Monster Grandma House…

Last night I scurried home from work a little early in order to see a home that my aunt had found for us. In preparation, I finally called her contact at National City, who proceeded to ask me some questions about my student loans before approving me for not-very-much cash from which to buy a house. I think I can probably convince them better if I ever get around to consolidating my student loans.

We got to this place a little after six, it’s up on Willow Drive off Spruce Street. It’s a nice place, the backyard was karate-capable, as it had a bi-level deck and was pretty well taken care of. The house itself was a split-level, with a semi-finished basement. The neighborhood is awesome (very near to where I grew up), good school district. Strangely enough, I had no idea this street was here, and it was more of a court than anything else, as it wrapped back around to Spruce Street, which lead back into Willow Drive.

The kitchen was open and nice with new cabinets that Tasha said were a little on the shallow side. The dishwaser, fridge, and oven stayed with the house, which is a good thing. The living room was nice, there was a cutout wall between it and the kitchen. The master bedroom was pretty OK, it could’ve been a little more interesting. There was a 3/4 bath (shower, toilet, sink crammed into not enough space) off the master bedroom, and there were two more smaller bedrooms that could’ve been used as a guest room/computer room.

The basement was nice, but not great. Benefits were that it attached to the walk-in garage, and it had a nice hidey-hole for the washer/dryer. It was a little on the smallish side. The whole house had a very 1970’s grandma feel, which really wasn’t turning me on. The walls were white, the basement had that top to bottom dark brown wood planking up and down the walls with a drop ceiling (ugh). The only decent decor was the kitchen, which had a nice wood floor and awesome looking oak cabinets.

We asked my Mom and Dad to come over to look at it because my Dad has a far more critical eye than I do, plus he has his oft mentioned 40+ years of experience to draw off of. He noticed that the roof appeared to be original with the house, which meant that it would need replacing inside of 5 years. He also noticed that the exterior paint was starting to peel off which was a problem too.

I was having a little easier time seeing myself in this place, but I understand what Tasha pointed out when she said that it just didn’t feel like home. She contended that it probably could with time and money, but that’s not the kind’ve feeling you want to have when you decide to buy a house. We’ll stick with our little place on Hamilton until we find that place that wows us in our price range.

I’m beginning to understand why my aunt is so successful as a realtor. She does a pretty good job at painting up the good aspects of the place, creates a sense of urgency (“This house won’t stay on the market long at this price.”), but because she is family she doesn’t put the screws to us to decide right away. She’s helping me to formulate in my head what I want out of a house, so that’s a big help too. I just hope it comes along sooner than later, I can’t stand all this shopping.