There's a difference between a house and a home. Right now we're staying in a small rental house. It's programmed in our TomTom as "home"...but it's not. It's just where we're staying. It's a solid base to use while we're looking for a new home.
Over the last few weeks, the girls and I have been looking at houses. This week, Phil is here to go back over the ones the girls and I liked the best. We have it narrowed down to two...and it's two that I've had at the top of my list since we first saw them. I was really hoping that when Phil got here, making the final choice would be easier. Unfortunately, he's just as torn over the two of them as the girls and I are.
The two houses, as we've named them for convenience, are "The Spanish House" and "The Barn House". Both have good points, and drawbacks. We asked the question of the girls, yesterday, "which house could you see us living in?", and got the same answer across the board from the kids. I think I agree with them, but we're still not completely ready to make a final decision.
The "Barn house" was built in the early 1800's, and has a lot of the charm that goes along with it. The house does have sufficient bedrooms and bathrooms for our family, although I'm not so sure about living-space. The land around the house is pretty, and there are established blueberry bushes. The biggest advantage to the house is the barn.
The barn is huge. It is heated, and has a large, fairly finished, rec-room/craftroom area, along with an attic area that would be big enough to easily house SCA dance or fighter practice. There's a lot of storage in the barn, along with horse stalls (currently housing chickens) and a tack room. The barn adds a lot of living space...but you have to walk outside between the house and the barn. I don't see wanting to walk outside to get to the barn in the dark and cold during winter. I can easily see cabin fever setting in fairly quickly during the winter.
The "Spanish House" (named for the stucco exterior and some of the external features) is the one that the entire family can most easily see us living in. It has a big, open floor plan on the ground level, including a deck right off the dining room that would be good to put a BBQ grill on. It has a good sized living room, a place for a wood stove, and a nice little nook for a computer area. Upstairs has another two living room areas (one darker and one lighter), and all four bedrooms.
There is more work that needs to be done in the Spanish house than the barn house. There is a bathtub and toilet in the master bedroom. They aren't in a bathroom attached to the master bedroom - they're actually in the bedroom. That would need to be fixed...but it could wait until next Spring. There's a spot on the floor that needs to be fixed next to a door to one of the decks...and that would have to be fixed before we moved in, but is a small fix. There's a floor that needs to be covered in the computer nook...and other small cosmetic bits, but those would also serve to make the house a bit more "ours".
The land the Spanish House is on is gorgeous. There's a pond, and a stream, and the lot is 8 acres, as opposed to the 3 acres that come with the Barn house. The Spanish house also has an invisible dog fence already installed, and a large field area that we could easily play fetch with Daisy.
The Spanish house is in a town, across the street from the ball field where apparently they do large town gatherings, fireworks, etc. However, it doesn't feel like it's in the middle of a town. There's enough space around the house, and trees, that we wouldn't really see "town" stuff. We'd have easy access to conveniences in town, though, and the school system seems to be the better of the two. Actually, the school system is the best of all the houses we looked at, and is the one that I've had the most people say was good, just letting them know where we were looking at houses.
The Barn house is directly on the road, but not in a town. We would hear traffic going by...not often, maybe, but any time a car went by we would hear it. I would worry too, about Daisy and the road. There's some land with the house, but not as much, and I don't really see it as easy "playing" space with Daisy. Also, I don't see as much room in the house for Daisy to spend time with the family.
The decision isn't final, but I'm pretty sure that we'll pick the Spanish house. We're going back to both houses, in the opposite order that we looked at them yesterday. We'll look at the barn house by looking at the house first, and try to imagine living there without having the barn. We'll look at the rest of the land at the Spanish house and see if we would have enough storage space.
Tomorrow, we should have our decision, and we can start working on the buying process. I'll be glad to have a home again, soon.
Over the last few weeks, the girls and I have been looking at houses. This week, Phil is here to go back over the ones the girls and I liked the best. We have it narrowed down to two...and it's two that I've had at the top of my list since we first saw them. I was really hoping that when Phil got here, making the final choice would be easier. Unfortunately, he's just as torn over the two of them as the girls and I are.
The two houses, as we've named them for convenience, are "The Spanish House" and "The Barn House". Both have good points, and drawbacks. We asked the question of the girls, yesterday, "which house could you see us living in?", and got the same answer across the board from the kids. I think I agree with them, but we're still not completely ready to make a final decision.
The "Barn house" was built in the early 1800's, and has a lot of the charm that goes along with it. The house does have sufficient bedrooms and bathrooms for our family, although I'm not so sure about living-space. The land around the house is pretty, and there are established blueberry bushes. The biggest advantage to the house is the barn.
The barn is huge. It is heated, and has a large, fairly finished, rec-room/craftroom area, along with an attic area that would be big enough to easily house SCA dance or fighter practice. There's a lot of storage in the barn, along with horse stalls (currently housing chickens) and a tack room. The barn adds a lot of living space...but you have to walk outside between the house and the barn. I don't see wanting to walk outside to get to the barn in the dark and cold during winter. I can easily see cabin fever setting in fairly quickly during the winter.
The "Spanish House" (named for the stucco exterior and some of the external features) is the one that the entire family can most easily see us living in. It has a big, open floor plan on the ground level, including a deck right off the dining room that would be good to put a BBQ grill on. It has a good sized living room, a place for a wood stove, and a nice little nook for a computer area. Upstairs has another two living room areas (one darker and one lighter), and all four bedrooms.
There is more work that needs to be done in the Spanish house than the barn house. There is a bathtub and toilet in the master bedroom. They aren't in a bathroom attached to the master bedroom - they're actually in the bedroom. That would need to be fixed...but it could wait until next Spring. There's a spot on the floor that needs to be fixed next to a door to one of the decks...and that would have to be fixed before we moved in, but is a small fix. There's a floor that needs to be covered in the computer nook...and other small cosmetic bits, but those would also serve to make the house a bit more "ours".
The land the Spanish House is on is gorgeous. There's a pond, and a stream, and the lot is 8 acres, as opposed to the 3 acres that come with the Barn house. The Spanish house also has an invisible dog fence already installed, and a large field area that we could easily play fetch with Daisy.
The Spanish house is in a town, across the street from the ball field where apparently they do large town gatherings, fireworks, etc. However, it doesn't feel like it's in the middle of a town. There's enough space around the house, and trees, that we wouldn't really see "town" stuff. We'd have easy access to conveniences in town, though, and the school system seems to be the better of the two. Actually, the school system is the best of all the houses we looked at, and is the one that I've had the most people say was good, just letting them know where we were looking at houses.
The Barn house is directly on the road, but not in a town. We would hear traffic going by...not often, maybe, but any time a car went by we would hear it. I would worry too, about Daisy and the road. There's some land with the house, but not as much, and I don't really see it as easy "playing" space with Daisy. Also, I don't see as much room in the house for Daisy to spend time with the family.
The decision isn't final, but I'm pretty sure that we'll pick the Spanish house. We're going back to both houses, in the opposite order that we looked at them yesterday. We'll look at the barn house by looking at the house first, and try to imagine living there without having the barn. We'll look at the rest of the land at the Spanish house and see if we would have enough storage space.
Tomorrow, we should have our decision, and we can start working on the buying process. I'll be glad to have a home again, soon.
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