firebirdgold
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2005
- Messages
- 2,216
I can''t decide if we''ve had amazingly bad luck or amazingly good luck in our house quest. But you know what they say... Third time''s the charm! We''re keeping our fingers crossed that it''s true.
A Recap: We''ve (mostly I) have been looking for a new home in our soon-to-be new home town since April. First I found what I thought was our Dream home. Beautiful with lots of fir, built-ins, a not-so-big house feel, tons of windows, a gorgeous yard with massive trees, very private, and it was a 20 minute (flat) bike ride to our new workl. But it turned out that the owners never bothered to check their property lines and a rather large portion of their yard belonged to the empty lot next to it... that a big nearby church wanted to buy. Ok. So one escrow down.
I continued looking and finally Dh went with me to go house shopping and we found two really interesting houses. One out in the countryside on 4 acres next to a big park, and one in town in a family neighborhood with a 1/3 of an acre with lots of trees. We really wanted the cabin in the woods but it was just too poorly built. Combined with no storage and a really pathetic well, so we reluctantly decided that we should go with the more practical in-town house. This one was built on a slope with some portions of it on stilts, it had a ton of window overlooking it''s private forest and was originally in a contemporary style but needed a fair amount of updating.
But during inspection we discovered that the house was drooping around the central stairway by several inches. Plus the support posts for the stilts on what would be our master bedroom were ''inadequate'' in size. The sellers (who were using a flat-fee discount broker so were really doing it themselves) seemed very shifty. We heard that they had had a structural engineer out previously, but they claimed that they guy never wrote up a report but verbally told them the house was structurally sound. Who the heck pays for an engineer but doesn''t get a report??? They also never answered our questions about signs of repair on the sagging bedroom held-up by too-thin stilts. So there went that escrow! (we were also working with another, less trusted, realtor from our realty company since our realtor got married on the weekend DH and I were able to visit)
So I flew out again! This time I fell in love with a house that I truly think is far better than all the houses we''ve seen (and tried to buy) previously! So hopefully it all worked out for the best.
Before seeing it I was a little concerned because despite being in a prime location and having over half an acre of land, and being very private... the owners were asking for far less than all the other houses we were looking at. I asked our (good) realtor, and he said it was because many people would find it too "70''s" with an out-of-date kitchen. I just looked at him like he was mad! The kitchen is gorgeous!! Yes it''s original with a sage green formica top, but it''s entirely built out of solid old-growth clear Douglas Fir.
It''s a three story home with amazing separation of space! There''s the upstairs public zone, the middle floor with bedrooms and a laundry room, and a bottom floor office big enough for two. The kitchen, dining, and living room are open to each other but staggered to provide some visual privacy. The living room is screened from the entry by a free standing wall with built-ins and a wood stove. There''s also a separate tv room on the top floor which we really wanted. The top floor also has a wrap-around deck (that''s brand new and well-built) with a view over the restored native meadowland that is most of the yard.
The middle floor has a master suite with a walk-in closet, a guest bedroom, and a large laundry room with a separate bath with a cedar sauna! The home office on the bottom floor has built-in bookshelves and french doors out to the large bottom deck. There''s even a dog run off of the deck. The only thing that needs to be done is to replace the carpet on the middle floor with an easier to clean cork floor.
The house is a mile from an amazing whole foods-like market, and just over a mile to work. It''s easily bikable to work... although we''ll be walking our bikes back up the hill for a while, I think. There is also a wonderful 20 acre park just a 6 minute walk from the house that our monster dog will adore!
As I said, I really think all our bad house luck was really good house luck! This one is a winner! So please send some PS dust that it clears the inspection with flying colors!!
So (finally) some photos of our (hopefully) new house:
A Recap: We''ve (mostly I) have been looking for a new home in our soon-to-be new home town since April. First I found what I thought was our Dream home. Beautiful with lots of fir, built-ins, a not-so-big house feel, tons of windows, a gorgeous yard with massive trees, very private, and it was a 20 minute (flat) bike ride to our new workl. But it turned out that the owners never bothered to check their property lines and a rather large portion of their yard belonged to the empty lot next to it... that a big nearby church wanted to buy. Ok. So one escrow down.
I continued looking and finally Dh went with me to go house shopping and we found two really interesting houses. One out in the countryside on 4 acres next to a big park, and one in town in a family neighborhood with a 1/3 of an acre with lots of trees. We really wanted the cabin in the woods but it was just too poorly built. Combined with no storage and a really pathetic well, so we reluctantly decided that we should go with the more practical in-town house. This one was built on a slope with some portions of it on stilts, it had a ton of window overlooking it''s private forest and was originally in a contemporary style but needed a fair amount of updating.
But during inspection we discovered that the house was drooping around the central stairway by several inches. Plus the support posts for the stilts on what would be our master bedroom were ''inadequate'' in size. The sellers (who were using a flat-fee discount broker so were really doing it themselves) seemed very shifty. We heard that they had had a structural engineer out previously, but they claimed that they guy never wrote up a report but verbally told them the house was structurally sound. Who the heck pays for an engineer but doesn''t get a report??? They also never answered our questions about signs of repair on the sagging bedroom held-up by too-thin stilts. So there went that escrow! (we were also working with another, less trusted, realtor from our realty company since our realtor got married on the weekend DH and I were able to visit)
So I flew out again! This time I fell in love with a house that I truly think is far better than all the houses we''ve seen (and tried to buy) previously! So hopefully it all worked out for the best.
Before seeing it I was a little concerned because despite being in a prime location and having over half an acre of land, and being very private... the owners were asking for far less than all the other houses we were looking at. I asked our (good) realtor, and he said it was because many people would find it too "70''s" with an out-of-date kitchen. I just looked at him like he was mad! The kitchen is gorgeous!! Yes it''s original with a sage green formica top, but it''s entirely built out of solid old-growth clear Douglas Fir.
It''s a three story home with amazing separation of space! There''s the upstairs public zone, the middle floor with bedrooms and a laundry room, and a bottom floor office big enough for two. The kitchen, dining, and living room are open to each other but staggered to provide some visual privacy. The living room is screened from the entry by a free standing wall with built-ins and a wood stove. There''s also a separate tv room on the top floor which we really wanted. The top floor also has a wrap-around deck (that''s brand new and well-built) with a view over the restored native meadowland that is most of the yard.
The middle floor has a master suite with a walk-in closet, a guest bedroom, and a large laundry room with a separate bath with a cedar sauna! The home office on the bottom floor has built-in bookshelves and french doors out to the large bottom deck. There''s even a dog run off of the deck. The only thing that needs to be done is to replace the carpet on the middle floor with an easier to clean cork floor.
The house is a mile from an amazing whole foods-like market, and just over a mile to work. It''s easily bikable to work... although we''ll be walking our bikes back up the hill for a while, I think. There is also a wonderful 20 acre park just a 6 minute walk from the house that our monster dog will adore!
As I said, I really think all our bad house luck was really good house luck! This one is a winner! So please send some PS dust that it clears the inspection with flying colors!!
So (finally) some photos of our (hopefully) new house:
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