Does This Hideous Kitchen Have to Come with the House?
I am officially sick of house hunting.
I know I introduced this in my last post, but I'm back again to bitch about the stress. As of this writing, we have officially looked at a little over 20 houses. Houses in good neighborhoods, houses in artsy neighborhoods, cheap houses, expensive houses, new houses, old houses, small houses, large houses, houses with awesome kitchens, houses with ugly kitchens, nice bathrooms, disgusting bathrooms... Well, you get the picture. A house for sale in our neighborhood in our price range? I can provide you with the complete profile of that house instantaneously. Why? Because I've looked at it already! I should be in realty. And speaking of a career in realty, you know what pisses me off the most about a realtor? When you go to an open house, and ask the realtor which elementary school is in the district, and they don't know the answer. WTF? Do your homework! I thankfully have a buyer's agent who's been doing a lot of the footwork for us, but we've been to the occasional open house with him and the fact that they don't have correct information on schools drives me nuts.
And I know I’ve been a little lax with blogging lately. All of this has been so hard to get into words lately. But then it occurred to me that I should be sharing all of my house hunting woes with all of you! Misery loves company right? I'm actually really excited because this will be my first home purchase, but it's just that the wind is starting to leave my sails, and all the houses I've seen are starting to blur into one another. But we’re getting into the nitty-gritty stage. We’re beyond the “Wow! We’re going house hunting!!” stage to the “We’re going house hunting again this weekend?” stage. We're thinking of bidding on a particular property. Just typing the words, 'bidding on a property', make my hands shake, so forgive me while I breathe.
Breathe.
Okay, I'm better now. Back to complaining.
My house is a mess because I’ve done no cleaning on the weekends. And everyone within a six mile radius of my desk at work knows I’m house hunting. The good news is that I’m currently a renter so I have no property to unload. Bad news is that I’m not rich and can only afford a small house. But it’s a house, right? So what if the bathroom is small. I can start to practice standing up while I pee. Guys do it. I could probably find a way.
So, readers, I give to you a sampling of the homes we’ve viewed over the course of a few weeks, just to bring you up to speed. These have been a few front-runners:
The dirty/needs a lot of work home 
The gorgeous, newly renovated expensive home
The house that needs so much work no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole home (although I love the look of it on the outside! So we really need a working toilet?)
The needs updating/good school district possible winner home
posted by Kate at 3:53 PM
8 Comments:
Oh, god. I can relate more than I can say. Having just been through it, I remember how much it sucks. We must've looked at 30 houses. The one we ended up with has great bones, but needs lots of asthetic work, which I've already started.
Only assvice I can give is to get a house that is structrally sound, and not too god-awful expensive. As long as the main, big things are intact, then you can change the little things when you get there. You'd be surprised what a great deal you can get on a house that just needs a good flea bomb and a scrub brush.
Good luck and hope you keep the alcohol close by...P.S. I love the green house.
5:08 PM
Yeah, have fun with it. It can be a pain in the ass, but it's not like you're going to the dentist or anything. You're buyin' a freakin' home!
To me, that's fun. Especially in a market like this one. You can bargain the hell out of people because nothing is selling.
Enjoy it. It's not like you get to buy houses like you do shoes. :)
5:20 PM
You are true trooper. Looking at houses is like trying to find the perfect jeans. Good luck.
6:57 PM
Ugh, it is such a pain to go house hunting. I also recommend getting a good home inspector before making any offers.
If you want any help in the process, let me know. I know the city pretty well, although you're probably looking up north more than anything, right?
Will you be at the get-together this Friday? We can talk more then.
7:44 PM
Showing us the houses is like telling people possible baby-names. I'll be crushed if you don't take my favorite - that yellow house!
Seriously, stick to your guns about the schools. The house we're in now was in the "good" school district according to the realtor. I didn't check because the boys were 1 years old. Then this fall - WHAM! - we're actually in the district for the overcrowded poorly functioning school.
Yes, your's truly got an out-of-district placement for the young ones. They're going to the school we thought they were going to all along.
9:59 PM
I wouldn't have guessed from the pictures that any of those homes would need alot of work inside. They all look totally charming. I'm guessing some of those photo's of the homes were taken earlier this year eh? Or does snow really only fall on certain streets in Ohio? ;)
Sending good house hunting vibes your way!
7:59 AM
Ooh! It's like that television show "House Hunters". Which one will the home owner pick?
Tough choices. They're all super cute. Go with your gut, walls can come down and fixtures can be replaced. Go with the one you fell in love with.
7:42 PM
They all look nice! When we bought our house the kitchen didn't have a single drawer in it not even a utensil drawer. It was really small and the cabinets were falling apart. The rest of the house was okay. Our goal was to do a project a year. It could be big or small. One year the project was fixing the wiring on the first floor. The next year we replaced a toilet. After living here for 5 years we had the kitchen remodeled. Good luck!
10:19 PM
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