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Bah. I accidentally exited LJ with this all written, so we get to do it again.
Anyway, if you've been reading my journal, you'll know we went to look at houses today. We started out at 10:30 in the morning and finished up at 4:00 (with a break for lunch, plus a half hour drive each way from her office to the area where we were looking). Not bad, considering we went to look at 20+ houses. Did I mention house hunting (when you don't desperately need to house-find) is fun? Hee.
Several were instant drops. They were still under construction (two literally turned out to be piles of dirt, wtihout even foundations present yet; three more were being finished), they were too close to the neighbors, the floor plan drove us fleeing back out upon entry.
We were trying to keep just the top two or three, and we did - kept three, in the end. I've uploaded pics of the first choice, and one of the tied second-choices (the one I like slightly better, now that I look at pics). There aren't any good pics of the third one; the realtor selling it was there and I was also pretty tired by then. The first one is missing interior pics because I couldn't get the flash on and it was three more houses before I realized I didn't have the white-balance set to auto detect. AUGH! Once I fixed that it was fine, but so much for shots of the (very nice!) interior. Scott really liked the furniture in that one and didn't think ours could measure up. Mmm. I found the furniture overdone, quite honestly.
We only had one scary-house, and our realtor tagged it on the end of the list because it would either be really bad or really good, but it was right on our way back. So we were warned. It was bad - there was a little creek on the property, which had flooded the back yard; the front was in disrepair; the carpet was varying shades of yellow, pattern, and olive green depending on which room you were in. It did have lovely hardwood floors in one area, but....
That one made me sad, because it was an estate thing - the owner had died - and there was a double-bowl of cat chow on the front porch and a black cat that watched us from about five or six feet off into the plant-beds, very serene, but once when we made too much noise it bolted. We very clearly were being informed that we weren't its human(s). At least there was food for it, despite the house being unoccupied. And not a neighborhood thing; the food bag was inside the front door.
We also only got one weird house - another one our realtor warned us about. It had been on the market for a while, and the price had been dropped once, but the photos and all the descriptions looked really good, so what could be wrong with it? Easiest way to find out is to go look, so we did.
Answer: As you come in the front door, the staircase goes up to your right. JUST beyond it is a hallway, which opens up to the second floor to create an open space. And hanging at the second-floor level on the wall of that hallway, facing the staircase, are the heads of a moose and a deer (I think that's a deer? Or is it an elk?). Downstairs is otherwise fairly normal and nice - the furniture is over-formal and fussy - but the upstairs is deranged. Just deranged. The master bedroom is decorated as a jungle room, with jungle-themed prints on the walls, comforter, a stuffed (visibly fake, this time!) leopard on the bed, a stuffed bird (pheasant? not fake, anyway) nested in fake plants on the dresser with another print behind it.... (And Jesus and Mary statues on the low table in front of the mirror, which did not fit with the rest of the decor....)
Another 'bedroom' is full of weight training equipment, with a stuffed mallard hung in a twisted 'flight' position. The last bedroom is a teenage girl's dream or nightmare, all done up in glam with silver-and-black tophats hanging from the walls, twisted red glittery something forming hearts, etc.
The house itself was okay, the layout wasn't spectacular but it wasn't awful either. It wouldn't've made our list after the first five or six stops, but that's okay. But the decor was Scary. And one has to wonder just what sort of supports those heads need, and what that does to the wall behind them.
Anyway. If you want to see the first choice (1996), the second choice (new; very new), and the Moose House, I have pics up. The first five are first-choice, the next five are the second choice, and the rest are the Moose House.
[Link to photos removed; photos down. Sorry!]
Anyway, if you've been reading my journal, you'll know we went to look at houses today. We started out at 10:30 in the morning and finished up at 4:00 (with a break for lunch, plus a half hour drive each way from her office to the area where we were looking). Not bad, considering we went to look at 20+ houses. Did I mention house hunting (when you don't desperately need to house-find) is fun? Hee.
Several were instant drops. They were still under construction (two literally turned out to be piles of dirt, wtihout even foundations present yet; three more were being finished), they were too close to the neighbors, the floor plan drove us fleeing back out upon entry.
We were trying to keep just the top two or three, and we did - kept three, in the end. I've uploaded pics of the first choice, and one of the tied second-choices (the one I like slightly better, now that I look at pics). There aren't any good pics of the third one; the realtor selling it was there and I was also pretty tired by then. The first one is missing interior pics because I couldn't get the flash on and it was three more houses before I realized I didn't have the white-balance set to auto detect. AUGH! Once I fixed that it was fine, but so much for shots of the (very nice!) interior. Scott really liked the furniture in that one and didn't think ours could measure up. Mmm. I found the furniture overdone, quite honestly.
We only had one scary-house, and our realtor tagged it on the end of the list because it would either be really bad or really good, but it was right on our way back. So we were warned. It was bad - there was a little creek on the property, which had flooded the back yard; the front was in disrepair; the carpet was varying shades of yellow, pattern, and olive green depending on which room you were in. It did have lovely hardwood floors in one area, but....
That one made me sad, because it was an estate thing - the owner had died - and there was a double-bowl of cat chow on the front porch and a black cat that watched us from about five or six feet off into the plant-beds, very serene, but once when we made too much noise it bolted. We very clearly were being informed that we weren't its human(s). At least there was food for it, despite the house being unoccupied. And not a neighborhood thing; the food bag was inside the front door.
We also only got one weird house - another one our realtor warned us about. It had been on the market for a while, and the price had been dropped once, but the photos and all the descriptions looked really good, so what could be wrong with it? Easiest way to find out is to go look, so we did.
Answer: As you come in the front door, the staircase goes up to your right. JUST beyond it is a hallway, which opens up to the second floor to create an open space. And hanging at the second-floor level on the wall of that hallway, facing the staircase, are the heads of a moose and a deer (I think that's a deer? Or is it an elk?). Downstairs is otherwise fairly normal and nice - the furniture is over-formal and fussy - but the upstairs is deranged. Just deranged. The master bedroom is decorated as a jungle room, with jungle-themed prints on the walls, comforter, a stuffed (visibly fake, this time!) leopard on the bed, a stuffed bird (pheasant? not fake, anyway) nested in fake plants on the dresser with another print behind it.... (And Jesus and Mary statues on the low table in front of the mirror, which did not fit with the rest of the decor....)
Another 'bedroom' is full of weight training equipment, with a stuffed mallard hung in a twisted 'flight' position. The last bedroom is a teenage girl's dream or nightmare, all done up in glam with silver-and-black tophats hanging from the walls, twisted red glittery something forming hearts, etc.
The house itself was okay, the layout wasn't spectacular but it wasn't awful either. It wouldn't've made our list after the first five or six stops, but that's okay. But the decor was Scary. And one has to wonder just what sort of supports those heads need, and what that does to the wall behind them.
Anyway. If you want to see the first choice (1996), the second choice (new; very new), and the Moose House, I have pics up. The first five are first-choice, the next five are the second choice, and the rest are the Moose House.
[Link to photos removed; photos down. Sorry!]
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Besides, I still like the other two houses better - even when I try to imagine the Moose Head House without the taxidermy, the layout's not as good. (Though removing the heads would improve it, to my eyes. ;)