overly remarkable about the house and we both agreed to keep it on the list if we didn't get blown away by any other houses.

The next one was in a non-descript suburb, but our agent wanted us to see it for comparison.  It took me .01 seconds to dismiss it because there was carpet almost everywhere and it was super dirty and where there wasn't carpet, there was really cheap laminate and it totally turned me off.  I'm all for laminate if it's well done, but this definitely was not.  We crossed this one off the list, saying that we'll let someone else have this house.

The next one was a 1960s rancher that had been completely redone.  It was in the good school district, beautiful neighborhood and I didn't even mind the single garage.  In my mind, I'd already claimed it for my car.  Drew's from the North, he can be the one to freeze his ass off.  Inside, I liked that there were hardwoods everywhere and it had main floor laundry!  The full basement was the size of the house and it was partially finished and not at all scary.  However, it was DINKY.  It was smaller than our house by a good amount and that made me really nervous.  While we aren't busting at the seams in our current house, I wasn't sure how well we'd be able to downsize and I just kept saying 'but it's so SMALL' as we left.

The next one was a quick in-and-out because it smelled super strongly of cat pee.  Plus, Drew and I are both allergic to cats and there was a ton of carpet and I told Drew I wouldn't even DREAM about moving in until all the carpet was gone and it was seriously fumigated.  All he heard was 'money money dollars make-me-broke' so this one got ruled out pretty quickly.

This house looked like something out of a storybook.  It was stone and had a very English countryside feel and I immediately liked it.  Of course, all the giant bushes would have to be trimmed and/or removed to see the beauty of the house, but Drew the Landscaper would make short work of that.


Inside, it was even more charming.  The kitchen would have to be completely redone from the ground up, but it had so much potential that we could both see it.  The yard, although small-ish, was adorable and with a little trimming, it could be a really cozy retreat.  We were both chattering with all the updates we could do to make it a home.


Then we got upstairs.  To the bedrooms with no closets.  None - that's how old the house was.  The previous owners had to have had wardrobes in every room, but it was vacant so there was no way to tell.  Plus, the only bathroom up there was teensy - I'm talking there was barely enough room to turn around, and that was the only bathroom for all three bedrooms!  The floors would need to be re-finished, closets would have to be created and the bathroom would have to get completely made over.  Not to mention the basement laundry and the stairs at the front door.


We were starting to feel like we'd never find the house for us.

The next house was around the corner from the last one, both in the good school districts. It too was stone and I loved the rounded front door.  We walked in, and at last, no stairs smacking you in the face!  And the kitchen!  I kept saying 'I don't hate this kitchen!'  Even though it was smaller, I could totally see myself making dinner and being happy in it.  The bedrooms were decent size, with closets this time and I wasn't even that annoyed with the basement laundry, which is really saying something!


However, the bedroom layout was a little odd, with two upstairs and two downstairs.  If we had more than one kid, somebody would have to be downstairs and I wasn't super comfortable with that.  Plus, one of the bedrooms was right off the kitchen and we've learned from our own house that having a bedroom off the kitchen isn't ideal.  Every time we got negative feedback from the showings on our own house, it had to do with the bedroom being so close to the kitchen and we didn't want to get caught in that again.

The final house on our list put a bad taste in my mouth before we even saw it.  We had requested to see it on Thursday, but the sellers declined, saying that it wasn't convenient for them.  They said we could come on Friday, but only after 2:30.


I'm sorry what now?  I've gotten calls for showings with 30 minutes notice and I always approved them.  I hated it, but that's the game and if you want to sell your house, you have to approve showings.  I really resented the fact that these sellers declined our showing request and I made sure to tell the agent to pass that on when she gave them feedback.  Plus, it was in a subdivision that was a million miles away from Drew's work and it had lots of carpet.  Besides, it was just an okay house and I felt like if they were going to be cocky enough to decline showings they better have an amazing kick ass house.  But whatever, let their house be on the market for 10 months and I bet they'll be jumping at 30-minute showings too.


We'd seen all the houses on our list and nothing really grabbed us like our house in Texas did.  We were a little discouraged when we got home that night but over dinner, we started hashing things out and really going over the pros and cons of the houses that weren't immediately crossed off.  


As we talked more and more about where we were in our lives, what our financial goals needed to be, what we wanted for our daughter's future and where we saw ourselves in five years, some houses began to fall away and others emerge as front-runners.  We talked even more about design possibilities and projects we could undertake and how our future home could look and we narrowed our choices even further.


A little more conversation and number crunching brought us down to our final two choices.  The next morning, we called our agent and asked her if we could see our final choices once again.


So which house did we pick?  I'll tell you tomorrow!