Friday, May 22, 2009

More Adventures in House-Hunting

Ah yes, it's time for another installment of those wacky adventures and crazy mishaps I find myself in as I search for my new home.

Today I went out during my lunch hour with my Realtor to look at 3 houses that were recently listed. I should point out that these homes did not have any interior pictures (always a big concern for me!), one stated that it needed "TLC", one indicated that the owner was retired and ready to move into a condo, and I don't even remember what the other said. I forced myself to take a chance on these homes, since they were all nicely priced and in AWESOME neighborhoods.

As we drove to home #1, I noticed the cute neighborhood, mature trees, and great curb appeal. Hmm, maybe this house will be great after all! And then... we opened the door to a time capsule. A smelly time capsule. I'm not kidding. There was wallpaper everywhere, doilies, slightly creepy framed art prints of children holding kittens, flowery knick-knacks all over, and I think there may have been a plastic carpet runner or two. Did I mention the doilies? I have a sneaking suspicion about why there were no photos of the inside. The home wasn't so bad, but would need a lot of work (wallpaper removal and painting) and some big updates (kitchen). The yard had lots of landscaping,which was pretty, but made the yard seem very small. The coolest thing I saw, seriously, was the newspaper hung on a bulletin board in the basement dated December 7, 1941.

It was here that my Realtor had a slight mishap involving a laundry chute and a bra. It could've been much worse, don't get me wrong, he did manage to get the door closed before the little old lady's underwear came flying out. I was still laughing 20 minutes later.

House #2 was being sold to settle an estate... this was the "TLC" home. Boy, did it need it. I could easily sink $20,000 into the home for updates and probably still not be finished. The layout was odd too. Have I told you I'm developing a fear of basements? I've been in a LOT of creepy basements lately and I have started to hate going down to check them out. The doors always seem to stick, the light switches rarely work, and I usually manage to walk into cobwebs and spiderwebs. This one wasn't too bad, but it was dark, musty, and full of cobwebs, so I spent as little time there as I could. Blech, I still feel like I'm covered in cobwebs.

We literally spent 3-4 minutes in House #3. The people were still there (urgh) and scurried to the garage to hang out while we walked through. I feel bad that we only spent a few minutes because I bet it took a lot of effort for that little old woman to get out to the garage in the first place!

I guess I'll keep looking...

1 comment:

NMS said...

You need to spend more time in our non creepy basement...although we do have that one room that is filled with Star Wars...otherwise it's not bad. Someday maybe it will become a movie theatre and we can rip down the wall paper...hehe.

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1. And the Band Played On- Randy Shilts
2. Listening to Prozac- Peter D. Kramer
3. Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism- Temple Grandin
4. Nickel and Dimed-Barbara Ehrenreich Eh, it was OK. Reminded me a little of Dirty Jobs.
5. Into Thin Air- Jon Krakauer
6. The Satanic Verses- Salman Rushdie
7. Middlesex- Jeffery Eugenides Read it. Loved it. Recommend it.
8. A Perfect Spy- John le Carre
9. What is the What- Dave Eggers LOVE this book! Very inspiring!
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami Done.
11. The Known World- Edward P. Jones
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- J.K. Rowling Read it twice!!
13. The Bonfire of the Vanities- Tom Wolfe Hmm, the jury is still out on this one (pun intended).
14. Infinite Jest- David Foster Wallace
15. The Unbearable Lightness of Being- Milan Kundera
16. Beloved- Toni Morrison - Abandoned.
17. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
18. Freakonomics- Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner A really interesting & thought-provoking read!