House Hunting- #4

(For those wondering, I numbered #4 since we did see some in between this and Hunters lodge)

The house we like best so far and the most expensive. We're hoping that the price will come down as it sits on the market longer.

3061 square feet 3BR 2bath 1 1/2 bath 5.20 acres another room that I guess they count as an office. fireplace, COOOOOOOL layout (very open floor plan) She isnt much too look at right ow but we're smitten. We did find some mold issues probably caused by a leak somewhere in the gutter drainage system. This would need to be addressed soon or it will ruin this house. The other issue we see with this home (besides the fact that my grandmother hates it and is doing everything in her realtor power to discourage it from ever being ours) is the driveway. We would need every bit of our 4x4 when winter hits. It's almost a 45' angle. Personally, I know the driveway will suck, but I love it :)

I think I'm going to try and contact the bank to ask some questions about how low they would go (i'm doing a wedding for someone that works at a bank next weekend.She had given me a name..I need to get it from here again). We're still looking and have seen several houses before this and after this one. Fo instance, Ive decided that I dont like colonials. Every one weve walked in to feels claustrophobic. I have found that I'm particularly fond of open floor plans and (much to my surprise) I like contemporary style homes! Go figure. One we walked in to wasnt bad...felt a little smll but not too bad until we went downstairs. Even rayray as we went down the steps said "Stinky!"...serious damp smell PSHEW!

I have one more to show you but its late. so I'll add it tomorrow.

Meanwhile, anyone know someone that wants to rent my 3BR 2Ba 1200SF home? :) 

House Hunting- #2 Hunter's Lodge

House#2 at first glance is perfect. New wood floors throughout the house. 3000+ square feet, 5 rooms, 4 bathrooms, another perfect room for photography studio, private deck off the master bedroom. 5 acres and plenty of room to play. HUGE garage with workshop. But something at the back of my brain kept setting off a little alarm bell. The house felt (dont laugh) sneaky. Like it was hiding something.

After 2 trips through (and 140 some pictures-we photograph each house we look at so we can look for issues or remember details) we asked a favor of his cousin (he's a builder) to com do an informal inspection of the house. If he didnt find anything, we were going to make an offer. OUCH, did he find things.

1/2 this house doesnt even meet the building codes. The section including the garage and up is all new addition. They got the permits to build but never had it inspected again (on purpose I believe) the roof is improperly supported, an unprotected gas line, not properly insulated and protected according to fire codes just a few of the biggies. Our cousin's rough estimate if we had all the work professionally done was around $80,000.00  

We could probably get alot of this done for less cost (we know alot of people in the biz) but we just couldnt get around the "not to code" issue. Our loan appraiser would never approve the loan if the house wasnt even to code and since this owner MUST be aware by now (his house has been on the market a little over 2 yrs) we were certain that we couldnt get him to bring it up to code before buying it. Obviously (he has 2 mortgages on the house) he is out of money or he would have finished the job right. So another one we walked away from. This one hangs out in the background though...if the price comes down drastically, we may consider it again depending on the status of the code issues.

House Hunting

As ive mentioned, weve been house hunting. So I thought i'd share some of the homes that have impressed (or scared us) the most.

 This is the farm that started all this madness. some stats:

9 acres, several barns, BEAUTIFUL property 2 miles from the daycare, even less to mom's house.Even a room for my photography studio!! LOVED this property...... until we got inside the house.

Cue dark music. Let us just say wet. A hole in the roof and been left for so long that one room had standing water on the wood floor. Can we say MOLD. We would have had to remove the floor and all the sheet rock in the house (circa 1935). I took pictures in the cellar (what there is of it, most of the house sits on a slab). part of the structure was rotten and sinking as well as damaged by termites. The upstairs was ruined by animals (feces & stains) and the house was wet from the roof to the cellar (insulation removal, roof repair etc.) one barn would have had to probably been removed and we found a pile of asbestos boards? in another that would have required special removal. Bathroom and all the windows sills were rotting (why someone would put in new windows and NOT fix the wood they sat in is beyond me) Long story short (and its a long story) we came to the conclusion that the house would either require ALOT of $$$$$ and work (and wouldnt be livable at first) or would need to be demolished. We decided agains the farm since we couldnt justify the cost and where the HE#$ would we live while fixing this place??? sigh.

Bye bye beautiful farm. 

I have 3 others (including the one we like best) to share with you soon :) 

Lets see my progress....

Lets see how many of these things I accomplish (or at least try) by December:

1. Ice skating (only been 1 or 2 x's but would like to learn more) -Not Yet
2. Rollerskating (miss this and its good exercise) -Not yet (unless you count the kitchen)
3. Camping (Miss this ALOT and want to introduce it to RayRay) -Not Yet
4. Motorcycling (sigh...poor bike)- ALMOST-bike heads out tomorrow to get the carb ungummed.
5. Kayaking (still learning, but having akayak was always a dream. Now I just need to learn to use it correctly-and adjust the foot peddles for the rudder) Not yet but see Canoe..
6. Canoeing (have my eye on one) -Bought and USED...fun fun fun!!
7. The Beach -Yep..made it (Thanks Jaime)
8. Hiking (anywhere) -twice weekly at the Spotsy battlefield yea me!
9. Swim lessons for Boogie (and big Ray if I can beat him into submission) Boogie is learning via me...now if only Big Ray...
10. Get to the damn *@#$%^& gym-several times..but I find the battlefield to be WAAAAAY more fun and more exercise so I'm going to cancel my gym membership.

Not too bad....btw, anyone wanting to help me accomplish my list, feel free to jump right in!!!! (I like company!) Next up, Shenandoah Rafting trip (ooooooooh, my oldest girlfriend from like forever! might come see us at the end of September so I'm STOKED (yes, I know, the 80's called and want their crazy catch phrases back-lol)