House Hunt III: The Search For Home

[nahtmmm]

Yesterday we looked at another house. This one, #7, is roughly tied with #3 from the other day, I suspect. We're having trouble deciding which to go after.

Advantages of #7

• The second, half-bath is finished.
• The neighborhood is probably nicer in the long run. #3 is in the . . . unfashionable part of town, and its surroundings are fine now, but if people drift away . . .
• Closer to our current church and the mall.
• The kitchen is nice and spacious. #3's kitchen, as I have mentioned, is claustrophobic.
• 2 1/2 car garage. You could park two cars in there and have space left over for gobs of motorcycles.
  
  • Not that I would want gobs of motorcycles, heheh, of course not . . .
• It's $10k cheaper. This is not much of an issue, because they're both within our price range and we're in this for the long haul and we want to get it right.
• Does not have a crack in the basement wall. The agent didn't think the one in #3 was a problematic crack, but who knows?
• Would not require us to take up a large portion of the carpet.
• Pooky would approve of the front room window.

Advantages of #3

• KJ thinks it's built more solidly.
• Closer to KJ's work. Also would not require KJ (and probably me) to drive with the sun in our eyes for the morning and evening commute.
• Does not require us to make an unprotected left turn onto a 45-mph road in order to get to work, church, or most anything else.
• Big, half-finished basement. #7 has an unfinished half-basement with a nice wooden access door to a crawlspace with wooden walls.
• Basement door does not block the hallway when open.
• Would not require us to replace a bathroom sink or two.
• Does not have dubious brick paneling in the kitchen, or whatever's going on with that.
• If we can squeeze in a second parking pad on the driveway, the one-car garage would be enough.
• Has a storage shed. Granted, with that huge garage, #7 doesn't need one.
• Seems to be easy to cool (and presumably heat). #7 . . . who knows?
• KJ thinks its hardwood floor is better.

Roughly even issues

• Both backyards were okay. I might give the edge to #3, but I don't remember it well.
• Both had nice trees.
• Number of bathrooms & bedrooms -- except that we could convert a room in the basement of #3 into a fourth (unofficial) bedroom if we wanted.

I would not care to make a unilateral choice at this point, but if I had to, I would definitely be leaning toward #3. (Technically #5, but we've been calling it #3.) If we could take the garage and kitchen from #5 and graft them to the rest of #3, we could be set for life. The only other concern for me would be the question of where the neighborhood is going, but who can tell the future?

EXTRA-SPECIAL HOT-OFF-THE-PRESS LIVE BREAKING NEWS UPDATE OF IMMEDIACY: As I was typing this very entry, KJ called me up to propose that we put an offer on #3 this very day. I have therefore made an appointment for 5:30 today for this purpose. It was a scary minute when the agent couldn't find the listing (did someone beat us to the draw???) but the entry was found, with the street name in two words instead of one. So #3 is the winner at this point.