Decisions, Decisions

Well, well, we have it narrowed down to two houses. I was really hoping that I would get knocked over the head when we saw THE house. It didn't happen. I really hate making decisions! Especially when it comes to something as pricey and permanent as a home.  


On our want list we had a basement, pool, a place for our pool table, newer home, move in ready, fenced in backyard, a place for a garden, at least four bedrooms and two baths. I also want a nice kitchen and it opened up to a family room. We like the open concept.


As we drive around this area, we see a lot of deer. If we are to have a garden, we need a fence...a high one. Seems like no one has them though. I think that to be a bit strange. There aren't many pools either, oh well. Basements? There are a few, but you have to be careful that they have not had any water issues.

I call this the Zebra house, because one of the bedrooms had zebra print stuff in it. This was our first choice until we went back to look.

So, now we have it narrowed to two properties. At first I knew which one I wanted, but now that we took a second look, I am having my doubts. We see a lot of cosmetic issues. Yes, I know the brass light fixtures, etc can be replaced. 

So can the wallpaper. I hate taking wallpaper down. I've done that just one too many times. Besides, the master bath has wallpaper that has been painted over, so not sure how easy that is going to be to remove, and it will need to be done pretty soon, as it is falling down.


Another cosmetic issue this home has is that when they put the drywall up, they didn't do the finishing. It looks as if they just slapped it up, inserted the screws and painted. You can see the seams and nails in a lot of the areas. That is not something you can easily fix.

The kitchen is really nice, new granite counters and cherry cabinets. The large keeping room has Birch Judges paneling, it is really a nice room. Too nice for the pool table, so we are thinking we could just put the pool table in the dining room, and get shorter sticks. We've measured and it looks real doable. The living room off the dining room, we would probably use for the dining room.

There is an extra room off the entry with doors that I could use for my office/craft room. This house also has a new roof, new air/heat, new beautiful front window doors. The wood around the front, though has some wood rot issues, as do many of the homes in this area. 

The Zebra house has some nice landscaping too.

Now the other house, well, it is much smaller, unless you take in consideration the basement. Then it is bigger by 200 sq ft. The landscaping isn't as nice. I don't like the deck , because there are no stairs to get down to the backyard, so we either will have to put them in, or just go out from the basement (not a fan of that idea). It does have a nice backyard, though.

The bedrooms are so much smaller, and there is a keeping room off the kitchen which so really tiny! The kitchen has gorgeous Corian counter tops, but the cabinets are old as are the appliances...like REALLY old! All would have to be replaced, dishwasher, stove, fridge, tiny oven.



There is a large living room and a dining room.


Downstairs there are two additional rooms, we could use one for an extra bedroom and one for my craft room. The basement does not smell of mold or mildew so that is a good sign, although we did notice it might have had a small water issue. Will have to check that out.

Basements are nice during stormy weather too, which I do believe they get quite a bit of.

We took one more look today, and found that the zebra house had very little storage. The basement house had oodles of storage. Zebra house you cannot build a shed of any kind, but you can build a detached garage, would have to be brick, so you are talking lots of $$. Basement house would cost more to fence than the zebra house.


Ok, well, I could go on, but I won't. We will be making a decision very soon......