We decided to start house hunting up here in Michigan now. Our lease is up in 2 months exactly (only signed a 6 month lease). I'm pretty sure we will be signing another 6 month lease.
Can I just say, we are really not enjoying going through this process all over again. I know we should be thankful that the old house sold fairly quickly, and that Jason has a great job, and that we can afford to buy a nice house, and we are. It's just that trying to find something we like that doesn't need a ton of work done, is harder than it looks!
For instance, the first house we looked at is a remodeled 1917 farmhouse. Gorgeous inside and out. 3 beds, 2 baths, foyer, living, granite kitchen with built-in double oven and dishwasher, finished basement, wrap-around porch, deck, fenced area of yard, plus 10 acres total land, and a 3 car garage with a blacktop driveway on a paved road! Sounds great right? Well first thing, we would have to buy a fridge, washer and dryer, which is the smallest concern. The basement steps need carpet and a small hole is in the wall coming up the stairs, again not a big deal, easily remedied. The biggest issues are: 9 of the acres are grown over with weeds (dh calls it "winter wheat"?), 1 of the 3 outbuildings is an old wooden barn in ok shape but would need some repairs and there is tons of junk left in it, the biggest outbuilding (4000+ sq ft) is in major disrepair with tons of junk and what looks like a compost pile and dog feces/cow manure in it(GROSS!), the 3rd outbuilding is in the fenced area of the yard and in major disrepair also with junk in it too. The thing about the 3rd building also is there is an old decorative pond that wasn't drained properly right in front of it, and I mean where the covered patio area of the building is right at the edge of the pond. So needless to say, the patio area has a huge crack straight through and half of it is falling into the pond! Major safety hazard with two young kids. There would be tons of things we would have to do just to make the yard safe for them to play in. So obviously that would make it a no.
Fast forward to yesterday. We went and looked at 2 more houses and the one we just did not like at all. The other was ok, but the kitchen was tiny with an eating area and no dining room and the 3 bedrooms were very small along with the upstairs needing some finishing work. Again no for both of them. It's getting frustrating quickly, because there isn't even a lot of choices in our price range that meet our needs/wants as it is.
We did find one that we drove by yesterday that our realtor mentioned to us and we hope to go see this next week. It's newer, built in 1991, with 4 beds, a den, 2 baths, garage, unfinished basement, and a newer outbuilding/pole barn on 6 1/2 wooded acres. Can't even see the house from the woods, cause its buried in there. We drove down the drive and it's so pretty, and secluded in a nice way. With the snow we got 2 days ago, it looked like a winter wonderland! Anyway, trying not to get too excited cause it's a little over our price range but we are hoping to offer a little less if we like it.
This weekend Jason, the boys and I are going to use our AMC movie gift card and go see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. At least that's the tentative plan. Of course with the snow, the boys want to go out and make a snowman and have the obligatory snowball fight.
I'm going to try to write on here more often if I have something interesting to say. I know it's been a few months.
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